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Spotlights

  • The university's diverse academic community ,which supports interdisciplinary professionals, makes it an ideal environment for aspiring language teachers and researchers. For instance, I am getting my Graduate Minor in Game Design along with my MATESL degree, which allowed me to work on several projects on educational games development.
  • At the University of Illinois, I have had the pleasure of working with the experts in the field. I have had guidance at every step of the way from publishing my first article to navigating in the academic job market. The department has been supportive of my work, encouraging me to achieve more.
  • Studying linguistics at Illinois has helped me to grow immensely as a scholar. The department places a strong emphasis on research and the faculty works tirelessly to help students develop and hone their research skills.
  • I am working on several collaborative projects with faculty members and students at UIUC. I recently started a 5-year project funded by the Illinois State Board of Education, along with 4 other PIs at UIUC, to develop a training and certification program for qualified interpreters, to facilitate non-English speaking parents during individualized education program (IEP) meetings in the K-12...
  • I received an HRI (Humanities Research Institute) summer grant of $3,000 for my in-progress ethnography of a French dual immersion program in Urbana-Champaign. I will be tracking the language acquisition outcomes and motivation/investment to learn French among different students who speak French as a second or a heritage language. In summer 2023, I will be using the grant towards interpreter and...
  • We have an incredibly diverse department. I have taken many classes that are both associated with my research and outside of my direct research interests. In my opinion, this has made me a more well-rounded linguist, and strengthened my research skills in many ways.
  • Ionin, Tania & Montrul, Silvina. (2023). Second Language Acquisition: Introducing Intervention Research. Cambridge University Press Based on classic and cutting-edge research, this textbook shows how grammatical phenomena can best be taught to second language and bilingual learners. Bringing together second language research, linguistics, pedagogical grammar, and language...
  • The UIUC Linguistics department highly encourages collaborative work. Students are trained to be well-rounded linguists by collaborating with faculty members from other departments. In addition, the linguistics department well prepares students' career paths through high-quality classes, various funding opportunities, workshops, annual conferences, and networking opportunities with alumni.
  • The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics Edited by Silvina Montrul and Maria Polinsky University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign / University of Maryland With contributions by current and former faculty and graduate students: Abdulkafi Albirini, Elabbas Benmamoun, Melissa Bowles, Tania Ionin, Jill Jegerski, Hyun Sook Kan, Itxaso Rodríguez, James Yoon. Heritage languages...
  • The MATESL and ESL programs provide a professional working and learning environment, where faculty members, staff, and students are eager to collaborate towards personal and academic development. The ESL program stands out as one of the most organized, efficiently managed, and well-supported program I have been a part of during my time as an ESL instructor.  I