@pdecosta

A composite image featuring four headshots of individuals side by side. From left to right: a man in a suit and tie with glasses, a man with shoulder-length wavy gray hair in a floral-patterned shirt, a woman with long brown hair wearing a white shirt and a blue sweater, and a woman with short brown hair wearing green-framed glasses and a gray coat. They are all smiling.

Applied Linguistics Scholars Among Top 2-Percent of Scientists Worldwide

March 14, 2025

Four professors from the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University are among the top 2% of scientists in the world, according to Stanford University’s latest World’s Top 2% Scientists list, which identifies scholars who are top-cited in their respective fields.

Faculty / Faculty / News

College Celebrates Accomplishments of 2023 Promoted Faculty

September 20, 2023

This year, 20 faculty members within the College of Arts & Letters have received promotions. The success of these individuals was celebrated during the 2023 Faculty and Staff Welcome Reception on Sept. 18 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The College has adopted an approach to promotion that empowers colleagues to Chart Their Pathway of Intellectual Leadership by identifying the stepping stones, milestones,…

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English / Linguistics / News / U.S. Impact

Doctoral Candidate Receives AAAL Graduate Student Award

March 14, 2023

J. Dylan Burton, a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies (SLS) Ph.D. program at Michigan State University, received a 2023 Graduate Student Award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Each year, this merit-based award recognizes 20 students from across the country based on the quality of a written proposal for a poster or a paper. Burton’s primary research interests center around…

Faculty / Faculty / News / Research / U.S. Impact

Second Language Studies Professor Recognized for Social Justice Work and Leadership

March 22, 2022

As an applied linguist with interests in language education, Peter De Costa is interested in how policy decisions impact language learning and teaching and is drawn to the identity, ideological, and emotional consequences of these decisions.

Faculty / News / Programs

Winke Named Co-Editor of ‘Language Testing’ Journal

September 25, 2018

Paula Winke, Associate Professor in the Second Language Studies Program, has been named Co-Editor of the journal Language Testing, effective January 1, 2019. This marks the fourth major editorship position to which faculty in MSU’s Second Language Studies Program recently have been named. “This is a true honor and a great responsibility for me within the field of foreign and second language assessment,”…

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Faculty / News / Publication

Two CAL Faculty Appointed Co-Editors for TESOL Quarterly

December 12, 2016

Professor Charlene Polio Two Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages faculty members have been appointed Co-editors for TESOL Quarterly (TQ), the academic journal for the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) International Association. Starting in 2017, Professor Charlene Polio and Assistant Professor Peter De Costa will become Associate Co-editors of TQ, and in 2018 they will…

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Faculty / News / Research / Student

Teachers Could Be Making Students’ Anxiety Worse

October 12, 2016

The anxiety that comes with feeling like an outsider in the classroom can hinder students’ learning and, ironically, teachers could be making it worse, according to a new study by a Michigan State University researcher. Scholarship students, first-generation college students, and minorities feel intense pressure to perform well – much of which is perpetuated by stereotypes that society, including teachers,…

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Faculty / News / Research / Staff

Language Teachers Facing a Confidence Conundrum

May 18, 2016

Foreign language teachers play a pivotal role in creating global citizens, but some teachers lack confidence in their ability to speak in their nonnative tongue, which could undermine the quality of language instruction, Michigan State University researchers argue. Peter De Costa, assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages, and Lorena Valmori, a recent Ph.D.…

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Award / Faculty / News / Staff

De Costa Presented with Emerging Scholar Award

April 15, 2016

Peter De Costa, assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics, Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages, has earned the 2016 Emerging Scholar Award of the Language and Social Processes Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The Emerging Scholar Award recognizes outstanding scholarship among doctoral students and recent graduates. De Costa earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Second Language Acquisition…