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Victoria Rau
Professor
On faculty since 2008


E-Mail: victoria.rau@wheaton.edu
Education

Ph.D. in Linguistics, Cornell University (1992)
M.A. in Linguistics, Cornell University (1989)
M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota (1983)
B.A. in English Language and Literature, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan (1981)
 
Professional and Personal Interests
My professional interests include applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, Austronesian linguistics, TESOL, language documentation, e-Learning, education in less commonly taught languages.
Personally, I am interested in drama and folk dance.

Courses Taught
  • INTR 562: Foundations of Intercultural Communication
  • INTR 573: Qualitative Research for Second Language Educators
  • INTR 612: Descriptive English Grammar for ESL/EFL Teachers
  • INTR 615: Teaching Reading and Composition
  • INTR 616: English Phonology for ESL/EFL Teachers
  • INTR 619: Teaching Listening and Speaking

Membership in Professional Societies
  • American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL), 2004-present
  • English Teaching and Research Association, Taiwan, 2004-present
  • Linguistic Society of Taiwan, 1998-present
  • Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL) 1991-present

Research
My research areas are in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and second language acquisition in various languages ranging from English and Chinese to Austronesian languages (Yami, Atayal, Tagalog and Indonesian). My major contribution to Austronesian linguistics is a monograph on Yami Texts with Reference Grammar and Dictionary (2006), co-authored with Maa-Neu Dong, published by Academia Sinica.

I am currently the Primary Investigator for two ongoing projects in Taiwan, an ontological study and an online dictionary, funded by the National Science Council and the Council of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan, respectively. My most recent publication (2007) is a book on Documenting and Revitalizing Austronesian Languages, co-edited with Margaret Florey for the journal Language Documentation and Conservation, University of Hawaii, as the culmination of a grant from the Endangered Language Documentation project, SOAS, University of London (http://www.hrelp.org/grants/projects/index.php?projid=60).

During 2003-2004, I was funded by National Science Council Taiwan to spend a year as a visiting scholar at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), University of Minnesota, investigating interlanguage variation with Prof. Elaine Tarone. During 2007-2008, while taking my sabbatical leave from Providence University in Taiwan, I was a visiting scholar at the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Michigan, working with John Swales on corpus linguistics.

During the past three years, I have extended my research in second language education to endangered languages in Taiwan, integrating language documentation with e-Learning, transforming traditional textbook writing to online education, and training indigenous language teachers in literacy. My research in endangered languages in Taiwan has led to development of a digital archive (http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/yami) and an e-Learning program (http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/elearn).

I have received various grants from National Science Council in Taiwan to study (1) ontology, e-learning, sociolinguistic variation, phonology, morphosyntax, nominalization, grammaticalization in Yami, (2) transitivity and discourse grounding, lexical similarity, phonological variation, sound change, and intelligibility in Atayal dialects, (3) phonological variation, styles, language proficiency and language attitudes in the acquisition of English by Chinese learners, and (4) survey of the discipline of linguistics in Taiwan.

Papers Published and/or Presented
  • Rau, D. Victoria, Hui-Huan Ann Chang, & Elaine Tarone. (under review). Think or sink: Chinese learners’ acquisition of the voiceless interdental fricative. Language Learning.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Meng-Chien Yang. (forthcoming 2008). Digital transmission of language and culture. In Language endangerment and maintenance in the Austronesian region. Ed. by Margaret Florey. Oxford University Press.
  • Rau, D. Victoria, Hui-Huan Ann Chang, & Maa-Neu Dong (forthcoming 2008). A tale of two diphthongs in an indigenous minority language. In Variationist Approaches to Indigenous Minority Languages. Eds. by James N. Stanford & Dennis R. Preston. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Margaret Florey. (Eds.) (2007). Documenting and revitalizing Austronesian Languages. Special Volume, Language Documentation and Conservation, University of Hawaii.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Meng-Chien Yang. (2007). E-Learning in endangered language documentation and revitalization. In Documenting and Revitalizing Austronesian Languages. Eds. by D. Victoria Rau & Margaret Florey, special volume for Language Documentation and Conservation, University of Hawaii.
  • Rau, D. Victoria, Hui-Huan Ann Chang, Yin-Sheng Tai, Zhen-Yi Yang, Yi-Hui Lin, Chia-Chi Yang, & Maa-Neu Dong. (2007). Teaching and learning an endangered language in Taiwan, In Documenting and Revitalizing Austronesian Languages. Eds. by D. Victoria Rau & Margaret Florey, special volume for Language Documentation and Conservation, University of Hawaii.
  • Rau, D. Victoria. (December 2007). Sociolinguistics (in Chinese), Chapter 7, In World Chinese Language Association (ed.), Research in Second Language Education in Chinese for the past 25 years: Past and Future. Taipei.
  • Rau, D. Victoria, Meng-Chien Yang,& Maa-Neu Dong. (April 2007). Endangered language documentation and transmission. Journal of National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL). University of Wisconsin at Madison. 53-76.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Hui-Huan Ann Chang (2006). Phonological variation and sound change in Yami on Orchid Island. In Streams converging into an ocean: Festschrift in honor of Professor Paul-Jen-kuei Li on his 70th birthday. Eds. by Henry Y. Chang, Lillian M. Huang, and Dah-an Ho. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series Number W-5, Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. 461-488.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Maa-Neu Dong. (2006). Yami Texts with Reference Grammar and Dictionary. Language and Linguistics, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Monograph A-10.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Meng-Chien Yang. (2005). Digital Archiving Yami Language Documentation, http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/yami
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Meng-Chien Yang. (2005). E-learning in Yami, http://yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/elearn
  • Rau, D. Victoria, Maa-Neu Dong, Hui-Huan Ann Chang, Daphne Lin, & Yong-Chang Hsu. (2005). Multimedia Language Teaching Materials in Yami. Department of English Language, Literature, and Linguistics, Providence University, Taiwan.
  • Rau, D. Victoria & Maa-Neu Dong. (2005). Yami reduplication. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 31.2: 57-87.
  • Rau, D. Victoria. (2005). Iconicity, tense, aspect, and mood morphology in Yami, Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 31.1: 65-94.
  • Rau, Der-Hwa V. (2004). Lexical similarity, sound change and intelligibility of Atayalic dialects, Papers on Austronesian Subgrouping and Dialectology. Eds. by John Bowden & Nikolaus Himmelmann, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australian National University. 37-96.