Professor
Phone: (713) 743-2892
E-mail: fbunta@uh.edu
Office: Melcher Life Sciences M243A
Curriculum Vitae
Faculty Video

Education

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Bilingual Language Laboratory and the Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
• Ph.D., Speech and Hearing Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
• M.A., English Linguistics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
• B.Ed., Teaching English as a Second Language, Lajos Kossuth University (currently University of Debrecen), Debrecen, Hungary

Teaching

• Speech Science (COMD 3385)
• Phonetics (COMD 2338)

Research Interests

The core of Dr. Bunta's research is the study of bilingual and cross-linguistic phonological acquisition. There are multiple on-going projects that investigate various aspects of phonological acquisition and representation cross-linguistically and in bilingual speakers, ranging from the phonological patterns of Spanish-English bilingual children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants and their peers with normal hearing (funded by the NIH/NIDCD) to exploring factors related to the identification of reading and language disorders in Spanish-speaking English language learners (funded by the IES in collaboration with Drs. David Francis, Kristi Santi, and Raul Rojas).

For more information, view Dr. Bunta’s research page.

Research Grants

(past 5 years)

• 2026-2031 Epidemiology, etiology, and pathways to DLD: The role of late talking in linguistically and culturally representative children (P50DC022552, PIs: Elena Grigorenko & Jack Fletcher). NIH/NIDCD P50 Role: Co-Investigator. 
• 2023-2025 Cochlear Corporation, Health Disparities in Access to Quality Hearing, Speech and Language Care for Children with Sensorineural Hearing Loss Who Use Cochlear Implants, Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• 2020-2024   National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIH/NIDCD), 1R01DC017683, Image-Guided Cochlear Implant Programming: Pediatric Speech, Language, and Literacy, Role: Consultant 

Selected Publications

(for a full list of publications, see curriculum vitae)

• Kent, R. D., & Bunta, F. (2026). Acoustic methods for speech science. Plural.
• Hernandez, A. E., Nguyen*, M. V. H., & Bunta, F. (2026). Multilingualism and aging: Country-level patterns may not support individual-level causal claims. Brain and Language, 276, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2026.105735
• Machado*, S., Sweeney, A., Hernandez, A. E., & Bunta, F. (2024). The effects of home language use on Spanish speech measures in bilingual children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants and their peers with normal hearing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(11), 4518-4532. doi: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00128 
• Bunta, F., Fürész-Mayernik, M., Bóna, J., Navracsics, J., Bátyi, Sz., & Parapatics, A. (2024). Speech and language assessment of multilingual children in Hungary. In Elena Babatsouli (Ed.), Multilingual acquisition and learning: An ecosystemic view to diversity, Chapter 10 (pp. 272-294). John Benjamins.
  
• Bunta, F., & Castilla-Earls, A. P. (2022). Home language maintenance in bilingual children with cochlear implants and normal hearing. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 36(4-5), 436-455. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2021.1990412

* student co-author

Professional Activities

• Grant reviewer: European Research Council, National Science Foundation, ASHA (various funding mechanisms)
• Scientific meetings (last 5 years only): 2025 International Child Phonology Conference (organizing and review committee), International Symposium on Bilingualism (reviewer: 2023, 2025)  
• Mentor for ASHA MARC and PROGENY