As a 4th year PhD student in Applied Linguistics, I am currently preparing to take my qualifying exams in the fall of 2010. In 2008, I finished my masters' in French Studies here at Vanderbilt. My research interest lies in learner identity construction in multilingual contexts, an interest which was triggered by my own experiences abroad.
At the age of 16, I moved to France from the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. As an undergraduate and graduate student I continued exploring other countries and cultures through multiple study abroad experiences, which took me to England, Brazil and ultimately the USA. These opportunities made me a strong believer in study abroad programs and SA experiences, and I consider them as being essential to second language development.
As the 2008-2009 Vanderbilt MICEFA exchange student, I had the wonderful opportunity to go back to France to teach at the Sorbonne University and Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris. A lectrice in the Département d'Etudes du Monde anglophone, I taught courses for students enrolled in a Licence, Master or CAPES/AGREG.
