Zeyu Li
© Zeyu Li

Zeyu Li, M.A.

Professur für Englische Sprachwissenschaft (Prof. Gut)

Aegidiistr. 5, Room AE 111
48143 Münster
Phone: +49 251 83-26145
zeyu.li@uni-muenster.de

  • Research Areas

    • Phonology and Phonetics
    • Second Language Acquisition
    • Sociolinguistics and Sociophonology
    • World Englishes

  • Publications

    • Meer, Philipp; Fuchs, Robert; Gerfer, Anika; Gut, Ulrike; Li, Zeyu. . ‘Rhotics in Scottish Standard English.’ English World-Wide 42, No. 2: 121–144. doi: 10.1075/eww.00070.mee.
    • Oyebola Folajimi, Li Zeyu, Ho Bonnie Sin Yu. . ‘A Sociophonetic Study on TH Variation in Educated Nigerian English.’ Contributed to the International Congress of Phonetics Sciences (ICPHs) 2019, Melbourne, Australia.
    • Oyebola Folajimi. . ‘TH-Fricative in Standard Nigerian English.’ Contributed to the International Congress of Phonetics Sciences (ICPHs) 2019, Melbourne, Australia.

  • Talks

    • Meer, Philipp; Fuchs, Robert; Gerfer, Anika; Gut, Ulrike; Li, Zeyu (): ‘Rhotics in Scottish Standard English’. BICLCE 2019 - 8th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English, University of Bamberg, .
    • Oyebola, Folajimi; Ho, Bonnie Sin Yu; Li, Zeyu (): ‘A Sociophonetic Study on TH Variation in Educated Nigerian English’. International Congress of Phonetics Sciences (ICPHs) 2019, Melbourne, Australia, .

  • CV

    Education

    PhD candidate in English Linguistics, University of Münster
    Visiting graduate student, Stanford University, USA
    M.A. in English-Speaking Cultures, University of Würzburg
    M.S.Sc in Corporate Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    B.A. in English, Nankai University, China

    Positions

    since
    Research Assistant, Chair of English Linguistics, University of Münster
    10/2016 - 02/2017
    Research Assistant, Chair of English Linguistics, University of Würzburg
    05/2016 - 10/2016
    Student Assistant, Chair of English Linguistics, University of Würzburg

  • Doctoral Thesis

    Acquisition of Rhoticity by Second Language (L2) Learners of English

    Supervisors

    The realization of postvocalic /r/ has been frequently examined in both diachronic and synchronic research on world Englishes. Since it arguably constitutes the most important phonotactic difference among accents of English and a multitude of linguistic and extra-linguistic constraints is known to modulate the degree of rhoticity, the /r/ variant forms an instructive phonological marker to investigate the dynamics of norm formation in emerging English varieties. While varieties in the Inner and Outer Circle have been extensively studied in this respect, there is fairly little research on the acquisition of rhoticity by L2 English learners in the Expanding Circle. This project attempts to fill this gap with a series of perception and production tasks on rhoticity by L2 English learners from China. Based on data collected from 48 Chinese first-year undergraduates majoring in English at two data collection times with a time span of six months, it explores the relationship between perception and production of postvocalic /r/ by Chinese learners and how this changes over time. In particular, it aims at making theoretical contribution to L2 speech models such as Flege’s Speech Learning Model (SLM) or Best's Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM). Moreover, it will analyze the potential social and linguistic factors contributing to the variable realization and acquisition of rhoticity by using mixed effects regression model. Apart from auditory analysis, the acoustic properties of postvocalic /r/ by Chinese learners will also be investigated and compared with native English speakers in this study.