大象传媒

Ali Wilson is an ESL teacher with a passion for linguistics. Her goal is to teach English in Korea, and although she has a lot of experience, she needed to complete her BA in order to qualify. She pursued a major in Linguistics and a minor in Education (Curriculum & Instruction) and graduated this Fall.

After learning about the in a course with Lab Director Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble, Ali applied to volunteer. She was a 鈥渇loater鈥� in the lab when she began volunteering last January, which allowed her to help out on a variety of projects and exposed her to a wide range of research. Volunteering also led to a Directed Study course this past summer and a Research Assistant position this fall.

Volunteering opened up opportunities

鈥淕etting to do lab work so far has been a pretty cool experience, mostly because it opened up opportunities with my course work,鈥� says Ali. 鈥淭he fact that I got to do directed research was pretty spectacular because I don鈥檛 think I would have stumbled into it any other way.鈥�

Toward the end of the spring semester, Ali started working on the lab鈥檚 鈥渇antasy name phonology鈥� project, which grew into the Directed Study course. She was investigating the phonological patterns that listeners associate with 鈥渁lien鈥� or 鈥渘on-human鈥� place names (e.g. imaginary cities, galaxies, stars).

Teamwork in the lab makes for a fun working environment

Ali loves being part of the research process and notes that the level of motivation and interest in the labs is very high, which makes it fun. 鈥淭eamwork in a lab is different than group work in classrooms,鈥� she says. 鈥淕roup work in labs is more collaborative, almost voluntary. In the classroom there鈥檚 not a lot of time to sort out group dynamics. In the lab there鈥檚 more of an opportunity to work with people and collaborate effectively.鈥� She also notes that it鈥檚 been great to see what working in academia is like.

Ali鈥檚 tips for fellow students

鈥淢ake friends with your teachers! There are great opportunities to be had if you just chat with people.鈥