Dr. Megumi Hamada
<b>Department: </b>English<br><b>Research Area: </b>English as a second language (ESL) reading and vocabulary learning, psycholinguistics.
Department: English
Research Focus: English as a second language (ESL) reading and vocabulary learning, psycholinguistics.
Potential Student Project(s):
The most likely project will be a human subject project. The student researcher will collect data from ESL learners (as participants) as they work on reading/vocabulary learning tasks and analyze the data. Here are some examples:
- Compare how ambiguous words are interpreted by ESL learners and native speakers
- Identify and categorize difficulties that beginning-level ESL learners face when they develop word recognition and spelling skills
- Analyze how ESL learners guess the meanings of unfamiliar words they encounter during reading
- Compare how ESL leaners from various native language backgrounds differ in their word choices to express concepts and meanings (e.g., how to express movement and motion)
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate:
The student scholar should have knowledge of a language other than English, although it is not necessary to be fluent in the other language. Preferably, students will have completed an introductory linguistics or similar course.
Mentoring Plan:
First, the student scholar and I will create a timeline that includes several scaffolding phases of the project. The student researcher will focus on completing one phase at a time and progress towards the end product, which will be a research paper and/or conference presentation. In addition to the 1-on-1 interaction, the student researcher will receive feedback via email in a timely manner, as well as emotional support from me in order to stay engaged and motivated. The 1-on-1 interaction and feedback will focus on helping the student researcher develop basic research skills, including critical reading, analytical skills, and academic writing.
Contact: 765-285-8408, RB 336