I am a Master's student at Portland State University in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).  In all honesty, if I could, I would rename the TESOL program here to Applied Linguistics with a Focus on Language Eduation.  There is little to no emphasis on teaching English per se, except in the required practice hours.

My research interests are primarly based in sociolinguistics, specifically issues dealing with language and identity in North Africa.  Related topics I have been studying include language minorities, bilingualism, language policy, migration studies, Modern Standard Arabic, North African Spoken Arabic (Moroccan and Algerian) and Amazigh history and culture.  My future plans involve researching the Amazigh migration from North Africa to Western Europe.

I also dabble in cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, anthropology, the language of advertising, Dutch, French and Tamazight.

In my spare time, I can usually be found playing copious amounts of basketball, cooking dinner for my girlfriend, making all manners of art or watching LOST.

Location

Portland, OR

Disciplines

• Languages
• Linguistics
• Anthropology
• Area Studies
• Cultural Studies and Ethnic Studies
• Sociology
• Education

Affiliation

Portland State University

Website

http://samjespersen.com (under perpetual construction)