Xiaotong Xi

ABOUT ME

Xiaotong Xi a fourth-year PhD student in Universitat Pompeu Fabra, carrying out her PhD in Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is the recipient of the FI grant (Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia and European Social Fund), which allows her to do the research.

She holds a B.A. in Hispanic Philology from Xi'an International Studies University (Xi'an, Shaanxi, China) and an M.A. in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain), specializing in Formal Linguistics and Computational Linguistics. Now, she is interested in exploring how hand gestures cueing phonetic features may aid L2 segment learning.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Second language acquisition, Multimodal phonetic training, Hand gestures

CURRENT PROJECTS

Effects of observing hand gestures on the learning of L2 sounds

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Ozakin, A. S., Xi, X., Li, P., & Prieto, P. (in press). Thanks or tanks: training with tactile cues improves learners' accuracy of English interdental consonants in an oral reading task. Language Learning and Development. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2022.2107522

Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2021). Training non-native aspirated plosives with hand gestures: learners' gesture performance matters. Language Cognition and Neuroscience, 36(10), 1313-1328. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1937663

Xi, X., Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2020). Hand gestures facilitate the acquisition of novel phonemic contrasts when they appropriately mimic target phonetic features. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(11), 3571-3585. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00084

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Xi, X., Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (accepted). Training the pronunciation of L2 novel phonetic features: a comparison of observing versus producing hand gestures. Proceedings of the 7th Gesture and Speech in Interaction (GeSpIn 2020).

Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (accepted). Appropriately performing hand gestures cueing phonetic features facilitates simultaneous speech imitation in an L2. Proceedings of the 7th Gesture and Speech in Interaction (GeSpIn 2020).

COMMUNICATIONS

Forthcoming 

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2023, August). Does visuospatial working memory predict L2 perceptual learning from phonetic training with hand gestures? Oral presentation at The 20th International Congress of the Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023). Prague (Czech Republic): August 7-11.

2023 

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2023, June). In L2 phonetic training, learners benefit more with hand gestures cuing visually salient articulatory information. Poster presentation at The 5th Conference of the Phonetics and Phonology in Europe (PaPE 2023). Nijmegen (the Netherlands): June 2-4.

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2023, March). Training Catalan speakers on English /æ/-/ʌ/ and /i/-/ɪ/ with hand gestures. Oral presentation at The 2023 Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL 2023). Portland (USA): March 18-21.

2022 

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2022, July). Hand gestures encoding articulatory features and the learning of L2 vowels: the effects of visual accessibility. Oral presentation at The 9th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS 9). Loyola University Chicago: Chicago (USA): July 13-15.

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2022, May). Hand gestures cueing visible lip shape help the pronunciation of L2 English vowel pair. Oral presentation at The 7th International Conference on English Pronunciation: Issues & Practices (EPIP 7). Université Grenoble-Alpes: Grenoble (France): May 18-20.

Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2022, April). Training English vowels with hand gestures: the effects of encoding articulatory movements to different degrees of visual accessibility. Oral presentation at The 10th International Symposium on the Acquisition Second Language Speech (New Sounds 2022). University of Barcelona: Barcelona (Spain): April 20-22.

2021 

Xi, X., Li, P., Baills, F. & Prieto, P. (2021, July). Hand gestures facilitate the acquisition of novel phonemic contrasts when adequately encoding target articulatory features. Oral presentation at The 30th Conference of the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA 30). University of Barcelona: Barcelona (Spain): June 30 - July 3.

Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F. & Prieto, P. (2021, July). Actively producing hand gestures mimicking articulatoy features favors the long-term acquisition of novel words containing those features. Oral presentation at The 30th Conference of the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA 30). University of Barcelona: Barcelona (Spain): June 30 - July 3.

Ozakin, A. S., Xi, X., Li, P. & Prieto, P. (2021, June). Thanks or tanks: training with tactile cues facilitates the pronunciation of English interdental consonants. Poster presentation at The 12th Annual Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (PSLLT 2021). Boston University: Ontario (Canada): June 18-19.

2020

Xi, X., Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2020, September). Training the pronunciation of L2 novel phonetic features: a comparison of observing versus producing hand gestures. Oral presentation at The 7th Gesture and Speech in Interaction (GeSpIn 2020). KTH Royal Institute of Technology: Stockholm (Sweden): September 7-9.

Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F. & Prieto, P. (2020, September). Appropriately performing hand gestures cueing phonetic features facilitates simultaneous speech imitation in an L2. Oral presentation at The 7th Gesture and Speech in Interaction Conference (GeSpIn 2020). KTH Royal Institute of Technology: Stockholm (Sweden): September 7-9.