Please click here to access my full CV.
(updated April 2024)
Ph.D. in Linguistics, 2021-present
University of California, Davis
M.A. in Digital Studies of Language, Culture, and History, 2021
The University of Chicago
Thesis: Do Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris Imitate the Accent of their Audience at Campaign Rallies?
Advisor: Alan C. L. Yu
B.A. in Linguistics, Minor in Statistics, 2021
The University of Chicago
College Honors: Phi Beta Kappa (Early Induction), Student Marshal, summa cum laude
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Julia Vonessen, Nicholas B. Aoki, Michelle Cohn, and Georgia Zellou. Comparing perception of L1 and L2 English by human listeners and machines: Effect of interlocutor adaptations. Forthcoming at The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. |
| 2024 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Being clear about clear speech: Intelligibility of hard-of-hearing-directed, non-native-directed, and casual speech for L1- and L2-English listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 104, 101328. [PDF] |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Visual information affects adaptation to novel talkers: ethnicity-specific and ethnicity-independent learning of L2-accented speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(4), 2290-2304. [PDF] |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. When clear speech does not enhance memory: Effects of speaking style, voice naturalness, and listener age. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 51(1), 060002. [PDF] |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Speakers talk more clearly when they see an Asian face: Effects of visual guise on speech production. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2294-2298). Guarant International. Available at: [PDF] |
| 2022 | Nicholas B. Aoki, Michelle Cohn, and Georgia Zellou. The clear speech intelligibility benefit for text-to-speech voices: Effects of speaking style and visual guise. JASA Express Letters, 2(4), 045204. [PDF] |
| Year | Presentation |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Effects of speaking style and apparent talker variability on perceptual adaptation to L2-accented speech. 10th Annual UC Davis Symposium on Language Research. Davis, California, United States. |
| 2024 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Ethnicity-specific and -independent learning: Effects of guise on adaptation to novel foreign-accented talkers. 98th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. New York City, New York, United States. |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. When speaking clearly does not enhance comprehension: Comparing intelligibility of hard-of-hearing- and non-native-directed speech for native and non-native listeners. 185th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Sydney, Australia. |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Ethnicity-specific and -independent learning: Effects of guise on adaptation to novel foreign-accented talkers. New Ways of Analyzing Variation 51. New York City, New York, United States. |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Speakers talk more clearly when they see an East Asian face: Effects of visual guise on speech production. 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Prague, Czech Republic. |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Comparing intelligibility and recognition memory of human and text-to-speech voices. 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Chicago, Illinois, United States. |
| 2023 | Nicholas B. Aoki, Masoud Jasbi, and Georgia Zellou. Under-informative utterances can be more accepted from digital devices than humans. 97th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Denver, Colorado, United States. |
| 2022 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. Hey Alexa, are you a Valley Girl? Effects of social information on the perception of text-to-speech voices. New Ways of Analyzing Variation 50. San Jose, California, United States. |
| 2022 | Nicholas B. Aoki, Michelle Cohn, and Georgia Zellou. The Clear Speech Intelligibility Benefit for TTS Voices: Effects of Speech Style and Guise. The 18th Conference on Laboratory Phonology. Virtual. |
| 2021 | Nicholas B. Aoki and Alan C. L. Yu. Do Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris Imitate the Accent of Their Audiences? Analysis and Interpretation of Stylistic Variability. New Ways of Analyzing Variation 49. Virtual. |
| 2021 | Nicholas B. Aoki, Henry Mackall, and Alan C. L. Yu. Does Variation in Speech Production Impact Acoustic Cue Weighting in Speech Perception? 2021 University of Chicago Undergraduate Research Symposium. Virtual. |
| 2020 | Nicholas B. Aoki, Jacob B. Phillips, Daniel Chen, and Alan C. L. Yu. Convergence of the lot-thought merger in the U.S. Supreme Court. 94th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. |
| Year | Grant/Award | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award [Nominee] | UC Davis |
| 2024 | Phi Kappa Phi | UC Davis |
| 2023 | Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics Student Paper Competition Winner ($300) | Acoustical Society of America |
| 2023 | "Down Under Funder" Travel Grant ($1000) | Acoustical Society of America |
| 2023 | Steven Lapointe Award ($850) | UC Davis Department of Linguistics |
| 2023 | Student Award (GBP 600) | International Phonetic Association |
| 2022 | Travel Award ($250) | UC Davis Graduate Student Association |
| 2022-2023 | Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship ($48900) | UC Davis |
| 2021-2022 | Provost's Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences ($59802) | UC Davis |
| 2021 | Latin Honors (summa cum laude) | University of Chicago |
| 2021 | Leonard Bloomfield Prize in Linguistics | University of Chicago |
| 2020 | Phi Beta Kappa (Early Induction) | University of Chicago |
| 2020 | Student Marshal | University of Chicago |
| 2020 | College Summer Research Fellow ($5000) | University of Chicago |
| 2019-2020 | College Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Scholar ($5000) | University of Chicago |
| 2019 | Dean’s Fund for Undergraduate Research Award ($1271) | University of Chicago |
| 2019 | Jeff Metcalf Internship | University of Chicago |
| 2019 | Liew Family College Research Fellow ($1000) | University of Chicago |
| 2017-2021 | Dean’s List, University of Chicago | University of Chicago |
| 2017-2021 | National Merit Scholarship ($8000) | University of Chicago |