Dr. Youngah Do is an accomplished scholar and Associate Professor of Linguistics at The University of Hong Kong, where she has developed a strong research and teaching profile in phonology, language acquisition, bilingualism, and the cognitive foundations of linguistic structure. She completed her B.A. in English Linguistics and Literature with summa cum laude distinction and her M.A. in English Linguistics at Seoul National University, demonstrating early academic excellence and a deep commitment to linguistic inquiry. Building on this foundation, she earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world’s top institutions for theoretical and experimental linguistics, where she further refined her expertise in phonological theory, formal models of linguistic knowledge, and empirical approaches to understanding how humans acquire and process language. Before joining The University of Hong Kong, Dr. Do broadened her academic experience as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, contributing to its interdisciplinary community and engaging in collaborative research across cognitive science, theoretical linguistics, and language acquisition. Her professional affiliations include being a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, reflecting her commitment to excellence in teaching and pedagogical innovation, as well as active membership in the Association for Laboratory Phonology, which aligns with her interest in integrating experimental methods with theoretical models of phonology. Dr. Do has been recognized with major international honors such as the Universitas 21 Fellowship and the U21@21 Award, distinctions that highlight her global academic impact and leadership potential. Under her mentorship, her students have also earned highly competitive international accolades, including The Global Undergraduate Award and the Cognitive Science Society Student Award, underscoring her dedication to cultivating the next generation of scholars. Her research program is characterized by a sophisticated integration of experimental, computational, and cognitive approaches aimed at advancing our understanding of phonological learning, the structure of linguistic knowledge, and the mechanisms underlying bilingual and second-language acquisition. She has produced an extensive body of peer-reviewed work published in high-impact journals and presented at leading international conferences, contributing significantly to both theoretical linguistics and cognitive science. In addition to her research and teaching contributions, Dr. Do plays an active role in scholarly service at the global level. She serves on the editorial boards of Phonology, published by Cambridge University Press, and Studies in Linguistics, helping shape the direction of research in her field. She is also a frequent reviewer for top-tier journals, conferences, and national and international funding agencies, reflecting her standing as a trusted expert within the academic community. Through her combined work as a researcher, educator, mentor, and academic leader, Dr. Youngah Do continues to make substantial contributions to the advancement of linguistics and to the broader understanding of how language is structured, learned, and processed across diverse contexts.
Featured Publications
Tan, F. L., & Do, Y. (2025). Bottom-up modeling of phoneme learning: Universal sensitivity and language-specific transformation. Speech Communication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2025.103343
Yu, X., & Do, Y. (2025). Preference for distinct variants in learning sound correspondences during dialect acquisition. Language and Speech. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309241308171
Tan, F. L., & Do, Y. (2025). Attention-LSTM autoencoder simulation for phonotactic learning from raw audio input. Linguistics Vanguard. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2024-0210
Thompson, A. L., Van Hoey, T., Chik, A. W. C., & Do, Y. (2025). Iconic hand gestures from ideophones exhibit stability and emergent phonological properties: An iterated learning study. Cognitive Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2024-0033
Sze, S. S. L., Yu, X., Van Hoey, T., Yu, B., & Do, Y. (2025). Bilinguals’ advantages in executive function: Learning phonotactics and alternation. Second Language Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583251327097
Zheng, S., & Do, Y. (2025). Substantive bias in artificial phonology learning. Language and Linguistics Compass. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.70005
Van Hoey, T., Yu, X., Pan, T.-L., & Do, Y. (2024). What ratings and corpus data reveal about the vividness of Mandarin ABB words. Language and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2024.22
Yu, X., Van Hoey, T., Tan, F. L., Du, B., & Do, Y. (2024). Tracking phonological regularities: Exploring the influence of learning mode and regularity locus in adult phonological learning. Linguistics Vanguard. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2023-0050