Two WWU faculty members co-author chapter in new linguistics textbook

Faculty from Western’s Department of Linguistics and Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures have coauthored a chapter in the new book "Linguistic Foundations for Second Language Teaching and Learning: Bridging the Disciplinary Divide,” from Cambridge University Press. 

The chapter, titled "Why Teach Linguistics to L2 Learners? Evidence from the Western Washington University Spanish Language Program” covers the collaborative work of Associate Professor of Linguistics Jordan Sandoval and Senior Instructor of Languages, Literature and Cultures Kirsten Drickey. Sandoval and Drickey, along with undergraduate students in linguistics and Spanish, have been exploring the effects of linguistically grounded pronunciation training on student learning outcomes, including student confidence, since 2018.

This chapter shares the effects of that multi-year project to integrate explicit pronunciation instruction into the curriculum of Drickey’s intermediate Spanish courses at Western. The pedagogical materials incorporate foundational linguistic principles, such as awareness of the expert unconscious knowledge of a speaker’s native language, an appreciation of the linguistic diversity present across cultures, and a scientific approach to creating and testing hypotheses about how a language works as part of L2 language learning. 

Sandoval, Drickey, and student collaborators in the Language Learning Research Group found effects in L2 learning beyond the scope of these specific topics: students made connections from pronunciation to other areas of the grammar; students used their expert native language knowledge to recognize patterns in the L2; students demonstrated increased appreciation for dialectical diversity, including heritage speaker productions; and students demonstrated greater comfort with using the L2 more frequently and in more contexts. The chapter closes with a discussion of the benefits to instructors as well as some recommendations for how to incorporate linguistic foundations in other language classes.

Learn more about the book online: Linguistic Foundations for Second Language Teaching and Learning: Bridging the Disciplinary Divide. You can also find a digital copy of the book here, with the first three chapters freely available through March 23. 

To learn more about Sandoval and Drickey’s research, reach out to them at Jordan.Sandoval@wwu.edu or Kirsten.Drickey@wwu.edu.