Pre-conference workshops

Li Nguyen

From Ground to Archive: Navigating Consent, Access, and Ethics in Community-Language Work

(For researchers / academics)

As linguistic research increasingly engages with community-based language data, researchers and community partners face complex questions around ethical stewardship. This workshop explores how to responsibly manage language data from its point of collection through to long-term archiving, with an emphasis on informed consent, culturally appropriate access, licensing, and the handling of community-sensitive materials. Through case studies and collaborative discussion, we will examine how to align data practices with community values, legal frameworks, and disciplinary standards. The workshop offers space to reflect on challenges and share approaches to more ethical, inclusive, and context-sensitive language work.

Li Nguyen is Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She works primarily on language contact, language variation and change, and computational approaches to sociolinguistics. Li has written consistently all on the above topics, with works appearing in top-tier journals such as the International Journal of Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL). She served as consultant for several national linguistic projects in Vietnam and is currently investigating language contact across different Vietnamese diasporas.

Tan Ying Ying

The Pride and Prejudice of the "Singaporean" Accent

(For pre-university students, e.g., H2 ELL students, and first-year undergraduates)

This workshop invites linguistics students to explore the rich and diverse landscape of accents in Singapore. What is the "Singaporean accent"? Are there multiple kinds? Why do some people choose to "fake" an accent, and how do these choices affect how they are perceived? Through these guiding questions, students will examine how accents reflect and shape identity, signal group membership, and influence social interactions. The workshop will also introduce basic practical research methods for the various way of studying accents. By the end, participants will not only gain a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of accents in Singapore, but also walk away with hands-on skills applicable to potential linguistics research.

Tan Ying Ying is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.  She was the first Singaporean to receive the esteemed Fung Global Fellowship from Princeton University. Her research primarily focuses on the languages of Singapore, especially Singapore English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Min languages like Teochew and Hokkien. Her work has been published in top-tiered journals, such as the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, World Englishes, English World-Wide, English Today, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies, and Social Identities. She currently sits on the Editorial Board for Languages. She has also appeared in several documentaries and was interviewed in podcasts, TV, and radio programs on Singlish and other languages in Singapore over the past five years.