LANGUAGE INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Dianna Murphy directs the Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a center for collaborative initiatives in research, education, advising and outreach related to the study of human languages. In this role, she oversees the institute's mission and activities, and leads special projects. Current special projects include the yearlong Committed to Change seminar focused on diversity and inclusion in language teaching and learning; survey-based research on student perspectives on undergraduate language education; the federally funded study on the speaking proficiency gains and outcomes of intensive summer programs in less commonly taught languages, and collaborative work to raise awareness of language ideologies and linguistic discrimination. Murphy is also co-director of the UW-Madison Russian Flagship Program, a core member of the UW-Madison Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition, and co-director of the Wisconsin Language Roadmap Initiative. Information on Murphy's research is here.
Jana Martin serves as the Associate Director of the Language Institute. With the goal to strengthen and promote the teaching and learning of languages, Jana's role focuses on the development of lecture series, workshops, and other professional development programs for faculty and staff in departments of languages, linguistics, literatures, and cultures. Jana's native language is Slovak and she earned her PhD in German with a doctoral minor in Second Language Acquisition from UW-Madison in 2016. Jana's administrative experience comes from diverse organizational contexts that include UW-Madison, a private PreK-12 school, and a non-profit organization.
I graduated from Herzen University in St. Petersburg with a major in translation and linguistics (English, German, Russian). After that I pursued my dream of teaching English in middle/high school. In 2013, I became a Fulbright scholar and went to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville where I did my master's in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on SLA. After graduation, I owned a language school in Russia, and represented the country at the International Microsoft in Education Conference in Toronto, Canada with my project "Comics Share Culture." Once back in the US, I was an active participant of cultural events at the University of Arkansas and a speaking partner for U of A students studying Russian.
Lydia Odegard (she/her) serves as the Language Directions Specialist in the Language Institute. In this role she works to promote and advance language learning opportunities at UW-Madison by collaborating with campus and community partners. Lydia also works with bi/multilingual students on campus to support them in connecting their language abilities with their personal, academic, and career goals. She earned her MS in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, with an emphasis on Global Higher Education, from UW-Madison. Lydia brings experience in language teaching, academic advising, and international education, and speaks Hindi and some Spanish.
An Argentina native, I joined the Second Language Acquisition Doctoral Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021. Prior to coming to UW, I completed my undergraduate degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in my home country, where I graduated with honors, and I earned a M.A. in Spanish as a Second or Bilingual Language from Michigan State University.
I am an English and Spanish language educator as well as a former Fulbright scholar (Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program 2018-2019), and I have more than seven years of experience in the field of (second/foreign language) education.
I consider myself an educational linguist, whose research follows a pedagogically-informed focus. I am interested in investigating second/foreign language (L2) educators' and learners' psychology. Particularly, by utilizing mixed-method approaches, I examine the effect that different conative and affective variables such as motivation, anxiety, and/or grit can have on individuals' behavior within the language classroom setting, and how those factors may influence their L2 outcomes. My main aim is to obtain theory-based information to successfully incorporate it into the L2 classroom practice to better improve students' linguistic development and facilitate their academic achievement.
I received a BA in English Language and Literature from Dogus University and earned an MA in Women Studies from Istanbul University where I wrote my Master's thesis about the effects and influence of the teachers on the formation of gender perception of the adolescent students. During my MA, I participated in the Erasmus Student Exchange Program and enrolled in the Gender Studies Program at Humboldt University in Berlin for one semester. I continued my education at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles where I attained my second MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. While studying at USC, I conducted an ethnographic case study on active learning and critical pedagogies in higher education.
I have taught English to learners of different ages for more than ten years. In 2016-2017 academic year, I also taught Turkish at Indiana University, Bloomington , as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant. For future research, I would like to build on the findings of my previous studies considering the most current discussions in language ideologies within bi/multilingual education.