The Second Language Acquisition doctoral program is thriving! In this 2025 newsletter edition, we are excited to share the following highlights:
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Get to Know the First-Year Scholar Sprouts
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Meet Eric Ho
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The 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Graduate Student Symposium
Get to Know the First-Year Scholar Sprouts
The Second Language Acquisition (SLA) program proudly welcomed five new doctoral students, each bringing unique interests and expertise to the cohort and the program.
Graduating in May 2025!
ERIC HO
In a reflective interview, graduating SLA doctoral student Eric Ho shares his research journey in the program and offers insights into intellectual curiosity, adaptability, and purpose-driven scholarship.
The 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Symposium
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 Olanipekun
“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 Adeniyi
SLA Students Research
The SLA doctoral students at UW-Madison are conducting research and actively engaging in various scholarly communities by presenting their research and expertise at different conferences, symposiums, and workshops within and outside the university community. they contributed to major national and international conferences, including the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), among others.
Adeniyi, R.O., Randolph, L.J., Schwartz, T. (2025, April). Rethinking Language Program Promotion: A Critical Discourse Analysis of University Website Descriptions. AERA. (Denver. CO).
Adeniyi, R.O., Randolph, L.J., Schwartz, T. (2025, March). Language education for whom and what purposes?: Critical discourse analysis of university language program promotions. AAAL (Denver. CO).
Adeniyi, R.O., Olaosebikan, F. (2024, November). Beyond France: Decolonizing the French Language Curriculum. ACTFL. (Philadelphia. PA)
Adeniyi, R.O., Randolph, L.J., Schwartz, T. (2024, October). Pedagogies of Joy in the Language Classroom. Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers (WAFLT) Conference. (Appleton, WI).
Adeniyi, R.O., Olaosebikan, F. (2024, October). Non-France-centric Authentic Materials: Tools for Linguistic Diversity. Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers (WAFLT) Conference. (Appleton, WI).
Adeniyi, R.O., Olaosebikan, F. (2024, February). Hors de France’s Cultural Products & Practices to Foster Global Citizenship, Intercultural Competence Conference (ICC). (Tucson, AZ).
Emre Bozart (2025, March). Heritage and non-heritage parents’ language ideologies and parental engagement: insights from a Turkish community school. AAAL (Denver, CO).
Emre Bozart (2025, April). Navigating Ideologies and Discourses: Parents’ Enrollment Choices in a Turkish Community-Based Heritage Language School. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Etchart, Martiniano. (2025). Thinking About Well-Being: A Conversation Among Language Teachers. Department of Spanish & Portuguese, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Murphy, Dianna, Driver, Meagan, Etchart, Martiniano, Goetze, Julia (2025, March) Campus-Based Initiatives to Challenge Monolingual and Monodialectal Ideologies in U.S. Higher Education. AAAL (Denver, CO).
Etchart, Martiniano and Hernando, Andrea (2025, March). Behind the Scenes of Graduate Study: Realities and Dilemmas of Conducting Research as Graduate Students — Special Session: Open Access Book Launch and Networking/Discussion Session, conveners Carlo Cinaglia & Matthew Coss. AAAL (Denver, CO).
Etchart, Martiniano (2025, March). Do institutional roles shape emotional experiences? Exploring student and instructor appraisals of foreign language anxiety. AAAL (Denver, CO) — Winner of the AAAL 2025 Graduate Student Award Wilga Rivers
Etchart, Martiniano (2025). Social positioning as a source of foreign language anxiety: The case of international teaching assistants. 17th Graduate Portuguese and Hispanic Symposium (GRAPSHY), Georgetown University (Washington D.C.).
Etchart, Martiniano (2025). ¿Quién le pone el cascabel al gato? A conversation about emotions in the (language) classroom. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Departamento de Lenguas, Cátedra de Lingüística General, Universidad Católica Argentina (Buenos Aires, Argentina) [virtual]
Tom Purnell, Martiniano Etchart, L.J. Randolph Jr., and Brenda Yang (2024). Linguistic Variation and Empowerment at UW-Madison. Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement, Center for Educational Opportunity, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Haberkorn, P. (2025, April). Into the unkown?! L2 instructors’ (emotional) experiences teaching students with disabilities. 7th Second-Language Learning and Disabilities Conference, Online Conference hosted by Boston University and Tufts University.
