This workshop is for current SLAT major and minor students to learn about the dissertation proposal process and explore strategies for preparing and drafting a successful proposal. Some of the topics to be discussed are:

• Narrowing focus
• Finding and describing your niche
• Designing your study
• Building a writing and research support system

This workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Beatrice Dupuy. Contact GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu if you're interested in attending.

Dissertation Title: Bringing Digital Games Into the L2 Classroom: Avatars, eSports and Pedagogical Implications

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Jon Reinhardt (Chair), Dr. Liudmila Klimanova, Dr. Carmen King-Ramirez, Dr. Shannon Sauro (Special Committee Member - University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

Location: If you would like to attend this defense, please contact Lincoln (lincolnbainiv@arizona.edu) to receive the Zoom link.

Abstract: This dissertation investigates how pedagogical implications are constructed, represented, and applied within Digital Game-Based Language Learning and Teaching (DGBLLT), with a particular focus on vernacular video games and game-adjacent digital environments. While digital games are increasingly present across both formal and informal learning spaces, much research continues to emphasize motivation and vocabulary outcomes while offering limited guidance on how findings translate into practice. This gap is apparent in studies that highlight learner engagement yet overlook broader affordances such as identity development, instructional mediation, and translanguaging in digitally networked contexts. To address these challenges, this manuscript-based dissertation comprises three interrelated empirical studies, each of which examines a distinct but connected dimension of how games and gameful environments can support second language (L2) learning through a pedagogically meaningful lens. 

The first study presents a systematic review of 100 empirical studies published between 2020 and 2024. Using a grounded theory approach, it develops a 12-criteria framework for evaluating pedagogical implications in terms of clarity, relevance, and classroom applicability. The review reveals that although pedagogical implications are frequently mentioned, few are elaborated with sufficient detail to be actionable, and even fewer provide interpretive scaffolding that instructors can adapt to their own contexts. The second study shifts to an applied classroom perspective by investigating how L2 learners construct digital identities through avatar creation and gameplay in the MMORPG Lost Ark. Drawing on theories of L2 identity, multimodal composing, and social semiotics, it shows how learners embody aspects of their L2 selves through character design, customization, and narrative participation. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge–Play Curricular Activity Reflection Discussion (TPACK-PCaRD) framework is applied to generate pedagogical strategies for adapting avatar-based gameplay into identity-focused language instruction. The third study explores language learning in the digital wilds by analyzing professional Spanish-language Twitch.TV streams of League of Legends. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, it identifies teaching, cognitive, and social presences in interactive streaming environments. It demonstrates how streamers function as informal L2 facilitators through multimodal interaction, code-switching, and community building. The Bridging Activities framework is then applied to propose ways educators can adapt these vernacular practices into classroom use.

Taken together, the three studies provide a more comprehensive and pedagogically grounded understanding of DGBLLT. They highlight the importance of interpretability, teacher mediation, and context-sensitive adaptation when integrating games and game-related practices into L2 teaching. Ultimately, this dissertation proposes a research-informed framework that is practice-oriented, bridging theory and application, offering educators and researchers clearer pathways for implementing digital games as meaningful tools for language instruction.

Panelists: Dr. Emily A. Hellmich (UC Berkeley), Dr. Maggie Berti (Italian Matters), Dr. Marédil León Cedeño (University of Houston)

Moderator: Nena Choi, 2nd-year SLAT Student

Panelist Bios

Emily A. Hellmich, Ph.D., is Associate Director of the Berkeley Language Center. Her research focuses on the impacts of digital technologies on language education, with particular interest in how language learners use (and don't use) digital technologies to support their language learning. Her current research project, in conjunction with Dr. Kimberly Vinall, looks to translate research and theory on AI into resources for language classrooms.

Dr. Margherita Berti is the founder of Italian Matters, an online Italian Language and Culture School dedicated to helping students speak Italian with confidence. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona and combines research-based methods with practical, real-world teaching. Through courses, podcasts, and resources, Margherita has helped thousands of learners worldwide connect with the Italian language and culture.

