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Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

Dr Elaine Schmidt

Elaine Schmidt
Position(s): 
Research Associate
Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Honorary Associate, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Department/Section: 
Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics
Contact details: 
Telephone number: 
+44 (0)1223 767394
College: 
Location: 

Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
English Faculty Building
University of Cambridge
9 West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DP
United Kingdom

About: 

Elaine’s research interests range from language acquisition, to psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, mostly with a focus on prosody.

Elaine wrote her PhD on Bilingual Acquisition of Prosody at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr Brechtje Post. Subsequently she became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Child Language Lab, Macquarie University, Sydney with Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth, as well as an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD). Her research there focussed on the processing of prosody in children and adults using EEG, eye-tracking and behavioural online measurements. Elaine currently holds a Research Associate Position with Prof Ianthi Tsimpli and conducts research with the Cambridge Processing and Acquisition of Language Lab (CamLAB). 

 

Research interests: 

Language acquisition
Language processing
Psycholinguistics
Neurolinguistics
Phonetics/Phonology
Prosody
Speech perception

Recent research projects: 

As Principal Investigator:

- The use of subvocal prosody in the processing of sentences
(EEG and concurrent eye-tracking study)
In collaboration with Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (Child Language Lab, Macquarie University), Distinguished Prof Anne Castles (Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University), A/Prof Blake Johnson (Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University), A/Prof Sachiko Kinoshita (Department of Psychology, Macquarie University), Carmen Kung (Child Language Lab, Linguistics, Macquarie University), Dr Peter de Lissa (Department of Psychology, Macquarie University)

- Children’s use of subvocal prosody for syntactic disambiguation
(EEG and concurrent eye-tracking study)
In collaboration with Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (Child Language Lab, Macquarie University), Distinguished Prof Anne Castles (Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University), A/Prof Blake Johnson (Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University), A/Prof Sachiko Kinoshita (Department of Psychology, Macquarie University), Carmen Kung (Child Language Lab, Linguistics, Macquarie University), Dr Peter de Lissa (Department of Psychology, Macquarie University)

- Categorical and gradient processing of intonation
in collaboration with Dr Brechtje Post (University of Cambridge), Carmen Kung (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University), Dr Ivan Yuen (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University), Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University)

- L2 acquisition of Australian Intonational Patterns
In collaboration with Carmen Kung (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University), Dr Ivan Yuen (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University), Dr Brechtje Post (University of Cambridge), Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University)

As Co-Investigator:

- Perception and production of prosodic phrase boundaries in adults and children
PIs: Dr Nan Xu Rattanasone, Dr Ivan Yuen, Co-Is: Dr Elaine Schmidt, Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (all Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University)

- Acquisition of focus marking – production/perception
PIs: Dr Ivan Yuen, Dr Nan Xu Rattanasone, Co-Is: Dr Elaine Schmidt, Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (all Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University)

- The perception of coda consonants in Mandarin learners of English
PIs: Carmen Kung, Dr Nan Xu Rattanasone, Co-Is: Dr Elaine Schmidt, Distinguished Prof Katherine Demuth (all Child Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University)

Published works: 

Schmidt, E., Kung, C., Post, B., Yuen, I., & Demuth, K., (2016) L1 experience shapes the perception of intonational contours. Proc. Speech Prosody 2016, 242-246

Yuen, I., Xu, N., Schmidt, E., Holt, R. & Demuth, K. (submitted) Children’s use of boundary related duration and F0 cues to disambiguate compounds vs. lists. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research

Galaczi, E., Post, B., Li, A., Barker, E. & Schmidt, E., (in print) L2 pronunciation: Distinguishing features of rhythm in learner speech at different proficiency levels. In Isaacs & Trofimovich (eds.) Interfaces in second language pronunciation assessment.  

Schmidt, E., & Post, B. (2015). The Development of Prosodic Features and their Contribution to Rhythm Production in Simultaneous Bilinguals. Language and speech, 58(1), 24-47.

Schmidt, E., & Post, B. (2015). Language interaction in the development of speech rhythm in simultaneous bilinguals. In E. Delais-Roussarie, M. Avanzi, & S. Herment, Prosody, Language in Contact and L2 Acquisition. Springer publication

Schmidt, E., Post, B., Kung, C., Yuen, I., & Demuth, K. (2015). The effect of listener and speaker gender on the perception of rises in AusE. In J. Stuart-Smith, J. Scobbie, J., & A. Turk (Eds.), Proceedings from the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. Paper 0518). Glasgow: University of Glasgow.

Barker, F., Post, B., Schmidt, E., & McCarthy, M. (2012). Identifying criterial aspects of pronunciation in L2 English across CEFR levels: Implications for language learning. In J. Angouri, M. Daller, & J. Treffers-Daller (eds.), The Impact of Applied Linguistics - Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of BAAL (pp. 17-22). Bristol: University of the West of England.