Seth Wiener
Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition and Chinese Studies
- 341L
- 412-268-5279
- 412-268-1328
341 Posner Hall
Department of Modern Languages
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I grew up in small Indiana and Ohio towns, and by kindergarten, I knew I would become an astronaut. By high school, my goal evolved to programmer-astronaut. So in my first semester of college, I took an astronomy class, a programming class, a calculus class, and a Chinese language class. My plan held until two years later, when I studied abroad in China and saw the stars from Inner Mongolia. My time in China completely changed my life. From that moment on I knew I wanted to study languages and linguistics. I ended up spending several years in mainland China and Taiwan and traveling throughout Asia. I returned to Ohio State to get my Ph.D. with the hope to one day inspire other students in the same way that foreign languages helped me find my path. In graduate school, I was trained in linguistic theory, East Asian languages, psycholinguistic methods, and data analysis and statistics. In 2015 I moved to Pittsburgh and established the Language Acquisition, Processing, and Pedagogy Lab (LAPP Lab) at Carnegie Mellon University. Graduate and undergraduate students in the lab help carry out research on the mechanisms and architecture underlying language acquisition and processing. LAPP Lab also aims to develop real-world pedagogical innovations for language instructors and learners. At CMU I teach a variety of courses on second language acquisition, Chinese language, and research methods. Despite all this, I still have not heard from NASA.
Areas of Interest
- Second language acquisition
- Psycholinguistics
- Speech perception and production
- Chinese linguistics
- Data analysis and visualization
Courses Taught
- 82-888 Introduction to Linguistic Data Analysis Using R
- 82-138 'Crazy' Linguistically Rich Asian Languages
- 82-888 Second Language Speech
- 99-520 Experiential Learning through Projects: Language in the time of COVID-19
Selected Awards and Honors
- Innovative Models for Undergraduate Research Faculty Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University, 2020-21
- National Institutes of Health Research Grant, 2019
- Language Learning Early Career Research Grant, 2019
- National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2015
Selected Community, University, and Professional Service
- Academic Review Board, Carnegie Mellon University
- Associate Editor, Applied Psycholinguistics
- Editorial Board Member, Chinese as a Second Language
Selected Publications
- Wiener, S. & Bradley, E. D. (In press)."Harnessing the musician advantage: Short-term musical training affects non-native cue weighting of linguistic pitch." Language Teaching Research.
- Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (In press). "Effects of multi-talker input and instructional method on the dimension-based statistical learning of syllable-tone combinations: An eye-tracking study." Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
- Wiener, S. & Tokowicz, N. (2021). "Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals." Second Language Research.
- Wiener, S. (2020). "Second language learners develop non-native lexical processing biases. "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23 (1), 119-130.
- Wiener, S., Lee, C.-Y., & Tao, L. (2019). "Statistical regularities affect the perception of second language speech: Evidence from adult classroom learners of Mandarin Chinese." Language Learning, 69(3), 527-558.