Educators of future teachers cannot change the way the human brain is hard-wired, but Stam says these subconscious elements need further exploration. “We don’t know from a teaching perspective that it definitely helps someone learn the language,” Stam said. “The question is, do future teachers of a language have better intuition about what to do or not to do, and will this study show whether they do or do not?” This adaptation of language is not uncommon. In addition to foreigner talk, Stam cites a language adjustment called “mother aids” as a comparison. When interacting with small children, adults tend to speak more loudly and slower in a natural attempt to make speech understandable for youngsters. The effectiveness of foreigner talk, mother aids and teacher gestures has not been thoroughly explored in research. Stam and Tellier’s experiment will play a significant role in uncovering effective teacher traits. As their research continues, the two will be examining video of teachers before their formal education and after, searching for changes in gestures. Their results will provide some of the first guidelines on how teacher candidates should be trained in the use of gestures and their impact on learners. Stam hopes to expand her research to the U.S., examining ESL teachers interacting with native and non-native English speakers.
Year Class Reunion
ELLEN BELLUOMINI, CAS, LINDA KRYZAK, NCE, adjunct professors, and TOM BERGMANN, Vice President for Human Resources, were featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s March issue. “Adjunct Orientations Take Hold, With a Variety of Approaches,” explores how orientation programs for adjuncts and part-timers are becoming more common at universities. LAUREN HEIDBRINK, Ph.D., and DIANE NITITHAM-TUNNEY, Ph.D., presented on an inter-disciplinary panel at the American Ethnological Society’s Conference on the Anthropologies of Conflict in a New Millennium. Heidbrink presented a paper entitled “Collisions of Debt and Interest: Guatemalan Maya Youth Negotiations of (In) debted Migration.” Nititham-Tunney presented a paper entitled “Liminality, Migration and Immigration Policy: An Irish Case Study.” GALE STAM, Ph.D., presented a poster titled “Do L1 and L2 Thinking for Speaking Change?” at the American Association of Applied Linguistics 2013 Conference in March. The poster presented results from her longitudinal study that examines how an L2 learner’s thinking for speaking about motion changes linguistically and gesturally in both her L1 (Spanish) and L2 (English) over time.
CAS Alumni in the News On May 16th the National Louis University Alumni Association hosted the 50-Year Class Reunion at the Evanston History Center. The event featured a historical presentation from Linda Tafel, Ed.D. and speeches from several NCE alumni. If you’re interested in planning a reunion for your graduating class or cohort, contact Kimberly Michaelson at kimberly.michaelson@nl.edu. 7
CAITLIN DEJONG, Ed.S. in School Psychology ’09 and M.Ed. in Educational Psychology ’09, was recently recognized with an Early Career Spotlight through the National Association of School Psychologists.