Hi, I'm Chao Zhou.

I am an assistant professor in the Department of General and Romance Linguistics at University of Lisbon (ULisboa), where I received a PhD in Linguistics in 2021. Before becoming a faculty member at ULisboa, I have taught at University of Minho (2021 - 2022) and Polytechnic of Leiria (2021). My research lies at the crossroads between Second Language Acquisition and Phonology. Some specific topics that I have explored in my recent work are:

  • Perception and production in L2 speech learning
  • Acquisition of novel phonological categories across prosodic contexts
  • Interaction between phonology and orthography in (L2) speech
  • Phonetics and phonology of rhotics
  • Effective and rapid L2 Portuguese proficiency test - LextPT

    • email: zhouchao at edu.ulisboa.pt.

    Research output

    Publication

  • 2023. Zhou, C. & A. Rato. Syllable position effects in the perception of L2 Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/ by L1-Mandarin learners. Second Language Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583221137713

  • 2023. Zhou, C. O contraste lateral-rótico do português europeu e do chinês mandarim: análise comparativa e estudos de PLE. Linguística Contrastiva: Estudos Português - Chinês. Zhang, J. & Grosso, M. (eds.), University of Macau

  • 2022. Flores, C., C. Zhou & C. Eira. “I no longer count in German”. On dominance shift in returnee heritage speakers. Applied Psycholinguistics. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716422000261

  • 2022. Zhou, C. & A. Jesus. Portuguese Has Two Underlying Rhotics: Evidence from Lisbon and Carioca Varieties. Supplemental Proceedings of the 2021 Annual Meeting on Phonology. https://doi.org/10.3765/amp.v9i0.5167

  • 2022. Zhou, C. & M. J. Freitas. A ordem da aquisição dos plurais com lateral final do PE: uma análise à luz da Teoria da Otimidade. ATAS DO I PHONOSHUTTLE OPO - PONTE AÉREA DE FONOLOGIA. Link

  • 2021. Zhou, C. & X. Li. LextPT: A reliable and efficient vocabulary size test for L2 Portuguese proficiency. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01731-1 (click here for free access to the paper)

  • 2021. Zhou, C. Dissertation Notice: L2 speech learning of European Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/ by L1-Mandarin learners: Experimental evidence and theoretical modelling. Language Acquisition. DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2021.1952591

  • 2021. Zhou, C., M. J. Freitas & A. Castelo. On the Acquisition of European Portuguese Liquid Consonants by L1-Mandarin Learners. Multilingualism and third language acquisition: learning and teaching trends, Pinto, J. & Alexandre, N. (eds.), Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4449767

  • 2020. Zhou, C. & S. Hamann. Cross-linguistic interaction between phonological categorization and orthography predicts prosodic effects in the acquisition of Portuguese liquids by L1-Mandarin learners. Proceedings of Interspeech 2020. http://doi.org/10.21437/interspeech.2020-2689

  • 2019. Zhou, C., M. J. Freitas & A. Castelo. A aquisição das consoantes líquidas do português europeu em coda por falantes chineses [Acquisition of European Portuguese liquid consonants in coda by Chinese speakers]. De Oriente a Ocidente: estudos da Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas: Volume V — Estudos da AIL sobre Ciências da Linguagem (Língua, Linguística, Didática): 87-118. ISBN978-972-8827-96-0

  • 2018. Zhou, C., M. J. Freitas & A. Castelo. A aquisição das consoantes laterais do português europeu por falantes chineses [Acquisition of European Portuguese lateral consonants by Chinese speakers]. Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística, 4: 295-313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26334/2183- 9077/rapln4ano2018a46

  • 2017. Zhou, C., M. Cruz & S. Frota. O ritmo da interlíngua na produção do Português Europeu por falantes nativos de Chinês Mandarim [Interlanguage Rhythm in European Portuguese production of native speakers of Mandarin Chinese]. Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística, 3: 423-435. DOI: 10.26334/2183-9077/rapln3ano2017a22

    • PhD Thesis

  • Zhou, C. (2021). L2 speech learning of European Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/ by L1-Mandarin learners: Experimental evidence and theoretical modelling. (Doctoral dissertation), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. Dissertation Committee: Maria João Freitas (Lisbon), Anabela Rato (Toronto), Paula Fikkert (Radboud).

    • Recent presentation

  • 2022. Correia, Liliana, Chao Zhou & Cristina Flores. Productive lexical knowledge predicts bilingual children’s global accent in their heritage language. GALA 2022. September 22-24, Frankfurt.

  • 2022. Zhou,Chao & João Veríssimo. Testing OCP and tonal markedness effects in L2 tonal acquisition. Fourth International Symposium on Chinese Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (ISOCTAL-4). June 20-21, Leeds/online.

  • 2022. Zhou, Chao & Anabela Rato. Speech perception and production are related but not always: Evidence from the acquisition of L2 Portuguese /l/ and /ɾ/. 10th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech (NewSounds 2022). April 20-22, Barcelona.

  • 2022. Garcia, Guilherme & Chao Zhou. L1 Mandarin prosody helps acquiring L3 Portuguese stress. 10th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech (NewSounds 2022). April 20-22, Barcelona.

  • 2022. Hamann, Silke & Chao Zhou. How to model the prosodically-conditioned orthographic influence on the Mandarin L2 acquisition of Portuguese /ɾ/. 10th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech (NewSounds 2022). April 20-22, Barcelona.

  • 2021. Zhou, C. & A. Jesus. Portuguese has two underlying rhotics: evidence from Lisbon and Carioca varieties. Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting on Phonology @ Toronto (AMP 2021). October 1-3, online/Toronto.

  • 2021. Hamann, S. & C. Zhou. How to model the influence of orthography on L2 representations with BiPhon Neural Networks. Invited talk at the 7th International Meeting on Speech Sciences (EICEFALA). September 15-19, online/Belo Horizonte.

  • 2021. Zhou, C. & X. Li. LextPT: A reliable and efficient vocabulary size test for L2 Portuguese proficiency. XV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics. June 24-26, online.

  • 2021. Hamann, S. & C. Zhou. Modeling the prosodically-conditioned orthographic influence on the Mandarin L2 acquisition of Portuguese /ɾ/. The 28th Manchester Phonology Meeting. May 26-28, University of Manchester/online, Manchester, UK.

  • 2020. Zhou, C. & S. Hamann. Formalizing the mismatch between L2 perception and production of European Portuguese liquids by L1-Mandarin learners. Going Romance, November 26-27, online.

  • 2020. Zhou, C., A. Rato & M. J. Freitas. On the structural modifications of European Portuguese syllable-final tap by L1-Mandarin learners. 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), November 5-8, online.

    • LextPT: A reliable and efficient test for L2 Portuguese proficiency

    Vocabulary size has been recurrently shown to be a reliable indicator of second language (L2) proficiency. Among the many existing vocabulary tests for L2 proficiency, the LexTALE test and its equivalents are growing in popularity since they provide a rapid (within 5 minutes) and reliable way to assess the L2 proficiency of several languages (English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian). In collaboration with Xinyi Li (Nova University of Lisbon), we developed a vocabulary size test for L2 Portuguese proficiency: LextPT. A large-scale validation study with 452 L2 learners of Portuguese demonstrates that LextPT is not only a valid and effective instrument to measure the L2 proficiency of both European and Brazilian Portuguese, but it is also highly reliable for learners with different L1 backgrounds.

    If you want to use a pen and paper version of LextPT, please click here. An online version is avaliable in Gorilla https://app.gorilla.sc/openmaterials/513634.