Mark Amengual

Mark Amengual’s current line of research focuses on the interaction between the production and perception of bilingual individuals, from a phonetic, cognitive and sociolinguistic approach, investigating the effects of language dominance in a continuum of bilingualism. This work extends a series of pilot studies documenting how the degree of dominance in one language affects the bilingual’s production and perception in the less dominant language by considering, in particular, highly proficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals in Mallorca (Spain).

By investigating speakers from a bilingual society, he is able to continue his work on the bilingual continuum and how societal bilingualism is manifested at the level of the speaker. Following an interdisciplinary approach, Mark seeks to bridge phonetic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic research considering the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that contribute to bilingual performance.

The Powers Fellowship will support Mark’s work and professional development by allowing him to dedicate himself exclusively to his research. Importantly, the fellowship provides the means to work on analyzing his acoustic data, and time to complete his dissertation and enter the job market as a competitive candidate.