LINGUISTIC MINORITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Jin Sook Lee

Research Areas and Interests -- Second language acquisition with a focus on ESL learners, foreign language education, bilingualism, heritage language maintenance and interlanguage pragmatics. My research focuses on understanding how societal, cultural, and psychological variables influence the way people learn second/foreign languages. i am also interested in the ways in which instructional settings shape language learning outcomes. The context of my research has mainly centered on ESL learners in the secondary and post-secondary level and foreign language learners of the less commonly taught languages including heritage language learners in the United States.

After completing my doctorate in Language Learning and Policy at Stanford University in 2000, I joined the faculty in the Department of Learning and Teaching in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University where I worked with pre-service and in-service ESL, foreign language and bilingual education teachers and researchers. Currently, I am working on three research projects. The first project examines heritage language maintenance efforts among second generation Korean-American children and the role of parental involvement and technology in the process. The second project focuses on understanding the social and academic trajectories of bilingual students in a 50/50 dual language immersion setting and the third project is a multiple case study that examines the personal, societal, and educational factors that lead to additive bilingualism. Through my research, I hope to work towards promoting an educational environment that values diversity and the learning and acceptance of many different languages and cultures.

See also: http://education.ucsb.edu/people/lee.html

Email: jslee@education.ucsb.edu