Dr. Kimberly Swanson

Education

Ph.D. in French Linguistics and General Linguistics, Indiana University

M.A. in French Linguistics, Indiana University

B.A. in International Studies and French, Hamline University

About

Kim Swanson is an associate professor of French who has been teaching at the University of Kansas since 2005. She specializes in French linguistics and second language acquisition/pedagogy, with special interests in phonology/phonetics and history of the French language. As director of the French Language Program and Graduate Teaching Assistant training, she is responsible for the first- and second-year language curriculum and supervision of GTAs and lecturers who teach at that level. Professor Swanson is interested in how advances in second language acquisition theory can inform classroom teaching and has published several pedagogical projects that incorporate research findings for first- and second-year French with Heinle/Cengage, McGraw-Hill and Pearson/Prentice Hall. She has also published articles in the area of phonological acquisition, as well as the syntax-semantics interface in second language acquisition. Additionally, Professor Swanson has worked on aspects of the evolution of French, from Old to Middle to Modern French. She was recipient of the KU Cramer Professorship for 2009-2011, as well as the Cramer Award for excellence in teaching and research in 2008, and she was named an Outstanding Woman Educator by the KU Emily Taylor Woman’s Resource Center in 2011.

Recent and Selected Publications

Swanson, K. A. B.  (2010). Dictées in the French Foreign Language Classroom: Prevalence, Perceptions and Findings. (Forthcoming). The French Review 90(3), 107-185.

Anderson, R., Dolidon, A., Hackney, M., Martin, E., McMann, L., & Swanson, K. A. B. (2016, 2^nd ed.). Workbook/Laboratory Manual for En avant (Elementary French textbook by B. Anderson, P. Golato & S. Blatty). McGraw-Hill. Pp. i-499.

Swanson, K. A. B., & Lux, C. (2013, new edition). Testing Program for Quant à Moi (Intermediate French textbook by J. Bragger & D. Rice) on CD-Rom. Heinle-Cengage. Pp. 1-116.

Anderson, R., Dolidon, A., Hackney, M., Martin, E., McMann, L., & Swanson, K. A. B. (2012). Workbook/Laboratory Manual for En avant (Elementary French textbook by B. Anderson, P. Golato & S. Blatty). McGraw-Hill. Pp. i-499.

Swanson, K. A. B., & Lux, C. (2010). Testing Program for Quant à Moi (Intermediate French textbook by J. Bragger & D. Rice) on CD-Rom. Heinle-Cengage. Pp. 1-116.

Swanson, K. A. B., & Lux, C. (2010). Preface to Testing Program for Quant à Moi (Intermediate French textbook by J. Bragger & D. Rice) on CD-Rom. Heinle-Cengage. Pp. iii-xv.

Swanson, K. A. B., & Pons, C. (2009). Testing Program for Points de départ (Elementary French textbook by A. Valdman, C. Pons and M. E. Scullen). Pearson-Prentice Hall. Pp. i-552.

Swanson, K. A. B. (2001).  Is first language learning like second language learning? Learning L2 phonology in Optimality Theory. Selected Proceedings of the Second Language Research Forum. Somerville, MA : Cascadilla Press. 23-41.

Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A., & Swanson, K. A. B. (2001). Reflexes of the mental architecture in second language acquisition: The interpretation of discontinuous combien extractions in English-French interlanguage. Language Acquisition, 9, 175-227.

Dinnsen, D. A., McGarrity, L. W., O’Connor, K., & Swanson, K. (1999/2000). On the role of sympathy in acquisition. Language Acquisition, 8, 321-361.

Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R., Swanson, K., & Thyre, R. (1999). Semantics, pragmatics, and second language acquisition : The case of combien extractions. In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, & A. Greenhill (Eds.) Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 23, 162-171. Somerville, MA : Cascadilla Press.

Current Projects

Swanson, K. A. B. & Kendrick J. (2012-present).  French à la mode (http://french.dept.ku.edu/index.shtml). Ongoing online pedagogical project. Authentic cultural materials to supplement lower-level French courses. Open access to general public.

Swanson, K.A.B. A bi-directional study of the L2 acquisition of aspiration.

Swanson, K.A.B. Learner variability in the L2 acquisition and suppression of palatalization

Recent Graduate Courses Taught

Methods of French Language Instruction

History of the French Language

Structure of Modern French

Advanced French Phonetics

Recent Undergraduate Courses Taught

French Phonetics

Studies in French Culture: Linguistic and Social Evolution of French

La France d’aujourd’hui (France Today)

Advanced French Conversation

Elementary French

Intermediate French / Honors Intermediate French

Areas of Interest

French Linguistics

Second Language Acquisition

Language Pedagogy

Phonetics / Phonology

Historical Linguistics / History of the French language