- Contrasting the influence of orthographic units on speech production and brain responses in Japanese and English
- Contrasting effects of alphabetic vs logographic orthographies to explore the impact of learning to read on language organization and behavior.
Shannon Grippando’s research focuses on the intersection of spoken language and written language. Broadly: how does learning to read and write alter speech patterns and the organization of language in the brain? More specifically, he is currently investigating how the number of graphemes in an orthographic representation can affect speech duration across various writing systems (including English and Japanese).
Through a better understanding of how orthography shapes spoken language, we are better equipped to detect developmental and learning disorders that affect reading abilities, such as in individuals with dyslexia. A library of known effects of literacy on spoken language can be implemented in an automatic speech recognition system that might one day be able to detect minute linguistic “red flags” in an individual early on through an analysis of their everyday speech, rather than a contrived reading test.
Students workings with Shannon would help measure experimental data, such as performing acoustic analyses in Praat. Additionally, students would help run experiments, learning how to code in various experimental software and running participants. There is also potential to gain experience working with EEG and eye tracking methodologies, as well. Students with a phonetics background or those who speak Japanese are especially welcomed, but Shannon is happy to work with and train anyone who is interested in getting their toes wet in this type of research.