Other Projects
Applied Improvisation for Communication
The Applied Improvisation (AI) for Communication project is a collaboration of faculty and students in various departments (e.g., Applied Linguistics, Speech & Hearing, World Languages & Literatures). In partnership with Dr. Theresa Robbins Dudeck, we offer AI workshops and conduct systematic research to examine how AI training may promote students’ communication skills in academic, professional, clinical, and interpersonal communicative contexts. To learn more, contact Tetyana Sydorenko.
Civil Engineering Writing Project
The Civil Engineering Writing Project is a collaboration between applied linguists and civil engineers to study the writing of engineering practitioners and students, and to help students become better prepared for workplace writing. Students in our department work on the project doing grammatical and rhetorical analyses, writing computer programs for linguistic analysis, and developing teaching materials. Susan Conrad is the head of the project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and has included five universities. For more information, contact Susan Conrad.
Oregon State Bar Website Accessibility
The Oregon State Bar (OSB) is committed to increasing access to justice for all people in Oregon. The OSB website has a section "For the Public"; it includes information about legal resources, rights, etc. OSB members acknowledge that this section was written for attorneys and may not be comprehensible to non-attorneys. Applied Linguistics students are partnering with OSB to make this section accessible to non-attorneys including adults with low literacy or for whom English is an additional language. Contact Janet Cowal.
Documenting the Sherbro Language and Culture
Documenting the Sherbro Language and Culture project was a collaborative effort documenting the language and culture of the Sherbro people. Collaboration involved the Sherbro people but also host-country linguists and linguistics students from the national university. The emphasis was on training, developing local capacities, and continuing support for the language after the project's completion. The goals depended on local support, of course, and all revolved around the central goal of language documentation.
Carter Foundation Award
The Community ESL Project was initiated in 1995 to help non-English speaking adults in the community. Since then, our department's MA TESOL and TESL Certificate students have earned academic credit teaching ESL classes to adults around Portland. In Spring 2009, The Community ESL Project received a Carter Foundation Award for university and community based partnerships. Funds from the award were used to purchase picture dictionaries and other materials for classes.