Research

Sociolinguistics
My main areas of interest address questions about language as it relates to social and cultural factors.
Language shift
  • Issues, motivations, and results in heritage language communities
  • As a result of Verticalization
Historical sociolinguistics
  • Heritage language ego-documents
  • Forensic linguistics
  • Language & religion
Heritage languages
  • Permeability of the grammar in language contact
  • Linguistic landscapes
  • Verbal and grammatical aspect in contact
Language pedagogy
I have worked to improve my classroom practice through empirical studies on second language acquisition.
Proficiency
  • Acquisition of written and oral proficiency
  • Activities for targeting advanced levels of proficiency (ACTFL)
Culturally relevant pedagogy
  • Diversity through formal and symbolic curricula
  • Teaching with cultural realia 
This site contains letter and diary collections, so called ego-documents, in migrational contexts from a diachronic perspective. The ego-documents on this site are unique in that they were created in contested, multilingual spaces by heritage language community members...
"I heard say every time it rains, a new settlement springs up in Wisconsin." There are currently 46 Amish settlements in Wisconsin. The Amish number over 15,700 here, making the Badger State the fourth largest state of Amish residency...
The Groffdale Mennonites in Wisconsin number nearly 2,000 and first arrived from Pennsylvania in 1974. Since they are considerably smaller in population than the more visible Amish, the Old Order Mennonites' interactions with outsiders often goes unnoticed or is confused with the Amish...