Brian V. Rusk

Research Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education,

University of Macau

Biography

I completed my PhD in the Language Acquisition Lab of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta and I am a former SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. My main research area is child second language (L2) acquisition, and I’m interested both in acquisition of an L2 as a community majority language as well as acquisition of a minority-L2 in classroom language immersion settings. My overarching research goal is to provide a better foundational understanding of L2 acquisition as an emergent phenomenon by studying children and adults who speak Mandarin as a first language as they acquire English as an L2.

Download my CV.

Interests

Language Acquisition
Child Second Language Acquisition
Morphosyntax
Language Immersion
Data Analysis with R

Education

PhD in Linguistics, 2021
University of Alberta
Master of Applied Linguistics, 2013
University of New England, Australia
Bachelor of Arts, 1998
University College of the Fraser Valley

Publications

Ning Ren, Barry Lee Reynolds, Brian V. Rusk (2025). Virtual companionship or flesh and blood: The effects of study-with-me (SWM) videos on learners’ intrinsic motivation, perceived pressure, and performance. In Computers & Education.

Source Document

Brian V. Rusk, Johanne Paradis (2024). The impact of out-of-school L2 input and interaction on adolescent classroom immersion and community-L2 learners’ L2 vocabulary: opportunities for interaction are key. In International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching.

Source Document

Johanne Paradis, Tamara Sorenson Duncan, Stephanie Thomlinson, Brian Rusk (2022). Does the use of complex sentences differentiate between bilinguals with and without DLD? Evidence from conversation and narrative tasks. In Frontiers in Education.

Brian V. Rusk, Johanne Paradis, Juhani Järvikivi (2020). Comprehension of English plural-singular marking by Mandarin-L1, early L2-immersion learners. In Applied Psycholinguistics.

PDF

Adriana Soto-Corominas, Johanne Paradis, Brian V. Rusk, Stefka Marinova-Todd, Xuan Zhang (2020). Oral language profiles of English second Language learners in adolescence: Cognitive and input factors influence how they compare to their monolingual peers. In SSLA.

PDF

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Presentations

Morphosyntactic Abilities of Early L2 Learners in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Convergence with Monolinguals and Role of Vocabulary Size

Jun 25, 2019 3:40 PM University of Alberta

Brian Rusk, Adriana Soto-Corominas, Johanne Paradis

Middle-School Language Immersion Learners’ Comprehension of Plural-Singular Marking: Acquisition across a Typologically Distinct Language Pairing [Poster]

Jun 1, 2019 10:30 AM University of British Columbia

Brian V. Rusk, Johanne Paradis, Juhani Järvikivi

Differences between ESL, EFL, and Monolinguals: A Developmental Retrospective Grammaticality Judgment Study

Oct 28, 2017 10:30 AM University of Alberta

Brian Rusk, Johanne Paradis

How Are They Now? Early Second Language Learners' Grammaticality Judgments in Adulthood

Sep 13, 2017 3:20 PM University of Alberta

Brian V. Rusk

From a Classifier Language to English: Do EFL Classrooms Benefit Acquisition of English Number Marking?

Feb 2, 2017 10:50 AM University of Alberta

Brian V. Rusk

English second language children’s acquisition of complex sentences: The role of age, input and cognitive factors

Jun 1, 2016 1:00 PM Oxford University

Johanne Paradis, Brian Rusk, Tamara Sorenson Duncan, Krithika Govindarajan

Benefiting from EFL immersion: Are youth and native input sufficient conditions for target language convergence?

Feb 21, 2014 1:00 PM Kainan University

Brian V. Rusk

Teaching

Academic Courses at the University of Macau

Language and Linguistics, Education 7705
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Winter, 2025
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Second Language Learning Theories, Education 1006
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Fall, 2023; Fall, 2024
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Introduction to English Language Teaching, Education 1024
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Winter, 2024
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Teaching Reading & Writing, Education 2022
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Fall 2023
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Academic Courses at the University of Alberta

Psychology of Bilingualism, Psychology 405 X01
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Winter, 2022; Fall, 2020
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Development of Bilingualism, Psychology 423
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Fall, 2021
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Introduction to Linguistics, Linguistics 101
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Winter, 2020
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Syntax of English, Linguistics 204
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Winter 2019
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Child Language Acquisition, Linguistics 319
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Fall 2017; Spring 2019; Fall 2019
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Adult ESL Instruction

Stanley English - IELTS Instructor
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June 2022 - Present (Taichung, Taiwan)
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Da-Yeh University - English Dept. Lecturer

August 2021 - July 2022 (Changhua County, Taiwan)

EJ Canada College - ESL Instructor to university-aged adults
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2001 - 2003 (Vancouver, Canada)
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David’s English Center - EFL Instructor to working adults
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1999 - 2001 (Taipei, Taiwan)
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English Immersion Instruction

Beth’s Academy - Teacher for early elementary grades
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2003 - 2014 (Taipei, Taiwan)
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Workshop Instruction

Data/Software Carpentry Workshops for Git and R software - Assistant Instructor
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July, 2017 & Nov, 2017 (Edmonton, Canada)
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EPL Open Data Day Hackathon Introduction to R statistical software - Workshop Leader
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March, 2017 (Edmonton, Canada)
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