Ariel S. Chan
Assistant Professor
Languages and Applied Linguistics
University of California, Santa Cruz
Email: arielchan@ucsc.edu
I am an Assistant Professor of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Director and Principal Investigator of the Bilingualism, Sociolinguistics, and Cognition (BiSoN) Lab. My research examines bilingual language processing and use through an integrated psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective, with a particular focus on how bilinguals navigate and switch between languages in real-world communication.
To learn more about my ongoing research projects, please visit the Research page on the BiSoN Lab website.
About
I am a psycho-sociolinguist whose research lies at the intersection of bilingualism, heritage language and second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and interactional linguistics. My work examines how language experience and cultural identity shape bilingual language processing and code-switching.
Before joining UC Santa Cruz in July 2025, I was a Provostial Fellow and Lecturer in Linguistics at Stanford University from 2023 to 2025. I earned my Ph.D. in East Asian Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in June 2023. My dissertation, Code-Switching in Three Groups of Cantonese-English Bilinguals, was supported by a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship and an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (BCS-2042479).
If you would like to learn more about my research in a less academic format, I invite you to explore this UC Santa Cruz News feature about my work or the National Geographic article “Learning a Second Language Can Protect Your Brain. Here’s How,” to which I contributed.
Beyond Research
Originally from Hong Kong, I grew up speaking Cantonese at home and learning English at school from an early age. Having lived in Canada, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, and the United States, I developed a lasting curiosity about languages, cultures, and identities. I later learned Mandarin, French, German, and Japanese. These experiences sparked my interest in bilingualism and code-switching—not only as areas of research, but also as part of my lived experience.
In my free time, I enjoy hiking, traveling, exploring new places with friends, listening to podcasts, and picking up new languages for fun.