Schueller, J., Bernstein, M., Haberkorn, P., & Larson-Guenette, J. (2024, November). Fostering learner empathy through different modalities. ACTFL (Philadelphia, PA).
Haberkorn Patricia. Sinti and Romani (2024, November). Bringing a national minority’s voices and experiences into the German classroom. Wisconsin Association for Teachers of Foreign Languages Conference (Appleton, WI).
Haberkorn Patricia. (2024). Moving away from the mis- and underrepresentation of people with disabilities in German curricula: Wochenendrebellen – A pedagogical unit. 24th Annual German and Dutch Graduate Student Association Conference, UW-Madison. (Madison, WI).
Lidia Gault (2025, April). Making Research Matter: Social Science Research-Informed Pedagogical Applications for the Russian-Language Classroom (Roundtable) American Council Teachers of Russian (ACTR). (Virtual)
Lidia Gault (2025, February). 101: Basics of prompt for language learning (workshop presenter). American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL). (Virtual).
Lidia Gault, Dianna Murphy, Shannon Quinn, Gulnara Glowacki, Aselle Almuratova, and Karen Evans-Romaine. (2025, February). Russian Advanced Interactive Listening Series 2.0: Focus on Kazakh History and Culture. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL). (Virtual).
Lidia Gault (2024 November). Social media for developing authentic listening comprehension skills. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Convention, (Philadelphia, PA).
Olga Parshina, Nina Ladinskaya, Irina Sekerina, and Lidia Gault (2024, June). Predictive language processing in Russian Heritage Speakers: Task effects on morphosyntactic prediction. Fifteenth Heritage Language Research Institute. (Irvine, CA).
Mathilde Garnier (2025, April). All we need is confidence: Exploring L2 teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching and assessing L2 writing. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Mathilde Garnier (2025, February). Understanding emotional well-being in the teaching of writing. Center for Teaching and Research on Writing. UW-Madison. (Madison, WI).
Nevin Dumaz (2025, April). Schooling experiences and shame: A case study of a linguistically and ethnically minoritized individual in Turkey. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Oluwatoyin Olanipekun (2025, April). Navigating Academic Identities and Disabilities: Graduate Students’ Writing. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Oluwatoyin Olanipekun (2025, April). Extending Literacy Narratives: B-Sides in Kinship. Panel presentation at the CCCC (Baltimore, Maryland).
Oluwatoyin Olanipekun (2025, February). Address Terms as a Site of Identity Negotiation: Insights from an African Graduate Student. Africa Through Language and Area Studies (ATLAS), University of Maryland. (College Park, Maryland).
Rebecca Sawyer and Sam Aguirre (2024). Beyond the 5Cs: Using a new framework for Spanish heritage instruction. A workshop at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Convention (Philadelphia, PA).
Sun Young Cho (2025, April). Comparing the Effectiveness of AI and Teacher Feedback on Korean Particle Errors in Writing. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Therese Jasperson (2025, April). Preserving Identity Through Language. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Therese Jasperson (2025, April). Extending Literacy Narratives: B-Sides in Kinship, the Unconscious, and Alternative Temporalities. CCCC (Baltimore, Maryland).
Therese Jasperson (2025, March). Reading the Discourses of Oppression and Resistance Through the Lens of Relationality in Hmong and French Narratives. AAAL (Denver, CO).
Lilian Abunga (2025, April). Utilizing AI to Enhance Swahili Speaking Proficiency among Beginner-Level Students in the U.S.: A Pilot Study. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Xiao, G. (2025, April). Translanguaging silence and humor: Registering, resisting, and reconstructing identities in a U.S. EMI classroom. Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium, UW-Madison (Madison, WI).
Xiao, G., & Wang, H. (2025, March). From majority to minority: Raciolinguistic socialization of Chinese students in U.S. higher education. Individual Paper presented at the AAAL. (Denver, CO).
Zhijie Wang (2025, March). Unfolding the complexity of foreign language enjoyment: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis versus multiple regression analysis. AAAL (Denver, CO).