Understanding Foreign Accents

Ellen Broselow's research is in the areas of phonology, second language acquisition, and the interface of phonology with phonetics, morphology, and syntax. Languages and language families she has worked on include Arabic, Salish, Bantu, and Indonesian languages of Sulawesi. In second language phonology, she has investigated the adaptation of loanwords and the errors made by second language learners in production and perception. In the phonology-phonetics interface, she has examined the match between moraic structure and phonetic duration. Current projects include the extent to which second language production errors reflect misperception; the factors determining the quality of vowels inserted in foreign language structures; and the factors determining the site of epenthetic vowels.

Prof. Broselow is an Associate Editor of Phonology, has served as Phonology Editor of Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and is currently on the editorial boards of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Linguistic Inquiry, NLLT,  and Second Language Research. She has received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and the Godfrey Excellence in Teaching Award, and in 2013 she was named a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.