Yantong Xiang

Biography

Background

I received my BA in English from South China Agricultural University. During my BA, I was awarded an internship grant (funded by Mitacs Canada and the China Scholarship Council) to work at the Child Language and Speech Studies Lab at the University of Toronto. Subsequently, I completed my MSc through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s programme in Clinical Linguistics, hosted by the University of Groningen, Ghent University, and the University of Eastern Finland. Before starting my PhD, I also completed a research internship in the Psychology of Language Department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where I conducted my Master’s thesis research.

My research interests include child language development, language disorders, and language processing. I am particularly interested in investigating these areas using both behavioural and real-time processing measures, including eye-tracking and EEG.

Undergraduate teaching

Tutor:

Psychology 1A Lab (PSYL08009)

Research summary

Child Language Development, Bilingualism, Language Processing, Developmental Language Disorders

Project activity

I am currently working on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project Input and Uptake in Bilingualism and Language Disorders: https://build-project.ppls.ed.ac.uk/index.html 

Current project grants

Leverhulme Trust PhD studentship

Past project grants

Erasmus Mobility Grant
Mitacs Research Internship Grant

Conference details

Xiang, Y.*, Wang, M., Meyer, A. & Frances, C. (2026). The effects of pitch accent on online semantic processing: an ERP study [Poster presentation]. Donders Day, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 28 May 2026.

Xiang, Y.*, Young, F., Fung, P. & Johnson, E. K. (2023). Where is the banana? How language experience impacts toddlers’ ability to understand other-accented talkers [Poster presentation]. SURF Summer Undergraduate Research Fair, University of Toronto Mississauga, 16 August 2023.

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