Student Researcher Highlight: Alex Emmert

What secrets are hidden in a toddler's babbling? That's one of the things Alex Emmert, a senior undergraduate student double-majoring in Linguistics and Computer Science, is trying to find out in the university's Language Acquisition Lab. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alex to discuss their research and experiences working on this project. Currently, Alex is tackling two fascinating research questions: first, exploring if children as young as 21-31 months old have an understanding of “wh-words” like "who" and "what"; and second, analyzing the subtle ways children learn to use modal words like "can," "might," and "must."

Alex began their research journey at Salisbury University through a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer program before joining the Language Acquisition Lab. As of Spring 2026, they have worked in the lab for 5 semesters! They also completed two additional summer research programs: one at Harvard in the psychology department, studying the language inputs of children with cochlear implants, and, most recently, our own on-campus Student-Proposed Innovation & Research Experience (SPIRE) program.

In our conversations, Alex emphasized the value of meeting fellow researchers on campus, noting that networking with peers and professors is one of their top pieces of advice for incoming undergraduates seeking lab work. Looking back at their UMD experience, Alex shared that they picked up linguistics on a whim and accidentally discovered a passion for the subject.

“Right before I started my first semester (at UMD), I was like, you know, linguistics seems kind of interesting. Maybe I'll pick that up. When you're an undergrad, you want to explore. But then it never stopped getting more interesting. And so I just sort of stuck with that.”

While research can be fun and exciting, it isn’t always easy. Alex explained to me the resilience needed to complete a project when your data isn’t turning out the way you had hoped. 

“When you're doing research, it can be really hard sometimes. You know? You try stuff, and you don't get the results that you were hoping for, right? That's just science, and I think it's really important to sort of stick with it, and not get discouraged.”

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked if they had ever felt like quitting a project. (I know I have.) We joked about our struggles with code that didn't work right and poor documentation. But they told me the hardest part was going through the whole process and proving yourself wrong. 

“When you have collected all your data, you've run your analysis, and you don't find the result you're looking for, that's the worst. And I think in that case, it's especially important not to be discouraged - because that's good science, right? There's this awful bias of needing to find positive results to get published or to have your research seen as valuable. But I think everybody at least recognizes that that's not the right way, or the best way to be doing it. Even if you end up with a null result, that's still a great research experience. And at the end of the day, you still learned something, right? You learned that your hypothesis was incorrect, and that's just as important as the alternative.”

Alex is graduating this May 2026 and will be attending graduate school to continue their studies in Linguistics research. Ultimately, Alex's story serves as a powerful reminder for current and future undergraduates. The path to discovery is rarely linear, and sometimes, the most valuable lessons are learned when you make a mistake. For students exploring their options, consider the following from Alex’s experiences: stick with what sparks your interest, embrace setbacks as part of the process, and remember that even "no result" is a meaningful finding. You may end up applying to graduate schools to research topics that you decide to “pick up” in your first semester!