We stand with the students, faculty, and community members being affected by the proposed sweeping cuts to the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at West Virginia University, which is at risk of being eliminated as a cost saving measure. We believe this will unfairly affect underrepresented language communities and WVU students’ ability to prepare for a globalized world. WVU states that is it committed to “local, state and global engagement.” The proposed cuts go against this. Language and culture education is key to cross-cultural communication and understanding on a global scale. We urge WVU to reconsider their proposed cuts. Only then can it be a university that leads in global engagement. Sign a petition if you agree here.

Welcome to Second Language Studies Ph.D Program at MSU

Second Language Studies is an interdisciplinary Doctoral Degree Program in the Applied Linguistics Program within the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures in the College of Arts & Letters. Along with the SLS Ph.D. Program, the TESOL Program is also within the Applied Linguistics Program. The TESOL Program offers a Minor and a MA. The SLS Ph.D. Degree Program is for researchers and teacher-researchers interested in second language acquisition (SLA) and applied linguistics, and how those fields intersect with bilingualism, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, educational linguistics, pragmatics, and language assessment. If you have questions or want to join the SLS Ph.D. Program, contact us! Paula Winke, SLS Program Director winke@msu.edu

Core Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Students

Alumni

Events

Visiting Scholars

Fulbright Scholar

Our faculty committee reviews select Visiting Scholar applications from the Fulbright Program.

Faculty Invite

We invite visitors to work on specific projects with SLS faculty. These scholars come through arrangements with individual SLS faculty members, and are officially hosted by the member’s home unit (LiLaC, RCS, or the ELC).

International Visitors

Come join us for an entire year! Be a “Visiting International Professional” through the Second Language Studies Specialized Global Professional Educational Program.

Visiting Scholars

Fullbright Scholar

Our faculty committee reviews select visiting scholar applications from the Fulbright program.

Faculty Invite

We invite visitors to work on specific projects or to share their research. These scholars come through individual arrangements with faculty.

Unsolicited Applications

Faculty welcomes unsolicited applications through the SLS Ambassador Visiting Scholar (AVS) Program

SLS Weekly Digest

The SLS Weekly Digest is an email regarding job postings, conference information, calls for papers and publications.

MSU's "Working Papers in SLS" Journal

“Working Papers in SLS” is an online, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the broad fields of second language studies, second language acquisition, applied linguistics, TESOL, and their related disciplines. Visit the journal to learn more.

featured News

Joanne Koh Awarded Dissertation Support Award from Mango

Joanne Koh has won a highly competitive and prestigious dissertation support award from Mango, which is a company that provides online language learning support and platforms. In addition to obtaining support from Mango for her work, her dissertation work has also been included as an honorable mention from the TIRF. Joanne’s dissertation investigates how adult Korean learners of English watch English language TV shows on Netflix. She is interested in how the learners use captions when they watch, as well as their motivations for turning captions on or leaving them off while viewing. By tracking learners’ viewing habits and patterns, along with their learning of new vocabulary, Joanne can see the benefits of extended viewing at home.

Matt Coss Leads Instruction

MSU was recently awarded a second round of funding for a STARTALK professional development program for Chinese language teachers in the United States. Second Language Studies PhD student Matt Coss is the Lead Instructor for this program. In his capacity as Lead Instructor for MSU’s STARTALK program, he has developed (along with other program team members) a series of 120 hours of synchronous and asynchronous online and face-to-face professional learning experiences for in-service Chinese language teachers from all over the United States.

Philip Montgomery’s research examines how collaborative critical reflection about linguistic diversity can shape institutional policies and practice

Philip Montgomery has been in Michigan State University’s Second Language Studies (SLS) program since August 2020. Before then, he had ten years of teaching and administrative experience. He holds a BA in Spanish Language and Culture from the College of Wooster, and he first taught as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan. There, he taught […]