Natalie Amgott
Associate Director of Online Language Learning
Department of Modern Languages
Carnegie Mellon University
341 Posner Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Education: PhD, Second Language Acquisition & Teaching, University of Arizona (2022); MA French & Francophone Linguistics, University of Florida; BA French & Francophone Studies and Chinese, University of Florida
Bio
My interdisciplinary work centers the iterative theory-practice loop of language program evaluation, research, curriculum design, and language teaching. Specifically, my research focuses on how higher education can redesign language curricula to engage students through multimodal and multiliteracies learning – or engaging with images, sounds, texts, and audio made for and by users of a language. In my publications, I have explored how study abroad students in France traverse language, culture, and identity through vlogs and blogs. I have additionally sought to understand how stakeholders experience the implementation of a French multiliteracies curriculum. My work further focuses on how language students leverage embodied modes like gestures and facial expressions when communicating in a second language via video. These research projects have direct applications to instructional design, teaching, and professional development of instructors.
As Associate Director of Online Language Learning, I participate in the evaluation and improvement of pre-existing course offerings as part of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI). I also help to develop new online language courses. By conducting research to understand user (i.e., student and teacher) experiences with the OLI language courses, I aim to triangulate quantitative and qualitative data to optimize user experience for language learning with OLI materials.
As an educator for French courses and Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition courses in the department, it is my goal to cultivate critical thinking and digital literacies that a) help language learners to communicate in diverse contexts, and b) support graduate students in developing applied linguistics research.
Areas of Interest
- Multiliteracies and multimodality
- French & Francophone studies
- Language program evaluation
- Technology-enhanced language teaching
- Second language pedagogies
Selected Awards and Honors
- Mango Dissertation Award for research on technology and language learning (2021)
- Andrew C. Comrie Graduate Fellowship for interdisciplinary dissertation research (2021-2022)
- Excellence in Service Award (Department of French & Italian, University of Arizona) (2019)
- Excellence in Teaching French Award (Department of French & Italian, University of Arizona) (2018)
Selected Community, University, and Professional Service
- Facilitator for virtual community “Table Francophone”
- Ici RDI: Radio Canada Recurring Francophone Panelist for Television on American Election Coverage (2020)
Selected Publications
- Amgott, N. (2021). “Donde su visión se hace realidad”: Landscaping the linguistics of Orlando’s plazas. In P. Gubitosi & M. Ramos (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-Speaking World (pp. 342-364). John Benjamins.
- Amgott, N. (2020). L2 multimodal composing abroad: Remixing languages, cultures, and identities. L2 Journal, 12(3), 1-22..
- Amgott, N. (2018). Critical Literacy in #DigitalActivism: Collaborative Choice and Action. International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 35(5), 329-341.
- Smith, B. E., Amgott, N. & Malova, I. (2021). “It made me think in a different way”: Multilingual adolescents’ perspectives on multimodal composing in an English Language Arts classroom. TESOL Quarterly.
- Pacheco, M. B., Smith, B. E., Deig, A., & Amgott, N. (2021). Scaffolding multimodalcomposition with emergent bilingual students: A systematic review of research. Journal of Literacy Research, 53(2), 149-173.