Sun-hee Lee

My research focuses on two goals. The first is to investigate linguistic constraints and formal representations of various syntactic constructions of Korean. The second is to develop an Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) system using linguistic insights and computational resources. I am currently exploring various linguistic phenomena, including long-distance dependencies, argument structure, case markers, pronouns, and zero elements, through the methodology of corpus linguistics. My projects include a corpus-based approach to Korean anaphora (a book project funded by the Korea Research Foundation), construction of a Korean Web-based corpus (with Dr. Markus Dickinson and Ross Israel at Indiana University), and development of a learner corpus with error annotation (with Seok Bae Jang at Georgia Institute of Technology).

Over the past few years, I have been developing the new Korean program at Wellesley. I have designed and taught a variety of language courses including Beginning Korean I/II, Intermediate Korean I/II, and Advanced Korean Through Multimedia. In addition to language courses, I offer a seminar course called Language and Gender in Modern Korean Culture, and beginning in 2011, I will teach a new course, An Introduction to Korean Language and Culture. As a linguist and language instructor, I apply linguistic knowledge and resources to promote efficient learning, while developing new linguistic insights and a greater understanding of second language acquisition. Teaching at Wellesley is a challenging and truly rewarding experience. My goal is to continue developing a fully-fledged Korean program, while nurturing students through thoughtful advising and collaborative work.

I am an adjunct research professor at the Language and Information Center at Yonsei University, and I have been collaborating with graduate students at Yonsei including Yelee An and Jae-young Song. I am also an active member of Dr. Maria Polinsky’s Language Processing Lab at Harvard University.

I enjoy yoga, jogging, hiking, cooking, travelling, reading, movie watching, and relaxing at home.