We study a broad range of fascinating phenomena related to language teaching, learning, and assessment. These include second language acquisition; language and identity; the role of communication in shaping how learners acquire, process and use languages; and the dynamics between various instructional contexts and emerging grammars, social language skills, and symbolic playful behaviors.

One of the main (and multi-layered) questions that we are grappling with is how adult learners acquire and use a second language and why not everyone is equally successful in this process, and what pedagogical interventions can help learners. In addition to this mainstream SLA inquiry, we draw on multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical perspectives to explore other important areas, such as foreign language education, language ideologies, and critical applied linguistics that regard the teaching of a foreign language as a historically situated sociocultural practice.

During their graduate careers, students interested in second-language research and pedagogy will have multiple opportunities to partake in various projects leading to conference presentations, publications or development of instructional materials and assessment instruments.

Research areas

• Adult second language acquisition
• Instructional feedback
• Second language and identity
• Second language pragmatic competence development
• Instruction in second language pragmatics
• Second language humor