The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has awarded funding to six teams of faculty and staff to advance innovative ideas that aim to improve student experiences, including one from the Department of Linguistics.

The college issued a call for LAS Student Success Innovation proposals earlier this year. Funding was granted for ideas that will lead to innovative and inclusive curricula and/or pedagogy, take advantage of new technologies and lessons from the pandemic to enhance ways of learning, create and support diverse student experiences, increase access and opportunities for historically underserved students, and address the recruitment and retention of first-generation students and historically underrepresented ethnic and racial minority students. Projects were eligible for up to $100,000 in funding for one year.

“Our college is committed to educating and empowering today’s diverse student body for success,” said Venetria K. Patton, Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS. “I’m proud of LAS faculty and staff for developing these innovative and resourceful projects to support our students’ needs.”

The description—edited from the proposal—for the linguistics team project is below. 

ESL eText 2.0, Susan Faivre (linguistics), Jin Kim Pennell (linguistics), John Kotnarowski (linguistics), Randall Sadler (linguistics): To deliver a more accessible, inclusive, and engaging learning experience, this team is redesigning and improving an undergraduate e‐textbook, Academic Writing for English Language Learner. 

The project is one of several that received funding last year and were renewed this year. 

Editor's note: This story first appeared on the College of LAS website.