Dr. Marédil León Cedeño is a teacher educator with over 13 years of teaching experience, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Bilingual/ESL Education Program at the University of Houston . She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. She specializes in qualitative research methods and her research interests include: language teacher identities, social justice in education, educational technology, instructional/curriculum design, and language policies and ideologies.

Panelists: Dr. Shelley Staples (University of Arizona), Dr. Bruna Sommer Farias (Michigan State University), Dr. Aleksey Novikov (Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center), Dr. Mariana Centanin Bertho (Yale University)

Moderator: Sara Matsumura (SLAT 2nd year student)

This webinar is proudly co-sponsored by the SLAT Program and the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL).

Panelist Bios

Dr. Shelley Staples is a Professor of English/Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at University of Arizona. Her research focuses on corpus-based analysis and corpus-informed instruction using learner corpora. Her work can be found in journals such as Applied Linguistics, English for Specific Purposes Journal, International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, Journal of Second Language Writing, Modern Language Journal, and TESOL Quarterly. She is the PI of the Multilingual Corpus of Assignments: Writing and Speech (MACAWS): http://macaws.corporaproject.org. She is also the PI of the Corpus and Repository of Writing (Crow): http://crow.corporaproject.org.

Dr. Bruna Sommer-Farias is an Assistant Professor of World Language Teaching at Michigan State University. She holds a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. She teaches graduate-level classes for world language teachers with focus on language concepts, teaching methods, biliteracy and interculturality. Involved in the Portuguese MACAWS project since its inception, she currently uses MACAWS materials to teach teachers about data-driven learning and teaching with learner corpora.

Dr. Aleks Novikov is an Educational Measurement Specialist in the Language Testing Directorate at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, with over 10 years of experience teaching Russian as a foreign language. He holds a PhD in SLAT from the University of Arizona. His background spans language instruction, corpus linguistics, data analysis, AI, and assessment.

Dr. Mariana Centanin Bertho is a Lector of Portuguese at Yale University. She completed her Ph.D. in SLAT in 2024, with a dissertation on the phonological acquisition of Portuguese by English-Spanish bilinguals, using learner corpus data. Since 2019, she has been part of the MACAWS team, working on both written and spoken corpus development as well as pedagogical applications of corpora, including the creation of teaching materials and resources.

First-year students will have the chance to meet with the SLAT Graduate Advisor and the Major/Minor Area Chairs, along with the SLAT Program Coordinator, to learn about how to transfer courses from their Masters programs to the SLAT PhD program. 

Presenters: Dr. Ana Carvalho (SLAT Chair), Dr. Chris Tardy (SLAT Graduate Advisor), Dr. Liudmila Klimanova (Sociocultural Dimensions Area Chair), Dr. Robert Henderson (Linguistic Dimensions Area Chair), Dr. Miquel Simonet (Cognitive Dimensions Area Chair), Dr. Mahmoud Azaz (Instructional Dimensions Area Chair), Dr. Jill Castek (TSLT Area Chair), Dr. Suzanne Panferov Reese (LPA Area Chair), Debbie Shon Buhler (SLAT Senior Program Coordinator)

Colloquium Title: "How Do We Get There from Here!?! Our Professional Yellow Brick Road"

Colloquium Abstract: This presentation addresses several issues regarding PreK - 12 language education practices, beginning with "Who we are, who we are not, and why." From the perspective of a teacher who began his career in 1965, I describe teacher identities and serious practices with irony, old-teacher humor, and doubt - just as Ortega y Gasset wrote over a century ago. I also intertwine the characteristics of student achievement and inclusion by emphasizing "out of textbook" experiences through two strategies paramount to meaningful student language usage, information gap activities and thematic units. In doing so, I consider some of the complexities one faces as a teacher intern or an in-service educator - these in an attempt to challenge the notion that textbook sequentiality is obligatory. The presentation integrates "big picture details" with traditional aspects of language teacher development with my desire to offer a multi-hour seminar in a short  period of time.

