ACTFL is pleased to announce the 2023 awardees of the ACTFL Research Priorities grants. Each project either initiates a new research study, supports or expands a study under way, or explores an emerging research area that is connected to one or more Research Priority areas. The studies were selected after a thorough review by an expert review panel. The selected studies will each receive a grant up to $3800 with $2500 payable upon acceptance and the remaining $1300 upon receipt of a final report and article submission to Foreign Language Annals (FLA).
“Research is essential to providing empirical backing to support effective teaching and learning practices. These outstanding projects will yield such research. We are grateful to the applicants and awardees for their enthusiastic proposals and to our Research and Assessment Committee and other reviewers for their thoughtful reviews.” stated Dr. Margaret (Meg) Malone, ACTFL Director of Assessment and Research.
The purpose of the ACTFL Research Priorities Project is to support empirical research on six priority areas that are currently critical to improving World Language education. Priority areas include Assessing Learning Outcomes in K-16 Settings, Equity and Access in Language Learning, Equity and Access in Language Teaching, Immersion/Dual Language and Heritage Programs, Intercultural Teaching and Learning, and K-16 Language Educator Development. The recipients, their institutions, and project titles follow. ACTFL looks forward to sharing the results of the research with our membership.
Research Priority: Assessing Learning Outcomes in K-16 Settings
Assessing Learning Outcomes in K-16 Settings
Miriam Akoto, Sam Houston State University, with Mimi Li, Texas A&M University-Commerce: Exploring collaborative assessment of digital multimodal composition in the foreign language learning context
Marie Mangold, University of Minnesota: The impact of pronunciation instruction on global constructs: The case of L2 Spanish
Equity and Access in Language Learning
Zhongfeng Tian, Rutgers University–Newark, with Wenyu Guo, University of South Florida: Fostering Multiracial Solidarity through Antiracist Translanguaging pedagogy: Integrating Asian American children’s literature in a Chinese immersion program
Erin Fell, Georgetown University: Reading (difficulties) in the elementary school classroom: L1 dyslexia interventions and L2 reading development
Miao Li, University of Houston, with De He, Utah State Board of Education: Specific reading difficulties in dual language Learners
Equity and Access in Language Teaching
Yeji Kim, University of Missouri: Asian American and migrant teachers’ translanguaging pedagogies and praxis for multilingual children in urban bilingual schools
Charlize Wang, with Francis Troyan, The Ohio State University: Culturally sustaining pedagogy in world language education: Challenges and opportunities
Immersion/Dual Language and Heritage Language Programs
Tracy Quan, University of Colorado Boulder: Creating a Spanish as a Heritage Language curriculum: A critical needs analysis at a predominantly white institution
Lini Ge Polin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with Li Yang, Kansas State University: Incorporation of guided self-assessment and OPI into a Chinese Heritage Language curriculum
Intercultural Teaching and Learning
Liling Huang, Boston University; University at Buffalo: Empowering Novice Chinese learners' transformative learning through Critical Virtual Exchange: A multimodal translanguaging approach
Hitoshi Nishizawa, University of Hawaii: Perceptual adaptation to foreign accents by second language learners
K-16 Language Educator Development
Julia Goetze, University of Wisconsin - Madison: Exploring teacher emotions and instructional behaviors in social justice-oriented foreign language (FL) classrooms
Mimi Li, Texas A&M University-Commerce: World language educators’ experience on using ChatGPT for teaching: A narrative inquiry