It’s been a while since I posted on my blog, but today’s the day!

AAAL group photo, courtesy of Jakub Kasztalski (www.jakeski.com)

The (academic) year is again coming to an end and this semester has turned out to be quite busy but also exciting for a few different reasons. Firstly, I presented at two conferences: In March, you may have seen me at AAAL in Portland, OR (“Feel Like At Home”: How English is Shaping Poles’ Identities As Global Citizens and Non-Native Speakers) and in April at CSAS in Normal, IL (Soccer, Faith, and Patriotism: Polish Internet Memes as Social and Linguistic Commentary).

Secondly, this has been my second (and last) semester with a 0.75 TA appointment. Since I am teaching my second semester of ENGL 106i (First-Year Composition for International Students), this time I was able to develop my own syllabus, which has allowed me to incorporate some new assignments and workshops. You can check out a few sample PowerPoints and handouts on my fresh new Teaching tab! I also uploaded other materials from my ongoing work as a tutor at Purdue’s Oral English Proficiency Program and from my past introductory linguistics courses.

I really miss teaching linguistics, so for the past couple of months I have volunteered as a tutor to an undergraduate student in linguistics. It’s always such a blast (for me, at least) to talk to people about phonemes and allophones! The little linguist-teacher in me is also super excited about the fact that this summer I will be the instructor of an intense Maymester course at Purdue: LING 311 (Fundamentals of Phonology of Morphology). “Happy” only begins to describe my reaction when I was offered to teach the class!

Getting to some bigger news, I have just submitted my dissertation prospectus, which I will be defending on April 30 (cross your fingers!). Moreover, I can now officially announce that in a few months I will be a published author. My article, The Impact of English on Contemporary Poland is scheduled to appear in the next issue of the World Englishes journal, which makes me immensely proud, though still seems a little unreal. Keep an eye out for the paper and let me know what you think! Until then – cheers!

Edit: As of May 3, my article is published in the June issue of World Englishes and is available online!