After receiving my Ph.D. in German with a concentration in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Analysis at Georgetown University, I taught German at the State Department and at George Mason University where I also worked as the Program Coordinator. In that capacity I was responsible for revising the two-year requirement sequence and introducing a new program abroad in Berlin. In August 2008, I joined the Georgetown German Department where I currently hold the position of Curriculum Coordinator.

My research interests lie in the area of second language acquisition, discourse analysis, and advanced foreign language literacy development and instruction. Through my dissertation research I have become keenly interested in the systemic-functional grammar developed by M.A.K. Halliday and genre theory (James Martin, Frances Christie, Ruqaiya Hasan) and their applications to foreign language instruction and to the research on the linguistic manifestations of various stages of written foreign language development. My current project draws on the systemic-functional linguistics and theories of intertextuality, as it examines the tension between creativity and conventionality in FL writing and seeks to determine the role of intertextuality in FL writing development.

I am also dedicated to the task of creating and maintaining a content- and language-integrating curriculum that enables learners to attain advanced foreign language literacy. Specifically, I am involved in developing thematically-based materials that would enable foreign language teachers to combine language and content instruction at very advanced levels of foreign language acquisition. Another area of the curriculum-oriented research that is of interest to me is selection and didacticization of texts that can be used by the instructors to illustrate the crucial role of grammar as a resource for making meaning in specific communicative contexts.

Furthermore, as the Curriculum Coordinator I am deeply committed to foreign language teacher education. I teach graduate courses on the fundamentals of German language instruction and text-based approaches to foreign language teaching and learning. I embrace the challenge of being a resource for the graduate student instructors and enjoy working with them through some of the difficulties that foreign language teaching creates. I am a passionate teacher and have taught and developed content-based classes at all levels of the curriculum.