The Second Language Acquisition doctoral program is thriving! In this 2024-25 newsletter edition, we are excited to share the following highlights:
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Get to Know the First-Year Students
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Meet Eric Ho, SLA Graduating Student
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The 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium
Get to Know the First-Year Students
The Second Language Acquisition (SLA) program proudly welcomed five new doctoral students in the 2024–2025 academic year: Aruzhan Dauletkhan, Zhijie Wang, Greyson Xiao, Sun Young Choo, and Rima Hammo. As they conclude their first year, they share reflections on their transition into doctoral study, and their experiences in the program and in Madison.
Graduating in May 2025!
ERIC HO
In a reflective interview, graduating SLA doctoral candidate Eric Ho shares his research journey in the program and offers insights around intellectual curiosity, adaptability, and purpose-driven scholarship.
The 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium
The 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium was a great success! The two-day event, themed “Belonging in SLA: Locating the Researcher and the Researched in a Transdisciplinary Field,” featured a variety of well-prepared and compelling research presentations by graduate students from around the world.
Dr. Tasha Austin (SUNY Buffalo) delivered the keynote lecture on “Labor, Leisure, and Language: Towards World Languages for Black Linguistic Reparations,” while Dr. Chantelle Warner (University of Arizona) gave a plenary talk on “Principles for a Human-Centered Approach to Second Language/Culture Education.”
Attendees had the opportunity to engage with UW-Madison SLA alumni during two panel discussions. The first panel, “Belonging in an Interdisciplinary Field,” featured Drs. Michele Back (University of Connecticut), Isabelle Drewelow (The University of Alabama), and Colleen Hamilton (National Louis University), who shared their research and academic journey and experiences. The second panel, “Multiple Paths to Professionalization after the Ph.D.,” included Drs. Tim Cavnar (The University of Michigan), Hadis Ghaedi (University of North Carolina), Gordon West (WIDA – Wisconsin Center for Education Research), and Bingjie Zheng (Answerlab), who discussed various career paths after the SLA program.
The symposium was held in a hybrid format, featuring 25 presentations (22 paper presentations and 3 poster presentations) by 32 presenters (11 from UW-Madison and 21 from other institutions). Participants came from symposium partner institutions, the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, as well as other universities in and outside the U.S., including Carnegie Mellon University, Missouri State University, Utah State University, Michigan State University, Georgetown University, Middlebury College, University of Vermont, University of Wollongong (Australia), Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham (Argentina), Iran University of Science and Technology, University of Indonesia, and Kyung Hee University (South Korea).
For the first time, the Best Abstract Award was presented to recognize the quality, content, originality, significance to the field, and relevance to the symposium’s theme. The award was given to Jasmin Msuya from the University of Iowa.
The symposium was planned and organized by SLA doctoral students Martiniano Etchart, Natalia Petrova, and Rebecca Sawyer. Thank you for your hard work!
Testimonials
“This symposium was a great opportunity to connect with peers and professors who share the same research interests! I especially enjoyed Dr. Tasha Austin’s talk on her raciolinguistic genealogical research.”- Greyson
“The SLA Student Symposium was a great opportunity to connect with others interested in language learning and teaching, and to learn more about my peers’ research. It was also a great opportunity to receive feedback from both peers and faculty on my ongoing project, which is extremely valuable.” -Mathilde
“Thanks to Marto, Rebecca, and Natalia for doing a fantastic job of organizing the symposium.” -Toyin
“The SLA Student Symposium was impactful for me in many ways. First, it was inspiring to hear and learn from our alumni, both recent and more established, during the panels. Listening to them speak about their thriving endeavors ignited a spark within me and prompted me to begin mapping out my research and career cartography. The keynote speeches by Drs. Austin and Warner prompted reflections on rethinking the purpose of language education through a humanistic lens. Finally, the lineup of presentations was impressive and thought-provoking, sparking new ideas for extending research in SLA . Overall, it was a truly stimulating experience—kudos to the Symposium co-chairs!” -Ruth
