Title: Pumpkin Cowboy: A Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) lesson plan by Shannon Pederson.

Date: Nov. 29th, 2024.

Course: 480P Second Language Pedagogy: Task-Based Language Teaching with Dr. Nicole Ziegler.

Description: A cover letter I wrote that details a lesson plan built on the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) pedagogic model, a popular language-teaching method that involves extensive collaboration to achieve meaningful goals. This cover letter combined a literature review of TBLT and a lesson plan in prose. This was my first time designing a task-based syllabus, and I felt inspired to create a lesson that would appeal to my classmates back when I attended high school in Korea; thus, this unit is designed for intermediate speakers of English in a Korean high school. See the full lesson plan here, or find the handout on my classroom materials page! (11 pages, click images to view in new tab.)

Title: A phonetic investigation of Flathead Salish by Shannon Pederson and Kayla Perez.

Date: Dec. 20th, 2024.

Course: LING 410 Articulatory Phonetics with Professor Andrew Cheng ("Intensive training in recognition, reproduction, and recording of human speech sounds; preparation for fieldwork with unrecorded languages and for clinical work in speech pathology.")

Description: A term paper I wrote with Kayla Perez in which we attempted to build our own analysis of Flathead Salish's phonetic inventory from scratch. We spent the semester working with our language partner, who is a heritage speaker of Flathead Salish, to compile over 200 audio recordings that we transcribed in IPA and analyzed using Praat. This project allowed me to greatly expand my confidence in using IPA and analyzing pronunciation, which I now apply in my work as an English pronunciation tutor. (25 pages, click images to view pdf in new tab.)

Title: Emergentism by Shannon Pederson.

Date: Dec. 19th, 2024.

Course: SLS 302 Second Language Learning with Professor Jue Wang.

Description: A term paper I wrote with the intention of developing my understanding of the main pillars of Emergentism, especially in how it compares to innatist theories such as Chomsky's Universal Grammar (UG). Emergentism in linguistics can be defined as a collection of theories that view language structures as complex patterns that arise from the interaction of more basic cognitive, social, and environmental processes. Emergentism and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory align closely with my personal philosophy of teaching and learning, which greatly values the dynamic engagement of both cognitive and social processes in the classroom. Thus, the topics naturally caught my attention and continues to draw me to study them more in depth in graduate school. (14 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab.)

Title: Test Review: Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) Speaking Exam by Shannon Pederson.

Date: March 7th, 2025.

Course: SLS 311 Second Language Testing with Professor Jieun Kim.

Description: A test review I wrote for the recently introduced TOPIK Speaking Exam. In this paper, I review the test's background, context, purpose, content, scoring system, strengths, and weaknesses along with suggestions for future improvements. This detailed test review has helped me build a stronger understanding of how to best assess my own students' language skills using tests that are well designed, reliable, fair, and just. To put the theories I learned into practice, I also worked with Lillie Malone and Sydnie Hirayama to create a Korean vocabulary proficiency test, the results of which we analyzed in an extensive write-up; see the post below to read more! (18 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab.)

Title: Understanding accent: Korean to English influence on the phonetic and syntactic levels by Shannon Pederson.

Date: May 9th, 2023.

Course: SLS 301 Basic Language Concepts for Second Language Learning, Teaching, and Use with Dr. Theres Grüter.

Description: A term paper I wrote investigating one Korean learner of English's utilization of Standard Australian English (SAuE) in his English speech development. I was very interested in seeing how his deep interest in "aussie" accents and culture may have assisted in his learning, as the characteric dropping of word-final rhotic sounds in SAuE may be of assistance to learners whose L1 background does not originally contain this rhotic sound. Furthermore, his self studies in SAuE has helped him gain a raised awareness of the important of the rhotic sound and how to articulate it in many varieties of English without the help of explicit tutoring, offering a heightened level of control of an otherwise highly difficult phoneme. This is knowledge I have incorporated into tutoring lessons, where I encouraged my students to pick a unique variety of English that interests them and choose material to shadow to the best of their ability. A series of presentation slides summarizing the paper (including audio files!) can be accessed through this link. (8 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab.)

Title: 황우석과 2005 년 줄기세포 사건: 국내 ‘제 1 호 최고 과학자’의 몰락 [Hwang Woo-suk and the 2005 Stem Cell Affair: The Downfall of Korea’s ‘No. 1 Top Scientist’] by Shannon Pederson.

Date: May 12th, 2023.

Course: KOR 486 Korean for Academic Purposes: Social Science with Dr. Cheon Sang Yee ("Focus on expanding students’ Korean literacy and cultural knowledge in Social Science and other disciplines, including politics, economy, society, writing in Korean.")

Description: A term paper that explores Hwang Woo-suk's cloning scandal in the early 2000s, in which a Korean scientist claimed to have successfully cloned human embryos, only to be proven to have completely lied. I include this paper here mostly because I am quite proud of it; I would say this is a good example of taking a dreadful project proposal (writing a final paper) and turning it around into an incredibly fun and engaging personal project (writing about the biggest science scandal in Korean history!). (11 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab.)

Title: 대한불교의 역사 • 체계 • 현황 [History, System, and Current Status of Korean Buddhism] by Shannon Pederson.

Date: Dec 15th, 2022.

Course: KOR 485 Korean for Academic Purposes: Humanities with Professor Hye Seung Lee ("Focus on expanding students’ Korean literacy and cultural knowledge in various Humanities disciplines, including history, religion, language, education, and literature.")

Description: A term paper that discusses in detail the origins, types, organization system, and current state of Buddhism in South Korea. While it's not perfect, I would argue that this is another good example of what can be accomplished by inexperienced students when given the freedom to choose a topic that touches their heart and interests them on a personal level — a takeaway that I am sure to pass onto my students! (16 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab. Click here to view a presentation of this essay in a new tab.)

Title: 한국의 학교 폭력 문제에 대한 조사 [A Study on the Problem of School Violence in Korea] by Shannon Pederson.

Date: May 10th, 2023.

Course: KOR 420 Korean Composition with Professor Hye Seung Lee ("Training in modern structural and stylistic techniques; writing on designated themes.")

Description: A term paper that investigates the current state of bullying and school violence in South Korea, along with how it is portrayed in media for a worldwide audience. A survey was conducted to gain insight on how portrayals of school violence in media (K-dramas, social media, YouTube etc.) has influenced people's wider opinions on Korean society and culture. This was my first time engaging with the issue of school bullying from the perspective of a teacher, and it has helped begin preparing me for addressing this very real issue in my future positions. (13 pages, click image to view pdf in new tab.)