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Biography
A Registered Speech-Language Therapist (MAHPC(SLT)00225), Dr. Soon Tat graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Speech Science from the National University of Malaysia. After dedicating five years to clinical practice as a speech-language therapist in a public hospital, he pursued a PhD in Psychology at the 乐播传媒 Malaysia, officially joining the faculty in 2024.
Expertise Summary
Dr. Soon Tat is a psycholinguist and speech-language therapist whose research bridges speech-language therapy, psycholinguistics, and child language development. His work primarily explores the cognitive and linguistic mechanisms of bilingual language processing, focusing on how bilingual individuals acquire, comprehend, and produce vocabulary across multiple languages.
Driven by a passion for language testing and validation, Dr. Lee develops evidence-informed assessment tools tailored for understudied language pairs, such as Malay-English and Mandarin-English. He is actively validating localised resources, including the LexMAL lexical test and the MLex language screening tool. A key recent initiative involves the creation of a digital Malay-Mandarin-English vocabulary checklist designed for the early identification of language delays in preschool-aged children.
Through rigorous language experiments, Dr. Lee investigates the relationships between different facets of linguistic knowledge. Ultimately, his research aims to deliver practical, impactful assessments that empower researchers and clinical practitioners to enhance language learning in multilingual contexts, particularly for individuals with learning difficulties. Furthermore, he is currently leading a 12-month operational benchmarking study evaluating local and international Autism support models.
Selected Publications
LEE, SOON TAT, VAN HEUVEN, WALTER J.B., PRICE, JESSICA M. and LEONG, CHRISTINE XIANG RU, 2023. LexMAL: A quick and reliable lexical test for Malay speakers Behavior research methods.
LEE, SOON TAT, VAN HEUVEN, WALTER J. B., PRICE, JESSICA M. and LEONG, CHRISTINE XIANG RU, 2023. Translation norms for Malay and English words: The effects of word class, semantic variability, lexical characteristics, and language proficiency on translation Behavior research methods. 55(7), 3585-3601
LIM, HUI WOAN and LEE, SOON TAT, 2017. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies. 17(2), 123-145