Research Opportunities for Undergrads

*** APPLICATION PERIOD FOR SUMMER 2026: July 20-31, 2026 ***

New opportunities will be added to this page as details are set, but no changes will be made after applications open on Monday, July 20.


Application Instructions: An online application form will be made available on Monday, July 20. You will be asked to attach a current copy of your advising transcript and resume. You may apply to more than one project in your application.

Projects with an amber-coloured status "Seeking Students: No (closed)" were our listings for the Summer semester. Projects for Fall 2026 are indicated in green with status "Seeking Students: YES".

Our research opportunities are either paid or volunteer, as noted in the description. Volunteer positions often lead to paid RAships in later semesters. The hours and length of commitment vary, depending on the project. Paid RAships are funded by the supervisor's research grant or the Linguistics endowment fund.

Applications are assessed on the basis of academic excellence and stated qualifications. All applicants will be informed by email regarding the outcome of their submission.

Professor, Project Information Seeking Students? (Yes/No) and Further Details
Ashley Farris-Trimble
Phonology, phonological acquisition, word recognition

Phonological Processing Lab: Seeking up to 5 volunteer RAs to work across several projects. Paid position may be available after RA's initial semester(s). Duties to include:
  • • Experiment design and implementation
  • • Data collection
  • • Data analysis

Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in LING, Cognitive Science, or related fields



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YES: up to 5 volunteer RAs for Fall 2026
6 hrs/wk (includes 1-hr weekly lab meeting)

Required Qualifications:
  • • Completion of LING 321
  • • Reliable, punctual, curious & proactive

Helpful Additional Experience:
  • • Praat, Matlab, jsPsych
  • • Experience with infants/children

Bonus:
  • • Let us know what other skills you have! Artistic? Speak an uncommon language? Really good at video games? You never know what might come in handy in the lab.
Jozina Vander Klok
Language description, syntax, semantics, morphology

Linguistic Field Research Lab: Seeking 3 RAs (paid) to work on the project Argument/Oblique Alternations within Applicative Constructions: Insights from Austronesian. Duties to include:
  • • Lab management;
  • • Data collection via questionnaire on Applicative Constructions using reference grammars and published sources;
  • • Data entry of questionnaire results;
  • • Data checking of the data entry into the comparative dataset to ensure quality and consistency within the database.

Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in LING, Cognitive Science, or related fields
-----------------------------------
YES: 3 RAs (paid) for Fall 2026
6 hrs/wk (includes 1-hr weekly lab meeting)

Preferred Qualifications:
  • • Completion of LING 322, LING 323, LING 324
  • • Experience working with Austronesian languages or non-Indo-European languages

Bonus:
  • • Knowledge of Indonesian
Henny Yeung
Infant Directed Speech (IDS)

Language Learning and Development Lab: Seeking 1 volunteer RA for community recruitment. Duties to include:
  • • Assisting with community events, drop-in programs, and presentations;
  • • Engaging with families and community partners;
  • • Communicating research on children's language learning and development in clear, accessible ways.

Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in LING, Cognitive Science, or related fields



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YES: 1 volunteer RA for Fall 2026
5 hrs/wk

Qualifications:
  • • Strong work ethic
  • • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
  • • Comfortable speaking with parents, caregivers and young children
  • • Ability to translate complex linguistic concepts into accessible language
  • • Must have a car and valid driver's license for travel to community locations
  • • Linguistics coursework preferred
Lauren Schneider
Linguistics of Halkomelem Salish

INLP: Seeking 1 RA (paid) to work on the project Hul’q’umi’num’ Lexical Suffixes: From building words to cohering oral paragraphs. The RA will build upon their experience working with narrative texts to further investigate features of Hul’q’umi’num’. Training will be provided in language research methods using Hul’q’umi’num’ legacy materials, e.g. Hul’q’umi’num’ dictionary and recorded narratives. Duties to include:
  • • Searching the corpus for lexical suffixes;
  • • Compiling them in a spreadsheet.

Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in INLP



-----------------------------------
YES: 1 RA (paid) for Fall 2026
5 hrs/wk

Qualifications:
  • • Familiarity with a dialect of Halkomelem Salish
  • • Completion of LING 220
Yue Wang
Experimental phonetics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics

Language and Brain Lab: Seeking a team of volunteer RAs to work on the project Adaptations in Conversation: Engaging voices, faces, brains and machines. Paid position may be available after RA's initial semester(s). Duties to include:
  • • Experiment development
  • • Data collection
  • • Data analysis
  • • Audio and video recording of human speech

Open to: Current SFU undergraduate students in LING, Cognitive Science, or related fields (3rd-year students preferred)



-----------------------------------
No (closed): 3+ volunteer RAs for Summer 2026
5 hrs/wk (plus 1-hr weekly lab meeting)

Qualifications:
  • • Completion of an undergraduate course in phonetics
  • • Experience with acoustic analysis of speech sounds (Praat)
  • • Experience with statistics

Optional/Preferred Experience:
  • • Statistical analysis (e.g., R)
  • • Computer science/AI
  • • Audio/video editing
  • • Neuroimaging techniques (e.g., MEG)

If you have any questions about these opportunities or about the application process, please contact the Research Coordinator.