Congratulations to Luke Hagar on his recent publication in the Journal of the International Phonetics Association.
The article titled "Regional variation in articulation rate in French spoken in Canada" is an interdisciplinary collaboration with Dr. Svetlana Kaminskaia (Department of French Studies, University of Waterloo) and Dr. Wladyslaw Cichocki (Department of French, University of New Brunswick).
In this article, Luke applied the linear mixed-effect model to examine the articulation rate in three varieties of Canadian French. The model also took into consideration the speaking style, the speaker's age and gender, and the length of inter-pause intervals. To improve the model fit and satisfy the model assumptions, he applied logarithmic transformation on the values of the articulation rate.
This was a great opportunity to improve my statistical communication skills. It was an exciting challenge to write descriptions and generate graphics intended for individuals with a linguistics background. The models we used are typically applied in clinical longitudinal settings, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they can also be used to study languages.
About Luke Hagar
Luke Hagar is a second-year Ph.D. student at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. He was a student consultant at the Statistical Consulting and Collaborative Research Unit. His research areas include sample size determination, hypothesis testing, and Bayesian methods.