WHO'S ON OUR TEAM?
We are a tight-knit team of two, comprising Dr. Coupé as the course instructor and Michelle as the teaching assistant. We believe that authenticity is one of the major keys of establishing a tighter connection with students - while this is just a static introduction of who we are, we hope that we can at least ease some of the anxieties of not knowing who you will be entrusting your education to through these self-descriptions. :)
CHRISTOPHE COUPÉ
Course Instructor
Assistant Professor & Undergraduate Coordinator (Department of Linguistics)
Bonjour! I received a PhD degree in cognitive science in 2003 from the University of Lyon 2. I then worked as a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), until joining HKU. My research interests in linguistics cover language evolution and language diversity, especially at the phonetic level, and the application of computational and statistical methods to linguistic data. Besides, I have also been conducting research in psycholinguistics, psycho-phenomenology and social psychology.
PANG MAN LONG MICHELLE
Teaching Assistant
BA English Studies & General Linguistics, class of 2020
Hey there, Michelle here. This is my 3rd year as the TA of this course (you'll be seeing me a lot), and I'm the developer of this website! :D As an aspiring linguist, I am interested in how language evolves under contact scenarios both structurally and socioculturally. While my past works had generally revolved around investigating Hong Kong as a space for language contact, I am planning to explore the traces of contact variation in sound systems and their sociocultural implications. I also believe in community-based research collaborations: learning more about language description, maintenance and revitalization are on my to-do list!