Okim Kang

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My research focus lies in the areas of linguistic stereotyping and social justice, L2 speech and intelligibility, speech perception and production, speech technology/AI/ASR,  oral assessment and testing,  language attitudes, World Englishes, and L2 phonology in second language acquisition. My overall research goal is to investigate the impact of accents on society, and the nature  or characteristics of accented speech of non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. My research agenda includes several sub-areas of research: (a) how accent plays a role in our social and educational contexts, (b) how speech technology can enhance L2 speech research, (c) how accent is perceived by listeners, (d) how accented speech is characterized linguistically, (e) how accented speech is processed through AI/automatic systems, (f) how speakers with accents can better communicate with others, and (g) what constitutes intelligible speech and how we can promote intelligible speech in the global contexts.

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Email: Okim.Kang@nau.edu

I have been currently working on various research projects relevant to the topics listed above. Some examples of my currently funded and collaborative research projects include: (1) “Validating Attitude and Stereotyping Measures” (funded by the Spencer Foundation); (2) “Formulation of Objective Speech Intelligibility Measures and Learner-Specific Feedback” (funded by the National Science Foundation); and (3) Young leaners’ socio-economic contexts and their English progression and fairness in listening tests (funded by the British Council).

I have also completed many other funded projects such as (4) Construct and predictive validity of the DET test (the Duolingo English Test); (5) Fairness of using different accents in Duolingo listening tasks (the Duolingo Competitive Research Grants program); (6) Test takers’ attitudes and perceptions towards IELTS and the use of mobile-assisted technologies in tests (the IELTS Joint Funded Research Program);  (7) Investigation of Relationship among Learner Background, Linguistic Progression, and Score Gain on IELTS (the IELTS Joint Funded Research Program); (8) Intelligibility of different varieties of English in the TOEFL iBT listening test ( the ETS TOEFL COE research grant); and (9) Development of prosodic features in automated speech system (the Arizona Technology Research Investment Fund).  Based on my expertise in L2 phonology and language assessment, I worked with my post-doctoral scholar (Dr. David Johnson), and developed computer systems that automatically process prosodic features and obtained a patent (Serial No. 9,947,322) entitled “Systems and Methods for Automated Evaluation of Human Speech”.

Positions 

Education

  • Ph.D (2008): University of Georgia, GA
  • MA (2003): University of Auckland, New Zealand

My Research in Public News and Media

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Different varieties of accents in Aptis English listening tests (2025): https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-different-varieties-accents-aptis-english

Communication promotion video production (2024): “Together We Communicate”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GShw3tAgRuc

NPR Code Switch Podcast: Reverse Linguistics Steroptyping: Talk American : NPR

NAU News: http://news.nau.edu/okim-kang-accent-research/#.W7lCz5NKhp8

500 Women Scientist: https://500womenscientists.org/updates/2018/9/18/okim-kang

KNAU:http://www.knau.org/post/brain-food-accent-bias-and-communication

NAU Reviews (2022): Machine learning: https://news.nau.edu/kang-nsf-research/

NAU Reviews (2022): Language assessment fairness: https://news.nau.edu/kang-english-accents/

TESOL Interview (2022) Youtube: As we speak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGzaL6gfV20

Duolingo English Test Assessment Research (2022): Webinar: Understanding Language for Automated Assessment of Speaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYqIaC_XYrs