Amina Ahmed
DARE Project: Rhotic articulation in To/r/onto English
Program(s) of Study: Speech and Language Sciences
Project Supervisor: Thomas Kettig, Griffin Cahill
My DARE experience strengthened both my research skills and my understanding of phonetics and sociolinguistics. I gained hands-on experience conducting a literature review, recruiting participants, running ultrasound speech experiments, and organizing articulatory and acoustic data. I also learned how to use specialized research equipment and follow ethical research practices when working with human participants. Beyond the technical skills, I developed greater confidence in managing an independent research project, solving problems as they arose, and communicating with participants and collaborators. This experience deepened my appreciation for the research process and reinforced my interest in linguistics, particularly in the study of speech production and language variation.
Project Description:
The DARE research project investigated how the English 鈥淩鈥 sound is produced and how it varies among speakers of Toronto English, particularly across different social, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. The study examined both the articulatory features (how the tongue and lips move to produce the sound) and the acoustic properties (the sound waves created during speech). We used ultrasound imaging to observe participants鈥 tongue movements while they pronounced words containing the 鈥淩鈥 sound, with the goal of identifying patterns and variation in Toronto English, including features associated with Multicultural Toronto English. As the lead student researcher on this DARE project, I recruited participants for the ultrasound speech experiment, coordinated participant scheduling, and obtained informed consent. I ran the ultrasound experiments by guiding participants through the study protocol, including administering the background questionnaire, operating the ultrasound equipment during speech recordings, and ensuring that data were collected consistently and ethically. Following data collection, I organized, and processed, the ultrasound and acoustic data.The Dean鈥檚 Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.