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CASLS employs and supports many current Language Teaching Specialization (LTS) graduate students.

Kathryn Carpenter, graduating this month, has worked at CASLS as a Graduate Teaching Fellow during her time at LTS, and served as materials developer and researcher. Her focus during her time in LTS was on the individual learner, motivation and engagement, the use of differentiated instruction and functional language learning, and she therefore developed the Individual Motivating Factors motivational framework in her capstone project with Julie Sykes as her advisor.

Becky Lawrence also worked at CASLS as an intern and assessment rater. While an intern, Becky worked on Ecopod and developed her own narrative-based mobile game for language learners using ARIS software. She is now working on her capstone project developing a gamified course design of a creative writing EFL class where students work collaboratively to create narrative-based games playable on mobile devices using ARIS. The goal is to help learners strengthen linguistic competence while expressing themselves in way that they are unable to do in academic writing, and to develop learners’ pragmatic skills and support autonomy and creativity. Becky will graduate next fall, and CASLS looks forward to working with her in her last year.

Christopher Daradics, also graduating this month, has worked as an intern and Graduate Teaching Fellow during his time at LTS, and will now move into a full-time position. The LTS program allowed him to explore the embodied nature of meaning and the ecology of language; specifically, the role and interconnectedness of space, place, time, emotions, and relationships on perception and understanding of the world. For his capstone project, he developed an iterative, paper-based curriculum that creates scaffolded opportunities for language gains, interpersonal relationship development, and metacognitive and existential growth through SLA. His time in LTS influenced his research interests and integrative approach to language learning, and also enhanced his visual and experience design skills, and he is excited to bring this experience to CASLS.

Other CASLS graduate students include Ava Swanson and Anna Torkkola, assessment raters and August graduates.