Linguistics Research
My research is situated between Computational Linguistics and Cognitive Linguistics. I use this intersection to examine how learners move from natural language understanding toward formal reasoning, algorithmic structure and code.
Computational Linguistics provides the perspective of language as representable, processable and structurally analyzable through computational systems. Cognitive Linguistics provides the perspective of language as a system of meaning, conceptualization, categorization and mental representation.
The bridge between these fields appears in beginner programming education. Before learners write code, they interpret tasks through human language. They identify actions, conditions, relations, sequences and expected outcomes. They then gradually transform this linguistic understanding into computational structures such as variables, loops, conditions, functions and algorithms.
My work therefore examines programming education as a cognitive linguistic transition into formal systems. It asks how learners build mental models of code, how task language shapes algorithmic thinking, how errors reveal unfinished understanding and how formal programming structures emerge from human meaning making.