This is my second year of graduate studies here at Vanderbilt University. I am currently teaching one of the 102 Accelerated Elementary French sections.
In 2002, I finished my Masters’ degree in American Literature at the Université de Lettres in Aix-en-Provence, France. Undecided about what field I wanted to work in, but strongly interested in both cultural exchanges and in foreign languages, I decided to complete another Masters’ degree in International Negotiation with a focus on Brazil. I obtained my degree in June 2005, but realized that working in the classic corporate field was not for me...
Parallel to my studies, I worked for over three years for the Vanderbilt-in-France program in Aix-en-Provence. Having moved to France from the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium at the age of 16, I have faced the same challenges of cultural and linguistic adaptation as my students. This experience, as wel as my study abroad experiences, triggered off my interest in Second Language Acquisition which I am looking to combine with French Studies here at Vanderbilt. It has also made me a strong believer in study abroad programs and SA experiences, and I consider them as being essential to L2 acquisition. I am particularily interested in the notion of "culture" and C2 acquisition, and how this is linked to language learning.
