Jinyu (Jessie) Shi

jessie
DPhil Candidate
Experimental Psychology

I am a DPhil student at ReadOxford, supervised by Dr Kate Nation and Dr Elizabeth Wonnacott. 

I always enjoyed reading ever since I was a kid. For me, books created a magical realm where anything could happen. Through language, characters, scenes, and entire worlds could be brought to life with just a few lines. This always fascinated me.

My research interest revolves around how children learn language and what type of input can facilitate the process. Previously, I have focused on studying spontaneous speech from caregivers. Now, I am moving on to investigate the role of books and reading in children’s language development. Specifically, I am interested in the complex grammatical structures found in children’s book and their impact on children’s acquisition of grammar.

My favourite word

One of my favorite words is the Japanese word “積ん読” (Tsundoku), which means leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books. It simply describes me too well.

My favourite childhood book

It's always hard to pick just one, but one of my favourites is ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. I couldn’t resist the magical world behind a wardrobe. As a child, I thoroughly checked every single corner of my own wardrobe in the hopes of finding a secret pathway. The adventures in the land of Narnia introduced me to fantasy novels, eventually leading me to meet one of my all-time favourites, “The Lord of the Rings”.