I have always been interested in language, society, and identity. Prior to entering the MA TESOL program, I studied French, sociology and gender studies. I developed my love for language learning in my French classes and became interested in media representations of different social groups in sociology and gender studies. I started taking linguistics classes for my French degree and was immediately fascinated. Once I took sociolinguistics I realized that linguistics was the perfect discipline to allow me to explore all of my interests simultaneously. I entered the program hoping to both develop my language teaching skills and hone my research abilities. 

Language and media representation remain my biggest interests and the skills I’ve gained in the MA TESOL program have opened up exciting new avenues for investigating them. My thesis will focus on analyzing gender representation in popular media using a corpus linguistics approach. Corpus linguistics is a powerful tool for studying linguistic variation, as it allows researchers to analyze much larger collections of text than they otherwise could by hand and to discover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. I plan to examine differences in male and female language on a popular television series, including whether the gender of the script writer has an effect on the language the characters use. Popular media both reflects and influences societal attitudes, so investigations such as this can reveal a great deal about social views on gender.

I believe that popular media can also be relevant to language teaching. One area of language pedagogy that could benefit from the inclusion of popular media is pragmatics instruction. I would like to explore the possibility of using television to help language learners develop pragmatic competence. One of the challenges for learners is that they often do not have access to the kind of input they need to develop pragmatic competence because they do not encounter the situations they will encounter in real life in the classroom. Incorporating television and other media can expose learners to more varied social situations in the target language and also provides an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills by asking learners to analyze the representations they see depicted on screen. 

I am tremendously grateful to be this year’s recipient of the Nattinger Scholarship. The award will allow me to focus entirely on my studies and have the amazing opportunity to improve my research skills under the guidance of a faculty member. This experience will be invaluable in my future as an educator and researcher. 

Forty people enjoyed food, music, a photo booth, free drinks, and, especially, the camaraderie of former classmates in the department's suite! Be sure to stay in touch with the department if you'd like to attend next year's party! Email linginfo@pdx.edu to be added to the invite list. 

Portland State University Applied Linguistics graduates Laurene Christensen, Ph.D. (MA 2002) and James Mitchell (MA 2018) were co-writers of a recent competitive assessment grant from the U.S. Department of Education ($3,998,938). The grant was awarded to the Minnesota Department of Education in collaboration with WIDA, a 41-state English language proficiency assessment consortium housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Texas Education Agency. The grant will be used to revise the Alternate ACCESS, an English language proficiency assessment for English learners who have the most significant cognitive disabilities. Laurene Christensen will serve as the co-principal investigator and project director. James Mitchell will be an assistant researcher on the project.

You may contact Laurene Christensen (laurene.christensen@wisc.edu) and James Mitchell (mitchell27@wisc.edu) if you have questions about the project.

 About WIDA: The WIDA Consortium is made up of 41 U.S. states, territories and federal agencies dedicated to the research, design, and implementation of a high-quality, culturally and linguistically appropriate system to support English language learners in K-12 contexts. This comprehensive system, based on research and educator feedback, is built on standards, assessments and professional learning. WIDA’s assessments include the WIDA Screener (for English learner identification), ACCESS for ELLs (a K-12 annual summative assessment), and Alternate ACCESS (an annual summative assessment for English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities).