Research Interests

ENGL-200D: Research in TESOL

This is a final draft of a literature review along with research questions that I had completed during my first semester as a graduate student. Having recently returned from Japan at the time, I was very interested in the motivation(s) of individuals who decide to study a second language or language other than English (LOTE). This led me down a path of reading close to 40+ scholarly articles concerning aspects of motivation, language learning motivation, past-current-future "selves", identity, instrumental vs. integrative motivation, self-determination theory, and motivational profiles of LOTE learners, etc. What I found was that while there has been much research conducted surrounding English language learning motivation, there is still much more to learn about LOTE learners' motivation patterns over time. There may be a difference in motive when learning an LOTE vs English. 

ENGL-210G: Second Language Acquisition

I conducted both survey and interview research among language learners in the Sacramento area. Modeled after a recent study by Teimouri (2018) who investigated differences between negative emotions such as Shame and Guilt experienced among L2 learners of English in Iran, I was curious to see how LOTE learners experience these negative emotions as well. What I found was that compared to Teimouri's (2018) study, LOTE learners' level of Shame (that is negative emotion toward yourself, whereas Guilt is negative emotion toward something you did or did not) was rated higher than English learners' reported levels. Both Teimouri's (2018) findings and my own were similar toward reported levels of Guilt, suggesting it may be felt similarly across learners regardless of the language they are learning. In contrast, Shame might be felt uniquely and differently by LOTE learners. In addition, I ran a test between groups of different languages of LOTE learners and found that there was not a significant difference between LOTE learners and the languages they study, suggesting that LOTE learning might truly be a separate experience than English language learning. Overall, I am still curious and interested in research surrounding LOTE learning, and I hope to investigate this more in the future. 

ENGL-410A: Writing Center Internship

Toward the end of my internship at the university writing center, I wrote a contribution to CSU Sacramento's Writing Center Handbook on the following topics --  (1) engaging students in writing center tutorials and (2) best practices for tutoring multilingual writers. Regarding the first contribution, posit that both the tutor and the tutee must be engaged in the session itself rather than simply participating. I go into detail sharing two stories about sessions that I had with two tutees. From an informed perspective, I advocate for the use of "tools" like notecards or index cards to model both reading and writing strategies for students no matter the assignment to act as a bridge for tutee engagement. As for the second contribution, after reading and completing an annotated bibliography of close to 20+ scholarly articles, I came to the conclusion that in order for tutors at writing centers to best serve multilingual or L2 students, they must be willing to "do more homework" than what is required with L1 English students. Based on research, I proposed that tutors might prepare for and meet communication breakdowns by being proactive in learning and understanding the academic discourse structures that multilingual students might be assumed to understand and navigate, and I propose that it is not too outlandish to become familiar with the linguistic structures of the language(s) of your multilingual tutees.