CURRENT PROJECTS

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GESTURE-ENHANCED COMMUNICATIVE TASK ON THE ACQUISITION OF JAPANESE VOCABULARY

Shiori Nakamura (M.A. student), Nagisa Shimizu (M.A. student), and I are investigating if the effectiveness of gestures can be still found when they are incorporated in a communicative task in a Japanese language classroom. 

TEACHING CHINESE TONES WITH PITCH GESTURES IN A LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Xiaoyu Liu (M.A. student) and I are replicating a study by Morett & Chang (2014) to find out if incorporating pitch-gesture in a daily Chinese classrooms help Chinese learners' perception and production of tones. 

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION THROUGH EDUCATIONAL AVATARS

Aaron Braver (Dept of English), Miranda Scolari (Dept of Psychology), and Tommy Dang (Dept of Computer Science) are investigating the effectiveness of using a computer avatar for teaching Japanese and Arabic pronunciation. We also measure learners' attention using an eye-tracker to find out the relationship between learners' attention and pronunciation development. 

DIRECTION OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK AND L2 DEVELOPMENT

Takehiro Iizuka (PhD student at University of Maryland)  and I are investigating how the direction of recasts (direct recipients vs. auditors) affects the L2 development. 

GESTURE AND JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION DEVELOPMENT

Takehiro Iizuka (PhD student at University of Maryland) and I are investigating whether or not the instructors' gestures help the development of Japanese pronunciation.