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.

Department Member Since 2022