West Nottingham Academy proudly congratulates alumna Dr. Laura Morett on receiving a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for the 2025-26 academic year. Morett, now an assistant professor in the University of Missouri’s Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, will be conducting groundbreaking research on language learning at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dr. Morett’s research focuses on the role of gestures in learning tonal second languages. She will collaborate with esteemed professors Tilbe Göksun and Aylin Küntay in early 2026, with hopes that this research will foster long-term academic partnerships between Mizzou and Koç University.
“I’ve never been to Turkey, so this will be a completely new experience,” Morett shared. “It’s exciting to expand my research and explore cultural differences in language learning.”
Her work in Turkey will specifically examine pitch gestures—hand movements that visually represent pitch variations in language. Her previous research revealed that English speakers process pitch in a vertical manner (high is up, low is down), whereas Turkish speakers conceptualize pitch horizontally (thin for high, thick for low). This new study will explore whether Turkish speakers learning Mandarin benefit more from horizontal pitch gestures.
“This project focuses on the impact of what I call pitch gestures,” Morett said. “My previous research has shown that seeing gestures that convey pitch contours helps English speakers learn Mandarin tones. The question now is, will Turkish speakers benefit more from gestures that align with their cultural metaphor of pitch?”
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, supports academic research and teaching abroad. Morett’s achievement highlights both her dedication and the power of persistence, as she secured this award after four attempts.
West Nottingham Academy is incredibly proud of Dr. Morett’s achievements and looks forward to the impact of her research in global linguistics.