My research interests are intertwined with language teacher education and the promotion of biliteracy in additional language classes. The Teaching page exemplifies pedagogical practices that are informed by my research on genre theory and pedagogy and corpus-informed curriculum design and instruction.
Research Interests
- Genre pedagogy, L2 writing, including multilingual writing, multilingual genre learning, and multiliteracies
- Teacher education with major focus on online learning and LCTL teachers (visit the ViVID project page)
- Learner corpora and data-driven learning with focus on materials design (visit the MACAWS corpus)
- Language program administration and evaluation, with special attention to less commonly taught languages and Portuguese
- Language variation and social media research as part of the Group of Inter-institutional Research in Languages (GIRL)
Selected Publications
2024 (in press) Sommer-Farias, B. Multilingualism and Multicompetence. Conducting Genre-based Research in Applied Linguistics: A Methodological Guide. In C. Polio & M. Kessler (Eds.). Routledge.
2023 Sommer-Farias, B., Vinokurova, V., Gorlova, A., Centanin-Bertho, M. Teaching with Learner Corpus Data. The FLTMAG (November, 2023). https://fltmag.com/teaching-learner-corpus-data/
2023 Sommer-Farias, B., Poole, F., Lanier, A. (2023) Language teacher development via video-based inquiry. The Language Educator. 18(4). 34-38.
2023. Sommer-Farias, B., Carvalho, A. Portuguese Language Program Evaluation. Language Program Vitality in the United States: From Surviving to Thriving in Higher Education. In E. H. Uebel, F. Kronenberg & S. Sterling. (Eds.). Springer.
2022 Sommer-Farias, B., Nokivov, A., Picoral, A., Bertho, M., Staples, S. Multilingual Learner Corpus for Less Commonly Taught Languages. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 8(2), 261-282.
2021 Staples, S.; Picoral, A.; Novikov, A.; Sommer-Farias, B. Directions for future use of existing corpora in the study of L2 writing. R. Manchón & C. Polio (Eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Writing. Routledge Handbooks in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching.
2020 Sommer-Farias, B., Carvalho, A., Picoral, A. Portuguese Language Program Evaluation: Implementation, Results and Follow-up Strategies. Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, 28, 1-50.
2020 Tardy, C., Sommer-Farias, B., Gevers, J. Teaching and Researching Genre Knowledge: Toward an Enhanced Theoretical Framework. Written Communication, 37(3), 287-321.
2019- Staples, S., Novikov, A., Picoral, A., Sommer-Farias, B. Multilingual Academic Corpus of Assignments – Writing and Speech. Available at https://macaws.corporaproject.org/
2015 Neves, C., Conceição, J.; Sommer-Farias, B. Trabalho com projetos de aprendizagem em sala de aula: implicações para a formação docente. [Working with projects in the classroom: implications for teacher education] Línguas & Letras (UNIOESTE), 15 (31).
See more at:
Selected invited talks
2023 Lições e estratégias para fortalecer programas de português nos EUA. Encontro Mundial para o Ensino de Português (XII EMEP Encontro Mundial sobre o Ensino de Português), Chicago, IL. August 5th, 2023. With Ana M. Carvalho. Slides available here.
2023 Constantly Innovating on Teaching. Teacher Education Summit. Virtual. September 30th, 2023. With Dustin DeFelice.
Selected Conference Presentations (most recent)
2023 Sommer-Farias, B., Brown, B. Leveraging authentic texts via genre pedagogies in the LCTL classroom. Southern Conference on Language Teaching. Mobile, AL.
2023 Sommer-Farias, B., Centanin-Bertho, M. Lexical bundles in genre-specific writing: Results from an intervention study. American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Portland, OR.
2021 Sommer-Farias, B., Centanin-Bertho, M., Vinokurova., V., Staples. S. How to teach writing with learner corpus data. American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages Conference, San Diego, CA.
2021 Sommer-Farias, B.; Picoral, A. Teacher Perceptions on Open Educational Resources: Interactive DDL & MACAWS. AILA World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Groningen, the Netherlands.
2021 Sommer-Farias, B. Tracing multilingual students’ approaches to genre awareness tasks in a foreign language. American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Atlanta, GA.
2020 Sommer-Farias, B., Picoral, A., Novikov, A., Staples, S. Teachers’ Perceptions of Interactive DDL Using a Multilingual Learner Corpus. Teaching and Language Corpora Conference. University of Perpignan, Perpignan, France.
2019 Sommer Farias, B. Students and Teachers as Ethnographers: Pedagogy as Research to Foster Students’ Metacognitive Genre Awareness in Writing Classes. Ethnographies of Writing – Genres and Languages, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
2019 Sommer Farias, B. Pedagogical Tasks Promoting Metacognitive Genre Awareness in the Multilingual L2 Writing Class. American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference. Atlanta, GA.
2018 Sommer, B.; Tardy, C. Genre Knowledge and Genre Awareness in Multilingual Writing: Disentangling a Theoretical and Methodological Web. Symposium on Second Language Writing, University of British Columbia & Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
2018 Sommer, B.; Picoral, A., Carvalho, A. M. Evaluation of LCTLs’ Programs: Identifying Potential Issues and Developing Research-informed Strategies. National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages Conference, Washington, DC.