Ryan, Siekmann, Marlow

A qualitative multiple case study investigation into the motivations, attitudes, and practices of two families successfully raising bilingual children. Activity Systems Analysis is used to investigate the importance of present action as it relates to the past (e.g., ties to family, place) and the future (e.g., children’s choice and agency).

Marlow, Whitehead Martelle, Webster

A qualitative investigation into the efficacy of graduate course work in addressing a deficit orientation to the identification of speakers of Alaskan Regional Englishes. Throughout the course, teachers engaged in linguistic analysis through collaborative discovery learning projects on Alaska Regional Englishes (ARE) with the explicit goals of identifying (a) the linguistic principle that all dialects (including ARE) are equally valid, rule-governed and expressive, (b) the harmful effects of the commonly expressed belief that students have neither language and (c) the privileged nature of Standardized American English (SAE) in school-based curriculum.

Siekmann, Whitehead Martelle, Ryan

A naturalistic classroom study examining the PACE model (Adair-Hauck & Donato, 2002), a guided, story-based approach to the inductive teaching of grammatical forms, in the context of beginning and intermediate online foreign language classrooms. This study is investigating a) the instructors’ instructional decision-making processes, b) the interactional patterns emerging during different phases of implementing the PACE model, and c) the students’ language learning outcomes.

Whitehead Martelle

A small-scale exploratory, qualitative study investigating the relationship between students’ motivation and the online synchronous language learning environment of a first-year elementary Russian class. This study explores the affordances and challenges of learning beginning Russian online, and considers the motivations and tensions that arise during and as a result of the online language learning process. 

Whitehead Martelle

A qualitative study exploring the relationship between a student’s individual language learning characteristics and the online language learning environment. While studying L2 Korean in a synchronous online setting, the student reflected on the learning opportunities afforded by the online platform, and shared how he maintained his motivation and managed his anxiety throughout the learning process.  

National Science Foundation grant to PI Gary Holton 

Documenting indigenous place names and consolidating previous place name research.

Project Website