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The Research Participation System (RPS) at 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏLinguistics provides students with direct exposure to linguistic research and phenomena. When you volunteer to participate in an RPS study, you get to see what the science of language entails first-hand. At the same time, you can earn credit towards participating LING courses. Credit can also be earned by attending research talks and conferences, listening to , or completing a .   

Prof. Margaret Grant on the purpose and benefits of RPS

How to earn RPS credits

Linguistics RPS credits can be accumulated in the following ways:

1. One RPS credit is awarded for every half-hour of research participation in a sanctioned research project through the RPS system in the Department of Linguistics. Participation is voluntary. You may participate in more than one research project, but you may not repeat research projects to multiply credits awarded. You can find a list of available sanctioned projects below. Please use the direct booking link or send an email to the contact person of the study to make an appointment.
   
2. One RPS credit is awarded for attending a 1-hour colloquium (i.e., research talk) from our department, external linguistics-related colloquia, or any session at a Linguistics conference offered this term. See the RPS event page for upcoming internal and external events. Additionally, many Linguistics conferences are free (do not pay for conferences) and offer virtual options for attendance. See, for example, the  conferences and events page. To claim your credit, please complete a half-page summary (single-spaced) of what you learned. This summary must include a) the title and date of the conference or colloquium (must be during this semester), b) the name of the speaker (and session if a conference), and c) a 300-word summary of the session contents – it is certainly okay not to understand everything – simply include what questions you have about the content in your summary. Send this in PDF format using this webform.
3. One RPS credit is awarded for listening to 1-hour's worth of one/more podcasts from . To claim your credit, please complete a half-page summary (single-spaced) for each hour of podcast time that you listened to. This summary must include a) the URL and duration of the podcast, b) the title and author of the podcast, and c) a minimum 300-word summary of its contents. Send this summary in PDF format using this webform.
   
4. One RPS credit is awarded for completing a 3-hour online sanctioned by Canada's official research agencies. Upon completion, you will be given a PDF of a certificate of completion with your name. Please note that the date of training completion must be during this semester (i.e., prior completions do not count). Send this PDF using this webform.  

Please note:

• Each set of points can be applied to ONE course only (no duplication of points)
• All points will be used during the current semester (no banking of points)
• Different instructors may have different ways of including RPS points in their overall grade assessment. Please see their course syllabus or research engagement policy below (Participating Courses).

Participation Deadline

The deadline to earn RPS credits for Spring 2026 is Friday, April 3, 2026 for in-person studies and Monday, April 6, 2006 (midnight, firm deadline) for online studies and study alternatives.

Participating Research Projects in Spring 2026

Note: Last update: 04/01. Ongoing updates are made throughout the term. New studies are added as they receive ethics approval, and removed once enough data has been collected.

Inquiries

Please contact lingrsch@sfu.ca.  

Note

It is the student's responsibility to keep track of RPS credits earned during the semester. If you are unsure which study you participated in, or can't remember which course you assigned the credit toward, search "RPS" in your email. Lab researchers track this information and provide it to Linguistics staff during the last week of classes.