CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES! |
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| We awarded 10 Bachelor of Arts in Applied Linguistics, 8 Certificates in Teaching English as a Second Language, and 14 Master of Arts in TESOL. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
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| As we wrap up our spring term and move into summer, I'd like to highlight some of things that
have been going on in the department, over and above educating students in the field:
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We came out of the provost's Program Review and Reduction Process (which threatened the department with closure) with plans for a new joint degree with Computer Science in Computational Linguistics and assurances that our programs will remain at PSU;
- We're engaging in talks with World Languages and Literatures about how our two departments can collaborate more closely;
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We welcomed Kathy Harris in a new role, as the Practicum supervisor for both the MA
and TESL certificate programs;
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Jenny Mittelstaedt and Janet Cowal were both promoted into the new Teaching Professor ranks, which provides room for further promotion and a recognition of their important role in the department;
- Seven faculty and 8 current/former students presented at the American Association of
Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference in Portland in March; -
Kim Brown hosted a Tea with Distinguished TESOLers at the TESOL international
conference (and presented a paper with alum Rosadene David); - Our First Friday tradition of meeting for pizza and conversation has been successfully
revived at a new location, Pizza Jerk on the Urban Plaza after Hot Lips Pizza closed; - Over 2,200 members of the campus community completed a survey on linguistic
diversity and attitudes toward languages/language varieties for the Linguistic Diversity
and Discrimination Awareness (LiDA) Project; - The LiDA project has interviewed over 30 people about their language experiences on
campus; - We celebrated the 35th anniversary of the founding of our department with a great party!
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We raised over $40,000 for the Nattinger Scholarship fund.
- Thanks to everyone in our community for your support and continued interest in our program. Enjoy the sunshine and blue skies!
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Applied Linguistics 35th Birthday Party |
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The department celebrated its 35th birthday on May 20th with a party! We greeted four former department chairs, along with numerous alums and former colleagues. In honor of our anniversary, we set a goal of raising $35,000 for the James R. Nattinger Scholarship Fund. Thanks to numerous generous donors, we exceeded that goal – raising just over $40,000!
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MA TESOL Graduate Student: Ariel Wilsey-Gopp
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| I was grateful to be a part of a project spearheaded by Dan Lehman, Visiting Scholar with PSU’s International Affairs who has done extensive work in Somalia around minority issues, and Kim Brown, Professor of Linguistics.
The project was central to minority languages, linguistic discrimination, and language rights. The project culminated in a study, a research article (not yet published), and a research/operational report to be used for Clear Global’s public education and for use in-the-field by NGO organizations.
If we could summarize the primary key finding from the study, it would be that Somalia’s single Mahaa language policy continues to discriminate against and marginalize Maay, Banadiri, and other language speaking Somalis, which in turn leads to prevention of food and other humanitarian aid getting to target populations.
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The study was based on interviews with a small group of key informants both in Somalia and in the United States who spoke to language policy, language knowledge, and interaction with people in IDP camps or NGO groups.
In order to participate in the process, I completed research certifications via the CITI Program as I worked on developing the literature review and preliminary informant questions. Ultimately, I worked on developing the research questions, conducting interviews, and editing process. The research article was then synthesized down into a research/operational report that was for use directly with Clear Global. As a graduate student, my experience with this project will lead to a greater focus on applied linguistics and related work on other endangered language projects.
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2023-2024 James R. Nattinger Scholarship Recipient
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Congratulations to MA TESOL student Ariel Wilsey-Gopp, recipient of the 2022/2023 James R. Nattinger Scholarship. Check the Fall 2023 newsletter for more about Ariel's background and interests.
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Upcoming Information sessions
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Interested in attending an Undergraduate/TESL Certificate/MA TESOL information session? If so, RSVP on our department website.
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