Congratulations to our PhD student, Wensi Zhang, on successfully passing her PhD examination in December 2025.

Wensi’s dissertation project, titled “Effects of Age, Memory, and Instruction on Second Language Learning in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence: Evidence from Cross-situational Learning,” examines how children aged 8 to 13 learn vocabulary and grammar in immersion-like settings, where learning emerges from patterns in the input rather than from direct teaching alone. Drawing on a series of experiments, the thesis shows how age, memory, and instruction shape early language learning in different ways across development. The findings reveal a clear developmental shift, with older children becoming increasingly responsive to instruction, and underscore the importance of matching teaching approaches to learners’ cognitive and developmental profiles.

Wensi was jointly supervised by Professor Padraic Monaghan (Psychology) and Professor Patrick Rebuschat (Linguistics), co-directors of the Lancaster Language Learning Lab.

Wensi’s examiners, Professor Emma Marsden (University of York) and Dr Jill Lany (Lancaster University), recommended that the degree of PhD be awarded subject to minor corrections. We are very grateful to the examiners for their careful assessment of the thesis and for their constructive and thoughtful feedback.

Before passing her viva, Wensi had already published one paper from her PhD, with two further manuscripts currently under review:

Zhang W, Monaghan P, Bennett S, Rebuschat P. Children’s simultaneous or successive acquisition of vocabulary and grammar: Evidence from cross-situational learning. Journal of Child Language. Published online 2025:1-15. doi:10.1017/S0305000925100135