PAULA M. WINKE
I am an associate professor at Michigan State University and am part of the core faculty within the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program, the Master of Arts in TESOL Program, and the Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching (MAFLT) Program. I am also the immediate past President of the Midwest Association of Language Testers (MwALT). Starting in January, 2019, I will be the 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. Most of my work is collaborative in nature because the issues are big, and, well, it takes a team.
Right now I am investigating the English-language reading development by 3rd grade English Language Learners (ELLs) in the state of Michigan. With my graduate research assistants Xiaowan Zhang and Caitlin Cornell, I am using reading-test data from the Michigan Department of Education to investigate theories related to how English language learners develop their English reading and language arts skills. We are actively pursuing funding for our research, and are publishing papers along the way.
I am also working on grant-funded assessment projects (through the Language Proficiency Flagship and the National Security Education Program: see our website here) and a book on foreign and second-language placement testing. I am also a co-director (with Drs. Aline Godfroid and Susan Gass) of the Second Language Studies Eye-tracking lab, where we conduct amazingly fun and interesting research using a Tobii TX300 and an EyeLink 1000.
You will find me mostly in my office, writing. If I am not there, I might be outside running (my mental escape). There are some really nice, tree-lined paths along the Red Cedar River that runs through campus… Otherwise, I am out and about with my two daughters and my husband, doing things in East Lansing, Michigan!