Contact Information
707 S. Mathews Ave. | MC-168
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Hours
Biography
I was born in Jeollabuk-do, South Korea and was adopted to the United States as an infant. I grew up in rural, northern Iowa and spent my high school and college years in Arizona. After graduating university, I returned to South Korea to live, work, and most notably, reunite with my first family. I became interested in linguistics as a result of my (re)-acculturation experiences with them.
Research Interests
Heritage language acquisition
Language documentation and preservation
Dialectology
Language pedagogy
Research Description
As an Adopted person, I am interested in the fate of first languages after trans-language adoption and onset of second language acquisition. Do these early language experiences remain permanently in the brain, or do we completely forget early acquired language before a certain age? Is it possible to forget your first language? Do these early language experiences confer an advantage upon (re)-learning?
There is almost certainly an intersection between language, socio-political status, and adoption. How do we create a language pedagogy that considers, authenticates, and respects the Adopted perspective in all the language varieties from which Adopted people originate?
Education
M.A. Applied Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Boston
M.A. International Relations, University of Arizona
B.A. Political Science, Arizona State University
Awards and Honors
Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship - Korean
Courses Taught
ESL 511
ESL 512
LING 225