DIRECTORY: — Kirsten Hummel — Dima Safi — Daphnée Simard — Michael Zuniga —
Kirsten Hummel, Ph.D
Contact Information
Email address: Kirsten.Hummel [at] lli.ulaval.ca
Kirsten Hummel is a Professor at Université Laval specializing in second language acquisition and individual differences. She is particularly interested in the roles of aptitude and working memory in second language (L2) development. She is also interested in exploring concrete ways to help learners increase their L2 competence. Her ongoing research, funded by the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur (Entente Canada-Québec), explores the effects on L2 learners of community service-learning collaborations carried out in the target-language community.
Links:
Departmental Website
Entente Canada-Québec projects
Dima Safi, Ph.D
Contact Information
Email address: Dima.Safi [at] uqtr.ca
[under construction]
Daphnée Simard, Ph.D
Contact Information
Email address: simard.daphnee [at] uqam.ca
Daphnée Simard is a Full Professor of second language acquisition and bilingualism in the Department of Linguistics at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her research examines the role of individual cognitive variables in second language acquisition and the relationship between language awareness and language acquisition across populations (children, adult L2 learners). Her book, Aspects de l’acquisition des langues secondes: regard sur l’apprenant, les théories et les contextes (with Diane Huot), was published in 2025. She was the director of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences at UQAM from 2014 to 2017 and served as editor of the Canadian Modern Language Journal from 2018 to 2024.
Links:
Departmental Website
ResearchGate
Michael Zuniga, Ph.D
Contact Information
Email address: zuniga.michael_j [at] uqam.ca
Michael Zuniga is a Professor in the Département de didactique des langues at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). His research focuses on the interplay between cognition and emotion in second-language learning and performance, with particular emphasis on how language-learning tasks and teaching practices shape learners’ emotional and cognitive experiences. His work examines anxiety, enjoyment, flow, and attention, as well as their relationships with second-language performance. By bringing an applied linguistics and classroom-based perspective to the study of multilingualism, his research contributes to MoBI’s interdisciplinary approach to understanding the cognitive, psychological, and contextual factors that shape language learning and multilingual performance. His research has appeared in journals including The Modern Language Journal, System, and the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Modern Language Review.
