Improving Support for Diverse Learners: Eugene Wong on Social Factors in Language Learning

Eugene Wong is an international graduate student in the speech-language-hearing sciences department. His research examines the implications of social factors in language learning, like his dissertation, which explores how things like social affiliation drive learning and language skills in children. In his work, he hopes to further explore language development in children, especially in those with language disorders. He discusses the draws of Minnesota, his standout projects, and what’s next.

What brought you to the University of Minnesota?

I chose the University primarily because of my advisor, Benjamin Munson. During my undergraduate studies in linguistics, I focused on phonetics and child speech development. After graduating, I worked as a lab manager and research assistant, where my interests shifted toward sociophonetics — the study of how people express social identity through speech.

Dr. Munson’s work bridges both of these areas, and when we first chatted, we quickly found common ground in exploring how children acquire sociophonetic variation. Our research alignment felt like an ideal fit.

Beyond advising, I appreciate how deeply faculty members in my department engage with social issues in speech and hearing sciences. This commitment is reflected in both their research and teaching, encouraging innovative approaches and perspectives that challenge the traditional medical frameworks. Being in the Twin Cities adds to the experience — the friendly Minnesotan cultural landscape makes it an especially rewarding place to live and study.

What questions are you interested in exploring right now? What problems does your work seek to address?

At the heart of my work is an appreciation for the many levels of detail in speech production, and how these speech behaviors serve as surface patterns that reflect underlying patterns of language processing and language development. My research focuses on the intersection of social, speech, and language development.

Many existing theories of language learning tend to overlook the role of social factors, which has important implications for how educators and speech-language pathologists approach assessment and intervention — especially as the populations they serve become increasingly diverse. My dissertation explores how social liking influences children’s speech imitation. I would say this question is extremely hard to answer, because there is not a lot of previous research on children’s speech imitation, which leads to a lot of unknown factors when designing a behavioral study.

Yet, all these unknown factors also open up many new opportunities for research. Looking ahead, I also hope to study how children perceive others’ speech styles, and how children’s social knowledge shapes their learning and everyday communication.

In addition to my dissertation research, I am also interested in speech production in children who are at risk for, or diagnosed with, developmental language disorders. While research on language disorders has traditionally emphasized grammar and vocabulary learning, speech is one of the earliest and most perceptible aspects of communication issues, yet how speech production behavior may reflect underlying language impairment remains relatively understudied. I hope this work contributes to improving early identification and support.

Are you involved in any community-based projects? Who are you partnering with, and what are you doing?

I have been involved in community-engaged research through my work as a research assistant in Dr. Kerry Ebert’s lab, whose work focuses on bilingual language development. I started working with Dr. Ebert as part of my program’s requirement to complete a secondary research project. With funding support from the National Institutes of Health, one of Dr. Ebert’s projects is a longitudinal study on developing less-biased language assessments for bilingual children.

Our research team partners with several school districts across the Twin Cities to recruit and work with bilingual families. I’ve been heavily involved in both recruitment and data collection — whether that’s engaging families at community events (I learned to make balloon animals from Bob Yang, our Hmong undergraduate student and soon-to-be doctoral student) or conducting language assessments in schools and homes.

Working closely with bilingual families has broadened my perspective and strengthened my ability to become more flexible and resourceful when navigating communication barriers, cultural differences, and unexpected challenges during research sessions. This experience has shown me the importance of conducting research that is not only scientifically rigorous, but also responsive to and respectful of the communities it serves.

Have you received any notable awards for your graduate studies? What has that meant to you?

I’m very grateful to have received both the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota Graduate School. These awards have been incredibly meaningful, not only as recognition of my work, but also in the time and flexibility they have given me to focus more fully on my research. Having dedicated funding allowed me to prioritize my dissertation projects without the competing demands of additional teaching assistant or research assistant responsibilities.

Beyond financial support, the process of applying for these fellowships was itself an important learning experience. Writing proposals and receiving feedback from my advisor and committee members helped me to strengthen how I communicate my research ideas.

What’s next for you?

I am currently searching for a postdoctoral fellow position, which has been both exciting and challenging. Research funding has become less predictable, and as an international student, I face additional employment constraints. That said, I remain optimistic about finding a position that is a strong fit for me. Moving forward, I hope to continue building on my current work by focusing on children with speech and language disorders.

In the near term, I am focused on completing my dissertation, preparing manuscripts for publication, and submitting abstracts for upcoming conferences. At the same time, I am thinking about how to expand my research into new questions and collaborative contexts.

Outside of academia, I maintain my sanity by practicing yoga, and I am looking forward to visiting my family and hopefully attending a yoga retreat before starting the next chapter in a new city.

This story was edited by Rory Schaefer, an undergraduate student in CLA.