Professor Shawn Loewen has been appointed Interim Director of Second Language Studies, a program designed to provide students a firm foundation in the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), applied linguistics, and foreign language studies. This two-year appointment was effective September 25, 2017.

“I’m honored to take over the leadership of such a strong program with excellent students and outstanding faculty,” Loewen said. “I look forward to continuing this tradition of excellence and incorporating my own vision for the future.”

Loewen recently was promoted to Full Professor and has been a member of the Second Language Studies program since he first came to MSU in August 2006.

In addition to his sole-authored book Introduction to Instructed Second Language Acquisition (Routledge, 2015), he recently published An A-Z of Applied Linguistics Research Methods with Luke Plonsky (Palgrave, 2016) and co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition with Masatoshi Sato (Routledge, 2017). He has published numerous articles in leading second language acquisition journals including Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching and the TESOL Quarterly.

Loewen’s current research focus is on Instructed Second Language Acquisition, particularly in relation to classroom interaction. Past research focused on second language instructional practices, including visual input enhancement, corrective feedback, and task-based interaction. He also investigates how research methodology affects the understanding of Second Language Acquisition. In addition, he does innovative work in the area of instructional technology.

Loewen received his M.A. in Linguistics from Temple University and his Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.