LANGUAGE LEARNING IN

MULTILINGUAL COUPLES

“LOVE LANGUAGES”💕📲

Multilingual romantic partnerships offer unique opportunities to explore intercultural communication, identity development, second language (L2) investment, and language use. Despite the undeniable role of digital communication in many romantic relationships, texting within multilingual romantic partnerships remains underexplored.

My mixed-methods study investigates how 20 multilingual couples (aged 22–41, together for at least six months) leverage technological features and semiotic resources afforded by one-on-one text messaging to invest in learning their partner’s language(s) .

FOLLOW MY DISSERTATION RESEARCH

tiktok Kris Cook tiktok Kris Cook

Language learning through “FALLING” (🍁🍂🍃) in love: Kicking off the fall semester with “love languaging” insights—and TikTok! 📲

If you are here, you have probably heard the saying that “the easiest way to learn a language is to fall (🍁🍂🍃) in love” with a native speaker… right? 👀 Well, while it might sound romantic, the reality of language learning and language choice for many multilingual and intercultural couples is far more complex.

Read More
Kris Cook Kris Cook

✅ #AAAL2024

Thank you to all who attended and brought such great and curious energy, who offered thoughtful feedback and thought-provoking questions, who shared personal anecdotes and insights (and laughter), and all those who enjoyed analyzing various memes and text messages with me in the context of multilingual, intercultural, and romantic communication! 😂👏 Absolutely an inspiring and productive weekend—looking forward to next year! 🤞

Read More
Featured Posts
Presenting at CALICO 2025!
Presenting at CALICO 2025!

MEMES, EMOJIS, CHATGPT, & TEXT EDITING—oh my! I'm thrilled to announce that my paper presentation has been accepted for the CALICO 2025 Conference in San Diego, CA! 🎉

Read More →
Presenting at AAAL 2025!
Presenting at AAAL 2025!

I'm thrilled to announce that my paper presentation has been accepted for the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2025 Conference in Denver, CO, as part of the Invited Colloquium, "Investment in language learning and teaching: The negotiation of identity, capital, and ideology," organized by Conveners Professor Ron Darvin and Professor Bonny Norton! 🎉

Read More →
Embracing Open Science: Transparency and collaboration in linguistics research and the "Love Languages" Study
Embracing Open Science: Transparency and collaboration in linguistics research and the "Love Languages" Study

My co-authored chapter, “Open Science and Research Materials,” has just been published in the new book, Open Science in Applied Linguistics, edited by Luke Plonsky. Today, in honor of the release of our chapter, here are two examples of my open science practices in my current research...

Read More →
Language learning through “FALLING” (🍁🍂🍃) in love: Kicking off the fall semester with “love languaging” insights—and TikTok! 📲
Language learning through “FALLING” (🍁🍂🍃) in love: Kicking off the fall semester with “love languaging” insights—and TikTok! 📲

If you are here, you have probably heard the saying that “the easiest way to learn a language is to fall (🍁🍂🍃) in love” with a native speaker… right? 👀 Well, while it might sound romantic, the reality of language learning and language choice for many multilingual and intercultural couples is far more complex.

Read More →