This course introduces undergraduate students to the linguistics research process. Course participants gain first-hand experience carrying out linguistics research and working as part of a research team with a mentor (who will be an advanced graduate student, a post-doctoral scholar, or a junior faculty member. As part of the course, students think critically about the research process, including topics like research ethics, how to develop a research question, what goes into designing a study or experiment, different ways of coding data, and analyzing results. The overall goal of this course is for students to become more familiar with the academic research process, gaining important skills necessary to carry out their own independent research projects in the future.

The experiences of each student in the course will differ based on the research project that they sign up to do. Research assignments may involve tasks such as data collection, data transcription, data coding and annotation, inter-rater reliability, data digitization, statistical analysis, theoretical analysis, and, occasionally, literature surveys. Students will have a choice of projects based on their interests and expertise.

Class meetings provide opportunities to discuss challenges and opportunities in the research process and discuss paths forward. In addition, class meetings will provide students with the opportunity to explore a set of linguistics subfields through class conversations with experts from different fields, as well as some background readings on the methods of research.

FALL 2024: Instructor & Facilitator
SPRING 2024: Teaching Assistant

This undergraduate-level course (required for Linguistics majors) introduces students to central questions, theories, debates, and research findings in the areas of second language learning and teaching. To explore these areas of interest, the following questions will serve as a guide for the course:

— What stages do children go through in acquiring a language?

— What does it mean to be ‘bilingual?’ Does an individual have to speak both languages equally well?

— How do individual differences such as age, intelligence, aptitude, and motivation affect second language learning?

— Is it possible to attain “native-like” proficiency in a language if someone starts learning it after childhood?

— How might language learning occur most effectively after childhood?

— How can input, interaction, and feedback affect second language development?

— Are there differences in how languages may best be learned across different contexts (e.g., naturalistic exposure vs. classroom instruction vs. study abroad)?

— What is the role of technology in second language learning and teaching?

— What are the cognitive benefits of knowing more than one language? Can knowing another language affect the way you think?

SPRING 2023: Lecturer
FALL 2022: Teaching Assistant

This course is suitable for students at various stages of graduate study and is designed to accommodate the research goals of novice and more experienced students. The course covers quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods linguistics research and will teach Ph.D. and master’s students how to…

— Identify research problems, areas and questions

— Critically examine how a range of research paradigms, including core constructs such as “data,” “bias,” “objectivity,” and how these have been variably taken up by researchers

— Prepare IRB applications and informed consent documents (and address IRB queries)

— Address ethical concerns involved in conducting research with human participants and critically interrogate how positionality shapes research design

— Generate meaningful questions as well as possible predictions and hypotheses to guide study design

— Decide on appropriate and feasible methods for answering research questions or addressing areas of research interest

— Understand the complexities and commitments of doing engaged community-based research and design-based and action research

— Choose, design, and/or adapt data collection techniques, and pilot-test them

— Define and operationalize variables, validity and reliability in quantitative research

— Understand the importance of credibility, transferability and dependability in qualitative and interpretive research, together with triangulation

— Collect, transcribe, describe, code, interpret and analyze data, including a variety of perspectives on transcription processes

— Trial/view trials of different data collection methods (including new elicitation and delivery devices like eye-trackers and ultrasound.

— Understand how mixed-methods/interpretive research works, layering different perspectives

— Use a variety of qual–quant tools for data coding and analysis (e.g., SuperLab, E-Prime, NVivo)

— Analyze and critique research designs in the published literature

FALL 2023: Teaching Assistant

This course is designed for Linguistics graduate students interested in complementing their research skills with good teaching practice. Good teaching is not a mystery but a learnable skill and a rewarding intellectual endeavor.

The course will meet three Tuesdays each month throughout the fall and spring semesters to explore topics in teaching and learning. Ph.D. students who have been awarded fellowships are required to take the Linguistics Teaching Practicum in their first year of study, in preparation for their TA/Instructor assignments. However, all PhD students are encouraged to enroll at some point in their course of study, to develop their pedagogical skills.

In addition to investigating best practices of well-known classroom strategies, such as developing lesson plans, lecturing, leading discussions, and designing group projects, we will discuss such questions as “What does learner-centered teaching in Linguistics look like?” and “How do learning styles affect the Linguistics classroom?”

We will also discuss collaborative learning, different kinds and uses of assessment, and the use of technology in the classroom. In the fall, participants will observe two linguistics classes (a graduate class, in which they may be enrolled, and an undergraduate class), and report on and discuss what they observe. Participants will also have a frank discussion with current and former graduate student TAs and Instructors about teaching in the Linguistics Department at Georgetown.

SPRING 2022: Teaching Assistant