PAULA M. WINKE
I am a Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages at Michigan State University. I teach and advise students primarily in the the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program and the Master of Arts in TESOL Program. I am an affiliate with the Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching (MAFLT) Program. I am co-editor of the journal Language Testing, with Luke Harding (Lancaster University, UK).
My primary area of research is second and foreign language testing, though I research other issues in second language acquisition (SLA). As an applied linguist, I investigate language problems or issues (especially those tied to language assessment), and then I try to solve them, or at least I try to suggest ways in which they can be solved.
Right now I am investigating the background characteristics of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the state of Michigan who have been learning English the schools for six or more years. With my graduate research assistant Melody Wenyue Ma, and our colleague Xiaowan Zhang, I am using data from the Michigan Department of Education in Lansing to investigate theories related to how English language learners develop their English reading and language arts skills while maintaining their home language(s). We are actively pursuing funding for our research, and are publishing papers along the way.
Email me if you would like to learn more about studying and working at Michigan State University.