Kimberly A.B. Swanson
- Associate Professor of French
- French Language Program Director
Contact Info
1445 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS 66045-7594
Personal Links
Biography —
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.
Education —
Specialization
Research —
Research interests:
- French Linguistics
- Second Language Acquisition
- Language Pedagogy
- Phonetics / Phonology
- Historical Linguistics / History of the French language
Teaching —
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
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, 2nd 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