Profile
CHRISTINE SAGNIER (Ph.D., Université de Besançon) is Director of the French Language Program and a specialist in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Her dissertation explored issues in Applied Linguistics in the light of recent research in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics and sociocultural theory. She has published articles in European research journals and is currently actively involved in redesigning the undergraduate French language curriculum and setting up a new training and mentoring program for Assistants in Instruction. Her research interests include human learning and cognition, Vygotskian theories on language and learning and their methodological implications, textual genre theory and textual analysis, intercultural communication and implications of current research in psycholinguistics for the teaching of foreign languages.
Current Project
Christine Sagnier is currently working on a project titled: Issues in Teaching French as a Foreign Language: From Theory to Practice, A Sociocultural and Sociocognitive Perspective. The aim of the work is to examine the relationship between theoretical frameworks from these two fields of research in Applied Linguistics and methodology in the second language classroom.
Teaching interests
Christine Sagnier teaches courses at different levels in the French Language Program. She is particularly interested in designing an enriched curriculum fostering an intellectually driven approach to the learning of the language, culture and texts of the French-speaking world. This means finding innovative pedagogical approaches to integrate linguistic goals effectively into the program, enabling students to be exposed to a wide range of material and helping them to acquire critical skills as well as an understanding of the target culture, while developing their language proficiency.
She has founded the new intensive Summer Program in Aix-en-Provence, which allows students to immerse into the language and culture of France during the month of June and teaches a component of the program every year.
She also teaches a graduate seminar in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition and the new FRE 215 course: "France Today: Culture, Politics and Society".
