My name is Magda Tigchelaar, and I am a PhD Candidate in the Second Language Studies Program at Michigan State University (MSU). Before coming to MSU, I completed my BA and MA in French Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada, where I taught French as a second language. I have taught English as a second language abroad with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in South Korea and with the Teaching Assistant Program in France. My background and experiences as a language learner and language teacher dovetailed into a motivation to discover how to make language classrooms more effective. 

Since joining the Second Language Studies PhD Program at MSU I have explored diverse areas of research, including proficiency testing, self-assessment, and second language writing. I am currently an assistant editor to MSU Professors Drs. Susan Gass and Bill VanPatten, the co-editors of Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SSLA). I read and evaluate SSLA manuscripts under their direction, and this work has been formative and fulfilling. My current research (and the focus of my dissertation) centers on language learners’ use of self-assessment materials for evaluating their own language proficiency. Within the dissertation, I also report on the development of language proficiency standards.