The 2025 TESOL convention gave me a good sized room to talk about early-service K-12 teachers’ preparedness to address the needs of their disabled multilinguals’ needs. Disability topics usually draw a small but dedicated crowd of language folks. I had an audience of thirty super engaged teachers who asked great questions and nodded along with …
Annotated Bibliography: K-12 multilinguals with disabilities
I’m very proud to share that I, along with four co-authors who were all at one time or another students I mentored, have published a project near and dear to our hearts. We collected articles and resources at the intersection of K-12 language learning for emergent bilinguals with disabilities for the purpose of easing the …
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Series on Accessibility and Inclusion for Language Learning and Teaching
I teamed up with my colleagues from Michigan State University's Romance and Classical Studies department to organize a professional development series on accessibility and inclusion for language teaching and learning. Our inaugural series takes place this spring semester 2025 and will feature 4 different events on various topics related to accessible and inclusive language instruction. …
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SPILL it: developing a K-12 PD module on disability and language learning
I was contracted by the World Languages & International Education department of Washington State's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and deliver a module on accessibility and disability inclusion for K-12 world language teachers as part of their professional development program: Statewide Proficiency Initiative for Languages and Leadership (SPILL). Informed by the program's …
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Study Alert! Accessibility and inclusion in language education
Attention university language educators! I am asking second / foreign / additional language instructors at universities to participate in a study about accessibility and inclusion in language education. Participants who complete a background questionnaire and are selected for and complete a 1-hour interview will be compensated for their time with a $50 Amazon.com gift card. …
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Special Issue on Disability and Second Language Learning
I am pleased to share that I and my collaborator Robert Randez will be guest editing the 2025 special issue of Studies in Second Language Acquisition which will be focused on disability and second language learning. Please share our call for proposals widely, and let me know what questions you have: SSLAdisability@gmail.com.
Associate Member of NCSSFL
It's official: I'm an Associate Member of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL; "nuh-SESS-full"). The NCSSFL mission is "to provide leadership in facilitating and promoting policies and practices that support language education" and the council "benefits from the support of designated representatives from states that do not yet have education agency personnel …
Certification in College Teaching
It’s official! The Michigan State University Graduate School has recognized my completion of its Certification in College Teaching Program. (I also completed the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) Graduate Certification in College Teaching - see March 5, 2022 blog entry). I am particularly proud that some of the work I completed for the certificate …
Dissertating: Language Instructors’ Preparedness for Accessibility
Language instructors are often underprepared to address accessibility concerns for disabled language learners. In fact, my own underpreparedness for this type of inclusion in my English language teaching career is what ultimately pushed this longtime teacher to return to research and pursue a Ph.D. I passed my dissertation proposal, and my study is almost underway. …
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New graduate course: Individual Differences and Accessibility in Foreign Language Teaching
It's official! I am wrapping up the development of a course I have designed and will teach this summer for MSU's Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching program: Individual Differences and Accessibility in Foreign Language Teaching. Since I have long believed that disability nests naturally under an umbrella of Individual Differences discourse within second …
Caitlin Cornell 