People

Chen Fei Peng Kevin_Profile Photo

Kevin, Fei Peng Chen

Undergraduate Research Assistant

u3608462@connect.hku.hk

I am a year 4 undergraduate BA student, pursuing a double major in General Linguistics and Psychology with a minor in Counselling at HKU. As a third-culture kid, I grew up being exposed to various languages, which further fuels my passion for the study of linguistics. My primary areas of interest in the field of linguistics encompass child language, bilingualism, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistics, and translation.

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Ariana Cheung

Lab manager
MA HKU

arianask@hku.hk

With a Master of Arts in English Studies from The University of Hong Kong, I am interested in applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and cognitive linguistics. My academic interests also encompass language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics, exploring how these disciplines intersect to influence communication and learning.

Lawrence, Hoi Ki Cheung

Undergraduate Research Assistant

ulawlaw@connect.hku.hk

I am a year 4 undergraduate student pursuing a double major in Linguistics and Philosophy, with a minor in Cognitive Science. I am particularly interested in the nature of meaning, encompassing both semantics and pragmatics, as well as the processes through which individuals acquire this knowledge. I am also interested in the nature of linguistic knowledge in general and how it differs from other domains of knowledge, such as our understanding of the empirical world and morality.

Aaron, Wing Cheung Chik

Senior research Assistant
BA HKU

aaeronc@connect.hku.hk

I graduated from HKU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in General Linguistics and German. My research interests are in Cantonese sociophonetics, Hong Kong Sign Language, and computer schema designs for linguistic structures.

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Youngah Do

Principal Investigator
BA SNU
;
MA SNU
;
PhD MIT

webpage | youngah@hku.hk

I research learning and learnability issues in phonological learning through behavioral experiments and modeling techniques. My work centers on understanding learning biases (why certain patterns are easier for humans to learn), the construction and connections of phonological knowledge (how specific aspects are represented and related in our minds), and the relationship between learning and transmission of language. I explore these questions in both spoken and signed languages.

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Clarissa Ki

PhD Student
BA UCL

clarissaki@connect.hku.hk

I am a PhD student interested in investigating language and music cognition. In particular, I would like to uncover how tone and melody in tone language songs are processed. I also have a wider interest in phonological acquisition.

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Qisheng Liao

PhD student
Bsc UCSC
;
Msc NYU

qisheng.liao@connect.hku.hk

With a background in computer science and deep learning, I have worked on a variety of natural language processing and computer vision tasks, including semantic matching, language identification, text-to-speech, and text-to-image generation. I am excited to explore research at the intersection of linguistics and deep learning, with a particular interest in phonology and related areas.

Ming Liu

PhD student
BLit PKU

mingliu_7@connect.hku.hk

I'm a PhD student working on phonetics and language acquisition. My research projects include: 1) lab experiments on non-native vowel acquisition, primarily using Ultrasound, 2) field work about sound changes in Hakka, focusing on tone sandhi and fricative vowel, and 3) computational modelling on multimodal learning of speech.

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Frank, Lihui Tan

PhD Student
BA HKU

frank.lhtan@connect.hku.hk

I am a PhD student working on computational modelling of phonetic and phonological acquisition, its developmental dynamics and its comparison with human learning trajectories. My other interests include: 1) exploring sound representation learning in terms of linear and non-linear transformation; 2) rule and item-specific representation learning; 3) modelling of linguistic knowledge transfer and sound change.

Tilda, Yingqi Wang

Undergraduate Research Assistant

yingqi_wang@connect.hku.hk

I am an undergraduate year 5 BA student, majoring in General Linguistics. My academic interests within the field of Linguistics include language acquisition, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.

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Zhihao Wang

PhD student
BLit PKU
;
MA PKU

wzhihaow@connect.hku.hk

I am a PhD student working on phonology and phonetics, and their interface. Having a background of Chinese historical phonology, I have a strong interest in comparative studies of Chinese dialects and some geographically adjacent languages. Currently, my research focuses on tones. I hope to get some new perspective through observing interaction of different tonal systems.

Yuyan Xue

Research Assistant Professor
BA BFSU
;
MPhil Cambridge
;
PhD Cambridge

yuyanxue@hku.hk

I received a PhD in linguistics from the University of Cambridge in 2025. As a psycholinguist, my research revolves around the dynamic interplay between language and cognition: How does language learning influence our cognition? And how do our cognitive biases, in turn, influence language learning? I am also particularly interested in how awareness of linguistic regularities emerges during input-based language learning. I approach these issues using artificial language learning experiments, combining behavioural, ERP, EEG-based brain network analysis, and machine learning methods.

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Tina, Ka Yee Yu

Undergraduate Research Assistant

tina02@connect.hku.hk

I am a third-year Speech-Language Pathology student with a deep fascination for how neuroscience shapes language development. As I explore my research interests, I look forward to gaining hands-on experience and expanding my understanding of the brain’s role in human communication and linguistic growth.

Rayne, Xiaoyu Yu

PhD student
BA Tulane
;
MPhil Cambridge

xyu97@connect.hku.hk

I began my studies at HKU in 2021. My PhD thesis focuses on dialect acquisition, specifically examining the learning of sound correspondences. My research employs both behavioral and neurophysiological (e.g., EEG) approaches. I am also keen to explore phonological learning from various perspectives, including phonetics, language variation and change, and psycholinguistics.

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Shuhao Zhang

PhD student
BSc&BEng THU

shuhaoz19@connect.hku.hk

I began my PhD studies in 2024 with a focus on phonological acquisition. Currently, I am interested in the acquisition of phonetic categories through the integration of various cues, and I plan to investigate this question using multiple methods, including neural experiments and computational approaches.

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Ivy, Shuang Zheng

PhD student
BA McGill

ivyzheng@connect.hku.hk

I am a PhD student working on phonological learning and learning biases. I am interested in the role of phonetic substance in phonological acquisition. My current project employs computational simulations to uncover the nature of learning biases related to phonology.

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