Speaker Bio

A Charter Member of ACTFL, Dr. Paul A. García is its first (and so far only) Latinx President (2000). He grew up in a New York immigrant family, speaking Spanish and Italian. He began his teaching career in Long Island, NY before enrolling in the doctoral program at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Paul's professional journey includes faculty positions in Ohio and Kansas before moving to Kansas City, Missouri. He taught German and Spanish at his beloved Southwest High School, and then served as the first supervisor of languages for the school district. In that capacity, he was responsible for creating, staffing, and developing the curriculum for 8 immersion K-8 language schools, serving 4,000 students.

Paul then joined the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Education, teaching courses in language teaching methods (WL and ESL), and authoring and directing a major professional development grant for Topeka's ELL teachers. After moving to Florida, he was invited by the University of South Florida to be the interim director of the doctoral program in second language acquisition and instructional technology at the College of Education.

Paul is a mentor/editor to former students and continues to write research articles and to give presentations at ACTFL's annual convention. His latest publication on DEI-related curriculum appeared in June 2025 in the Routledge Handbook of World Language Instruction. During his career, he has presented over 150 workshops and seminars on topics such as immersion program implementation, curriculum development, and classroom methods. He has served as the President of the Foreign Language Association of Missouri, a Board Member of ACTFL, and numerous professional committees, including ACTFL's DEI Committee and AATG's Safe Spaces Committee. 

Contact GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu with any questions.

Literature reviews are one of the most challenging genres in academic writing. SLAT will hold a workshop on Writing a Literature Review, facilitated by Dr. Chris Tardy, to explore goals, common conventions, and variations in the genre. There will be discussion and practice strategies for planning and composing a literature review.

The workshop will take place on Friday, Feb. 20th, 2026 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, in person. The building and room number will be posted here a week before the workshop.

Join SLAT and the English Applied Linguistics (EAL) program for a co-sponsored colloquium, given by Dr. Lourdes Ortega (Georgetown University). Contact GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu with any questions.

Colloquium Title: Equity and Well-being as Goals and Frames for SLA Research

Colloquium Abstract: What societal, broad-impact goals can we choose to give meaning to second language acquisition (SLA) research? Despite the disaffection for ethics, power, and ideologies that has traditionally predominated the field (Ortega, 2005), I have argued for a social justice lens in SLA as a response to multilinguals’ varied experiences across elite and marginalized contexts of learning (Ortega, 2019). Particular since the global pandemic crisis, I have turned to the potential of a decolonial lens to help sharpen social justice orientations from less neoliberal and more critical perspectives (Ortega, forthcoming; Zheng et al., 2025). Equity is the North Star that guides both approaches. However, public hostility against equity and diversity as human values is gravely threatening the work of educators and researchers of languages and multilinguals. Well-being is a concept that has been widely investigated (and measured quantitatively as well as qualitatively) in psychology (Disabato et al., 2025), and it has entered SLA with the burgeoning of positive psychology (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014). In this talk, I examine the potential of well-being as a way to frame, or reframe, equity when investigating multilingual learning in our present times, noting affinities and dissonances with the social justice and decolonial frames. My purpose is to reflect on the barriers and possibilities that await SLA scholars who wish to embrace equity as a goal for their research and consider whether to choose and invest in social justice, decoloniality, or well-being as tools to increase the relevance of our research. 

Speaker Bio

Lourdes Ortega (she/ella) is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. Her main area of research is in second language acquisition. She is best known for her award-winning meta-analysis of second language instruction in 2000, her best-seller textbook Understanding Second Language Acquisition (2009, translated into Mandarin in 2016), and for championing a bilingual turn in SLA. She co-edited, with Annick De Houwer, The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Lourdes is the General Editor of Language Learning. She was President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) in 2023-2024. She is the 2026 recipient of the AAAL Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award.