Tonia Williams

tonia
DPhil Candidate
Experimental Psychology

A lot of my choices are driven by my culture and childhood experiences growing up in Jamaica where my accent has always been different from the regional accents, despite my parents, extended family, and the greater Jamaican population speaking in our dialect. Outside of watching a lot of American TV shows  – the likely culrpit – I spent much of my childhood in books, so in my undergrad (filled with animal research) and my masters (filled with education), I took an interest in everything literacy. One class peaked fascination with how literacy can be affected by home environment, so this became (one of) my research passions. I want to know how something as overlook-able as accent can potentially affect how people learn how to read and write.

My favourite word

My favourite word has been "quibble". It means to spend time arguing about silly things. It reminds me of the word squabble, but different! I pretty much never use the word unless it is to say that it is my favourite word, but trust me it is!

My favourite childhood book

The animorphs series. I read almost every book in the series. A mix of my science love and fantasy, but in a childfriendly middle-reader style. I always gravitated towards the animals I liked, lik elephants or giraffes, or others that would be quite funny, like mice!