Teaching
In general, I teach linguistics classes, often with a focus on quantitative methods (R), lexicology / lexical semantics, or typology. But always with a passion to help the students acquire the necessary knowledge that can act as a catalyst to further their skills in the particular subject.
I strongly believe in fostering the curiosity of students such that they become self-propelled. It is a joy to watch students advance their mastery of techniques that were previously foreign and unknown. At the same time, I am convinced that all knowledge reinforces each other. That means that before students can be sent on their own way, they need to be presented with materials that need to be learned and practiced first (“deliberate practice”, see Bronkorst et al. 20111). It also entails that I strongly believe in honest (self-)assessments of students’ abilities at the start of the learning period and at the end. In other words, the observed development is in my opinion a great proxy for the efficacy of teaching and learning.
During my teaching, I also pay particular attention to the wealth of diversity we find in language. For example, in the Intro to linguistics class I expose students to sounds (phonetics, phonology) and ways of expressing things (morphology, syntax) in a large variety of languages across the world. One aim of this class is to complement the more traditional curriculum of language-particular linguistics they are studying later on, i.e., typically WEIRD languages. A second example constitutes the class of Language variants and language varieties. The aim of this course is to specifically pay attention to variational phenomena in language, with a strong focus on inter-language variability and inter-speaker variability (see van Hout & Muysken 20162).
I am a calm and competent teacher that takes learning seriously but does so in a humorous way. I find that the occasional joke aids in students’ understanding. After all, observing students make connections between what were once separate and distant aspects of a topic is one of the highlights of a teaching event. And that is what propels me in my teaching career.
Linguistics classes
| Year | Course | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-2025 [BA1] | Algemene taalwetenschap 1 (Intro to linguistics 101) | KU Leuven |
| 2023-2024 [MA] | Language variants and language varieties | KU Leuven |
| 2023-2024 [MA] | Lexicology and morphology | KU Leuven |
| 2023-2024 [MA] | Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics | HKU |
| 2022-2023 [MA] | Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics | HKU |
Coding (R / rstats)
| Year | Course | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Exploratory data analysis: From start to report | LOT summer school |
| 2021 | R bootcamp | NTU |
English
| Year | Course | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 [BA2] | English Conversation | Tatung University |
Footnotes
Bronkhorst, Larike H., Paulien C. Meijer, Bob Koster & Jan D. Vermunt. 2011. Fostering meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education 27(7). 1120–1130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.05.008.↩︎
Van Hout, Roeland & Pieter Muysken. 2016. Taming chaos: Chance and variability in the language sciences. In Klaas Landsman & Ellen Van Wolde (eds.), The Challenge of Chance (The Frontiers Collection), 249–266. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26300-7_14.↩︎