Linguistic Diversity and Awareness Project
In December, the Applied Linguistics department was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Provost’s ReImagine PSU initiative to raise awareness of language diversity and bias within the PSU community. The Linguistic Diversity and Discrimination Awareness project (LiDA) is an interdisciplinary project involving Applied Linguistics, the Intensive English Language Program (IELP), World Languages, English, and Speech and Hearing Sciences. The goal of the project is to find out more about linguistic diversity on campus, to develop a Linguistics Roadshow to raise awareness about language and linguistic diversity on campus, and to develop training materials for faculty, staff, and students to address issues of language bias. We are currently developing the materials needed for the survey and roadshow. During the spring quarter, we will survey the PSU community about the languages and language varieties, present the initial Linguistics Roadshow, and conduct interviews and panel discussions about language experiences on campus. Over the summer and in the fall, we will work to develop curricula for faculty and students to raise awareness of language bias and how that can affect student success. You can see the project in process on the LiDA website, developed by our undergraduate research assistant, AmandaLyn Wayland (also profiled in this newsletter). Stay tuned for more updates!
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Introducing our Undergraduate Research Assistant for the Linguistic Diversity and Awareness Project
AmandaLyn Wayland is working winter and spring quarter as the undergraduate research assistant for the Linguistic Diversity and Awareness Project (LiDA). AmandaLyn grew up in San Luis Obispo, CA and attended community college there. While at community college she took a cultural anthropology course and became hooked on linguistics when that course covered linguistics. She came to PSU because she liked the vibe in Portland and at Portland State.
AmandaLyn said she applied for the research assistant position because “I’ve always been interested in sociolinguistics and the opportunity to have an impact on my community was an opportunity I wanted to have.” As part of this project, she’s worked this quarter on building the website for the project and helping to develop a campus-wide survey and parts of the Linguistics Roadshow that will illustrate issues in language diversity and language bias.
The project has helped AmandaLyn “to reshape how I look at being a member of the PSU community and how broad that is. As a PSU student, we tend to operate within our own communities and not consider the wider community. As a linguist, it’s helped me to reconsider how my peers might look at these issues of linguistic diversity perhaps differently from how I do in my linguistics bubble.”
After she graduates in the spring, she’d “like to continue to contribute to the community and engaging in these ideas of language and linguistic diversity and communication in general and how it affects how we interact with each other.”
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MA TESOL student awarded the Linguistic Society of America's Committee on ethnic diversity in linguistics travel grant
MA TESOL student Benardo Relampagos was selected for the Linguistic Society of America’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics (CEDL) Travel Grant. The award allowed Relampagos hotel lodging, travel expenses, and registration to the Linguistic Society of America’s 6th Annual Meeting from Jan. 6-9, 2022, in Washington, DC.
I discovered the Linguistic Society of America’s (LSA) Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics (CEDL) through our department’s Listserv. I had always seen opportunities floating around on the Listserv but always assumed I was unqualified. Most of the time I didn’t even know where to start to become qualified for such opportunities. CEDL’s grant is designed to fund registration for participation in the annual LSA conference for people of the following backgrounds: African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Americans with an Asian and/or Pacific Islander. The CEDL grant felt like the perfect opportunity to get my foot in the door for the conference environment.
I applied back in October 2021 and in December 2021 I was pleased to learn that I received the CEDL grant for the 2022 LSA Conference in DC. The grant covered my airfare, hotel and other travel expenses. The trip itself helped me demystify the conference environment. Every morning down in the conference hall students presented their poster submissions. The poster event was a great opportunity to network and connect with other students with similar research interests. In the afternoon and evening, there were hybrid and online presentations with specific themes. One memorable presentation that I attended explored portable phonetics labs and best practices on field recording.
The conference gave me a lot of insight and inspiration from other students and researchers in the field. I encourage everyone to apply for opportunities that float around on the listserv, especially if they are relevant to your research interests. I am currently working on my thesis that will utilize discourse analysis frameworks to explore the language patterns of anti-Asian violence and racism against Asians in left- and right-wing I’m mainstream news media.
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MA TESOL alumni adventures
Two MA TESOL alums, Jeff Maggard and Stephanie Drynan have spent the better part of two decades each working to make a difference in the lives of their learners around the world. Neither Stephanie nor Jeff knew the other before a brief re-introduction last summer. Both are involved in instructional design and delivery and both are making a difference in the cultural lives of Qatari students and parents.
Jeff Maggard (MA TESOL 1999) has taught at two universities in Japan and two in the GCC. He is currently a Lecturer at Qatar University. Jeff’s long-term interest in culture, reading, and literacy led to his writing a UNESCO grant and running a cultural preservation project in Mongolia and Japan (2005-2006). In UAE, he continued this work which resulted in a co-authored book of Emirate folktales (The Story Mile, 2014) and two exhibitions at public parks in Abu Dhabi. Recently, he joined forces between his department and the National Museum of Qatar. Throughout 2022, the museum is exhibiting Qatar’s cultural history via English versions of myths, legends and folktales that were co-authored by students and faculty. This Youtube video highlights the Story Mile exhibition.
Stephanie Drynan (MA TESOL 1999), is a third culture kid with ties originally to Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile. After completing the MA TESOL at Portland State, Ms. Drynan added a second MA degree in Teaching from George Fox University with Bilingual and TESOL endorsements. Her goal was to work with students traditionally challenged by the boundaries of K-12 education. This led to a professional interest in supporting English language learners who are neurodiverse or have documented learning disabilities. Introducing education about neurodiverse students to both the staff and families was just one of her roles when she was tapped to be the Academic Administrator for a group of four multilingual elementary schools in Myanmar.
Stephanie returned to Monmouth, Oregon to re-skill and re-charge after her years in Myanmar (formerly Burma). She left rural Oregon to work for Qatar Foundation as the District EAL Coordinator, and most recently as the District Dual Language Coordinator. In her spare time, she maintains a website & blog at www.tlceal.com and will be presenting at the WIDA Conference in Kentucky in October of 2022. Her presentation title is “Adapting the WIDA MODEL to the International Context: One Story from the Middle East.” Participants will be invited to assess their assumptions about language and culture and investigate some of their own cultural biases.
David Roesler (MA TESOL 2020) is currently finishing an MS program in computational linguistics at the University of Washington. David recently published an article-length version of his 2020 PSU MA TESOL thesis in the September 2021 Journal of English for Academic Purposes.
Are you an alum with an update you'd like to share with the department? We'd love to hear it! Please email linginfo@pdx.edu or get in touch with a faculty member.
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Upcoming Virtual Undergraduate and TESL Certificate Information Sessions- Friday, April 15th 12-1 pm
- Thursday, May 1 12-1 pm
Email linginfo@pdx.edu to R.S.V.P. if you'd like to attend a session and we'll provide the Zoom address!
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2022/2023 MA TESOL Admissions
Applications to the program are open for the 2022/2023 academic year. While the priority deadline was February 1st, applications received beyond that date will be reviewed as space in the program allows.
Attend a virtual M.A. TESOL info session! RSVP here and we'll email you a link to the Zoom session on Friday, March 11th at 1 p.m.
Sessions are held monthly. To receive notifications of upcoming info sessions, email linginfo@pdx.edu.
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More department news
Read more news from the Applied Linguistics department here.
All department newsletters can be found archived on the department's website.
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Spring term course offerings
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