Anika

Please briefly summarize your research.
Since this past summer, I have been working at the Child Language Lab run by Dr. Adriana Weisleder. The lab focuses on researching the language development of bilingual children and children with language impairments. As someone who is interested in both developmental psychology and languages, my experience in the lab has been very engaging! I have primarily worked on the Daylong Dual-Input LENA Recordings Annotations with PhD student, Anele Villanueva. The project consists in analyzing daylong audio recordings of the environments of infants from bilingual Latinx households. In order to annotate daylong audio recordings, I annotate 30-second clips from the longer recordings selected by random sampling. The annotation categories I am primarily focused on is the speech register, so who is the speaker directing their speech towards. Within that, I also annotate for the speaker type (adult or child) and the language (English, Spanish, or Mixed). The purpose of this project is to increase the knowledge of the language context of dual language learners (Spanish-English) from immigrant Latinx families. This is an area of study that has not been deeply researched and will provide information on how to best support bilingual children during their language development. I am also currently starting to plan my independent summer research project, which will consist in analyzing the messages about Hispanic culture that picture books communicate to Hispanic children in the Chicago area.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
I did not expect to pursue research during my time at Northwestern, but it only makes sense that I have pursued research that has an interdisciplinary lens. The value of interdisciplinary research stems from the fact that it considers multiple viewpoints and so, I think it is becomes more applicable to the real-world outside of the lab environment. More specifically for me, I have a variety of interests and interdisciplinary research allows me to delve into many interests through one activity. My time at the lab has allowed me to interact with a variety of fields (Psychology, Communication Sciences Disorders, Linguistics, Spanish, Cultural Anthropology), which has been much more interesting for me and has deepened the quality of the research I have participated in.

How has it been working with faculty to transition from an assistant position to a more independent role?
I am currently in that transition from an assistant position to a more independent role so I cannot fully speak on the experience. Nevertheless, so far, it has been going well. The team at the Lab are very supportive and are helping me through the transition. I do not have research experience prior to my time at the Lab and I know I would not have pursued an independent research project if it were not for the workshops, faculty members, and research experience provided by Emerging Scholars Program. Learning the basics of research as a research assistant during the summer and Fall Quarter has given me the foundation to now confidently plan my own research project. In addition, my faculty member and the team at the Lab has been extremely helpful in supporting me both throughout transitioning and planning my research project.

What’s been your favorite part about being in a cohort with other scholars?
It is really nice to be in a cohort where we are all going through the same experiences for the first time together. We were all going through similar stages of starting research during the summer and we are now similar stages planning our research projects. While it is difficult to begin brainstorming an independent research project, more recently, my cohort has been supportive in helping me brainstorm project ideas.

Do you have any tips or advice for first years similar to you who are interested (but maybe hesitant) to apply for a 15 month long program?
My major advice is if the program just sounds interesting (even if you are hesitant about it), just apply. I was initially wary about applying to the Emerging Scholars Program because it seemed like a long commitment. While 15 months is a good amount of time, I have had such wonderful and engaging experience while doing research. It has been an excellent way to dip my toes into the water of research without diving in head first into pursuing research. I am currently not planning to do research as a career choice, but nonetheless, my research experience has been very interesting and definitely worthwhile. More specifically, I would suggest that if you are intrigued or excited by one of the listed faculty members or their projects, that is a definite sign that you should apply.

Favorite breakfast food?
Pan con palta (bread with avocado). I could eat it every day for the rest of my life. Is this the same things as avocado toast? Some might say  maybe so (they both ARE made up of bread… and avocado), but I would beg to differ. This Peruvian dish is delicious and heartwarming and existed way before trendy restaurants decided to offer it up as an $18 brunch option.

What is your most useless talent?
My useless talent is being able to whistle the entirety of Le Vie en Rose. I am sad that I haven’t yet found a proper use for my whistling but I have found it quite handy for when I am bored out of my mind or when there is a need to annoy someone.