Research Statement
As an applied linguist with a strong professional interest in international education, my research has focused on studies of language and social context, second language acquisition and technology, and educational contexts for language learning. I outline current and past research that I have conducted below. As I also note, my current and future research interests include the effects of mobile-technology-mediated language experiences on second language acquisition and on the effects of social context (“overseas” vs. “transnational” settings) on learners’ language acquisition, ethnic identity, and adjustment to a multilingual setting.
Language and social context
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Language and identity formation
In my dissertation (Comparative Education, University of California, Los Angeles), language and identity formation. Working with Sociolinguist Otto Santa Ana A. (Chicana/o Studies, UCLA) and Don Nakanishi (Comparative Education/Director, Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Center), I analyzed narratives collected from Vietnamese Chinese youth in Los Angeles. These youth were recent immigrants living in the Western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles, which was undergoing rapid transformation from Asian immigration (especially from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Southeast Asia). In particular, I analyzed participants’ perceptions toward language maintenance and/or language shift, social status, and ethnic identity, relying in part on Broeder’s and Extra’s (1999) concept of ethnic identity in multilingual societies. The study identified three general patterns related to dialect/language background, family residence patterns, and educational experiences. The study provided members of a previous invisible community a voice and provided insights into their pattern of social accommodation in a complex, shifting social context.
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Linguistic networks
As a component of my dissertation research, I developed a linguistic diversity survey tool for identifying patterns of language use in a complex multilingual environment. The survey tool, a sociolinguistic survey, followed insights from language planning perspectives (Kaplan & Baldauf; Cooper), and analyses of large-scale sociolinguistic surveys in Australia and the United Kingdom (Nicholas; Martin-Smith) by highlighting “low status” languages and languages labeled as “dialects,” avoiding measures of English proficiency, and seeking to identify functional domains where various languages would be used. The survey was administered to more than 500 community college students, approximately 70% of whom were ethnically Chinese but varying in terms of nationality, residence, and length of time in the U.S. The study provided significant information regarding the range of Chinese languages spoken in a variety of contexts and provided a foundation for identifying participants in subsequent interviews and other studies.
Technology-mediated second language acquisition
- Language learning and technology / Language acquisition
Currently, I am working with a team of researchers engaged in two parallel studies from data that we are collecting in the U.S. and in China. These studies involve pragmatic development, specifically relating to request strategies, through implicit learning involving syntactically reduced and unreduced forms, and the effect of a particular mobile learning platform on learner question development in English.
Language in educational contexts
- Testing & assessment
With assistance from the Office for Institutional Effectiveness at Pasadena City College, I conducted a correlational analysis of proficiency test scores for new international students at the college with students’ placement test scores on the ACCUPLACER-LOEP (ETS) examination used to place students in an appropriate English as a Second Language class. I used European Common Framework for Reference to Language as an additional framework for establishing content validity. The study found that a weighted combination of subtest scores from the written and spoken subtests of the Internet-based TOEFL test correlated significantly with students’ placement test scores, and that subtest scores from the spoken and written subtests of the IELTS examination had a less-reliable, borderline correlation. The results have assisted the college in providing appropriate services and advisement to international students prior to their arrival on campus. (Link: Pasadena City College International Student TOEFL/IELTS ESL Placement Test (ACCUPLCER-LOEP) Study)
- Assessing class learning outcomes
As the coordinator for the English as a Second Language program at Pasadena City College, I coordinated the faculty assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) for approximately 100 class sections. In analyzing the results of SLO assessments, I identified trends and gaps in student success in the program. These analyses fed into faculty discussions of student learning and subsequent professional development. (Link: Pasadena City College ESL Program Annual Assessment Report, 2013-2014 )
Future research
My current research on mobile technology and language acquisition is significant for language learners in both China and the United States. I, along with my research team have planned several future studies on technology-mediated implicit language learning and on the effects of reduced linguistic forms on language acquisition (including studies of syntax and pragmatics). Such studies are critical since mobile language learning technologies increasingly impact classroom-based language learning on various levels.
In addition, my research on the social context of language learners and language learning, as well as my strong interest in international education, have provoked my interest in comparing language learning and language identity formation between students in a secondary or post-secondary educational institution outside of their country of longest residence (“overseas” students) with students in transnational educational (TNE) settings – E.g., in a branch campus of a foreign university located in the students’ home country. Future studies might also include students whose post-secondary education begins in a TNE setting and continues at an overseas campus.