Vanessa Sheu

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My areas of interest are in psycholinguistics, sentence processing, and heritage language.
My current research uses aurally presented garden-path sentences to investigate real-time
syntactic and semantic cue sensitivity in native and bilingual speakers of Mandarin.

EDUCATION
PhD Candidate in Linguistics Sept 2019
Purdue University

Masters in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages May 2015

Teachers College, Columbia University

Bachelor of Arts with High Honors, Comparative Literature May 2009

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

WORK EXPERIENCE
Course Coordinator, Introduction to Linguistics Fall 2023, Spring 2021, Fall 2021
Purdue University
 Created template for course schedule and syllabus and midterm/final assessment for all
sections; organized and led monthly instructor meetings
Graduate Instructor, Introduction to Linguistics
 Served as primary instructor for undergraduate class

English as a Second Language Lecturer, Faculty Aug 2016–May 2019

Iowa Intensive English Program, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA

English Language Instructor, Faculty Aug 2015 – July 2016

Intensive American Language Center, Washington State University Pullman, WA

Adjunct English Language Instructor Jan 2015 – Aug 2015

Westchester Community College Valhalla, NY

English Language Instructor Feb 2014 – July 2014

Community English Program, Teachers College New York, NY

English Language Instructor July 2012 – July 2013

STEP English Program, Santo Tomá s University Santiago, Chile

SERVICE
Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs – 2021-present
Graduate Board Member
Attend board meetings. Promote OIGP seminars and events. Volunteer at annual spring reception
gala.

Purdue Linguistics Association – 2020-2021

Workshop Chair
Coordinate with researchers to speak at biweekly talks and presentations; serve as moderator for
presentations. Serve as moderator in the 2021 Purdue Linguistics Association Symposium.

NYSTESOL - 2015
Applied Linguistics Winter Conference 2015 - Research Proposal Committee
Assisted with planning for annual conference held at Teachers College. Reviewed and selected
incoming abstracts and coordinated with presenters.

PUBLICATIONS
Sheu, V., Weirick, J., Zhou, A., editors. (in press.) Variation in Linguistics: Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Discourse, and Syntax. Cambridge Scholars.

Sheu, V. (2019). A Dynamic View on Relational Propositions in Dyadic Interaction. In Z. Han (Ed.).
Profiling Learner Language as a Dynamic System (p. 104–132). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

GRANTS & AWARDS

Ross-Lynn Research Scholar, 2022-2023 $24,500
PROMISE Award, Fall 2023 $1000
PROMISE Award, Spring 2022 $750
Diverse Careers Grant Writing Initiative Award, Summer 2022 $500

PRESENTATIONS
Sheu, V. & Francis, E. (2024, January). The garden path not taken: Predictive aural processing of
Mandarin sentences by L1, L2, and heritage speakers. Presentation. 2024 Linguistic Society of
America (LSA) Annual Meeting.

Sheu, V. & Francis, E. (2023, November). Syntactic or semantic sensitivity? Predictive aural
processing of Mandarin garden-path sentences by L1, L2, and heritage speakers. Poster. Boston
University Conference for Language Development (BUCLD) 48.

Sheu, V. & Francis, E. (2023, March). Heritage speaker processing: what can we learn from real-time
experiments? Invited talk. Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center.

Sheu, V. & Francis, E. (2023, March). Aural processing of Mandarin garden-path sentences by L1, L2,
and heritage speakers: the role of semantic plausibility.
Presentation at the 15th Meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society at the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Sheu, V. & Francis, E. (2023, March). Aural processing of syntactic and semantic cues in Mandarin
garden-path sentences by L1, L2, and heritage speakers.
Presentation at the 2023 Purdue Linguistics Symposium at Purdue University.

Sheu, V. (2015, March). Mapping Discourse-Level Processing Depth Among L2 Readers of Varying
Proficiencies.
Presentation at the NYSTESOL Applied Linguistics Winter Conference at Teachers College,
Columbia University.
LANGUAGES
Spanish - Lower advanced proficiency. Resided and worked for a year in Chile. Completed upper-
level coursework in twentieth-century Latin American literature and poetry.

Mandarin Chinese - Upper intermediate spoken proficiency; lower intermediate written

proficiency. Heritage speaker. One semester at National Taiwan Normal University Mandarin
Training Center. Scored 98% on Beginner Huaren Proficiency Test.

American Sign Language (ASL) – Beginner. One undergraduate course.