PIRE II

Hello all! These last two weeks have been extremely hectic, but a good time for my study. I have trained 3 more people to give interviews for the study! It's really lovely to get to share the work I've done with others by inviting them "behind the scenes" so to speak....

Hello again, all! I have been in a somewhat frustrating place with this study recently. Not because of the nature of the study, but rather because of the stress of working on it while planning for the coming semester! Having to take into account the time difference...

Hello all! This week has consisted largely of trying to get final preparations in place. Double-checking my work is the name of the game at the moment. It's quite satisfying to look over everything and in doing so being reminded of all the work I have put in to this...

Hello again, all! I'm so excited to say that my study finally has the approval to move forward. That means it's time to kick it into high gear and finalize all of the preparations I've been working on this past few weeks. With recruitment on the horizon, I've been...

Sadly, I have reached my final week working officially on my PIRE project. When my advisor first told me about the program, I had no idea what to expect and wasn’t entirely sure if it would be for me. But now that I am reaching the end of this experience, I am so glad...

Hello all! I am happy to say that this week was an exciting one. I got to practice both a revised version of my lesson plan, as well as run through one of our interviews. The changes to the lesson plan were a success! We are now focusing on an emphasis on...

For the week of the 11th, I have a small (and slightly belated) update. Recently, we have been taking in a lot of the feedback that has been given to us about how the lesson and interviews will need to improve to be ready to present to participants. Right now, real...

This past Sunday I was supposed to test my last group of participants for now, but unfortunately I had to cancel the session. Rather than rescheduling, Dr. Jackson and I decided to work with the data from the five groups that I've already tested, so now I'm just...

This will probably out me as the nerdiest person imaginable, but as I start to collect more data from my groups, I am taking immense joy in sorting and organizing it. I’ve always been someone who loves organizing piles of disparate things, so keeping all these files...

Sunday will probably be my last test group, at least for a while. Assuming that everyone shows up both today and Sunday, I'll have data from six groups to crunch before I go back to PSU for the fall semester. This is basically one transcription and one mapping a week...

After weeks of testing maybe one group in seven days, this week I have three different groups scheduled to participate. Two of the groups only have two participants, and the last group has three, but progress is progress! If all of the scheduled participants show,...

Hello, all! My study has been progressing rather nicely. I've had the opportunity to practice running my lesson with a very wonderful group of people who provided lovely feedback, and I feel much more prepared to be in contact with actual participants. A large part of...

While testing my third group of participants this week, I realized that I’ve gotten a lot better at this over time! After my first session, I learned to be more cheerful with participants in order to make them feel more comfortable in the space. And after my second...

Yesterday I tested group three. Four people were scheduled for the group, but only two showed up. The participants, however, were very engaged and carried the conversation all on their own. This makes me wonder if it would be interesting to apply some conversational...

Well, folks, it's been another week of preparing stimuli for my interviews. That's not to say I haven't been plenty busy! PearDeck, a platform made for teachers that lets you present Google Slides in a very interactive way, seems like it's going to work better than...

This week I got to run another group of participants! Thankfully, everything ran much more smoothly than the last time! My group consisted of three participants, which is still missing the mark, but is certainly hitting closer than my first group of two did. This...

Slowly but surely I am starting to gather a number of participants - slowly being the key word. So far, I've tested seven people and I hope to test three or four more this upcoming Monday. Unfortunately, working around summer jobs in two time zones makes scheduling...

Whenever something goes wrong, my advisor tends to say “welcome to research” as a way of saying "things rarely go perfectly as planned in research and that's okay." And this week I kept finding myself thinking the same thing as things went wrong and challenges arose. ...

Good morning/afternoon/evening to everyone here! This week has been busy, but somehow, slow as well. I've yet to actually begin data collection. Rather, this week has consisted of more preparation for interviewing people. Most of my brainpower has gone towards setting...

I'm over the hump - I've tested my first batch of participants and didn't royally screw up! Last Friday I ran the study with what was supposed to be a group of four, but wound up being a group of three. Luckily, all of the participants were outgoing and happy to carry...

Well! Welcome to my first blog post. I've spent the last few weeks working and meeting with my team to prepare and finalize the tasks we are going to use in our interviews. I have been trying to come up with questions that will elicit the target responses, making good...

The day is almost here! Tomorrow I will be testing my first batch of participants and I couldn't be more excited! Still, I can't help being a little nervous that something will go wrong. This, however, is where conducting research is such an amazing experience. No two...

Finally things are getting back on track! I have had a recent surge in L2 German learners signing up! I may soon have enough to schedule a group to test! However, first I will need more L2 English learners, whose sign-up rate has stagnated. Reading everyone else’s...

Well, it's officially the second week of PIRE, and no one has signed up to participate in my study since last week. As of now, I have six individuals interested in participating. Unfortunately, I need at least eight. Despite this bump in the road, I am hopeful that a...

Unfortunately it seems that things are going more slowly than originally planned. I sent out recruitment emails on Tuesday of last week, and I anticipated having our first session last Friday. Unfortunately I have only had three participants sign up so far, so I won’t...

After a hectic Spring semester on Zoom, Summer has been a welcome respite. Without the stress of classes and grades, I am finally able to focus more of my attention on my PIRE project, which ironically ties into the pains of online learning. Classroom mapping, a...

This is the first week of data collection for my project and I’m both very excited and nervous. Everything has to be finished up and polished before my first data collection session on Friday. Most of my nerves stem from the fact that I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and...

Two weekends ago, the weekend of June 7th, I actually visited Sydney in the Netherlands. We went to a few different cities, including Nijmegen (where she is living), Maastricht (where she had a participant to test on Saturday), and Amsterdam. We also met up with Jason...

Still traveling a lot! Two weeks ago, I went to Salerno, Italy to visit my friend for the weekend. This past weekend I explored Hannover, Braunschweig, and hiked the Harz Mountains. We had a holiday on Thursday, so I was unable to test that day and traveled instead....

Hey guys, I'm just finishing up my last few participants in Braunschweig, and reflecting a bit on my time here. Adapting to life in Germany has been very difficult, but I have also found it to be one of the most important experiences of my life. I've learned many...

Hi everyone! My experiment has been going great this past week. I've managed to schedule over 20 participants! Braunschweig students are notoriously hard to get to participate in experiments, so I'm fairly happy I've been able to get so many students. I've had no...

This past weekend I decided to have a "stay-cation" of sorts, and so I did not travel anywhere in Europe. Instead, I explored my host city of Braunschweig, and saw a bunch of interesting attractions. I saw the famous Braunschweig lion statue, and explored the...

PIRE Blog Post 1 (English) A lot has happened in the first two weeks of my PIRE experience. I spent the first week putting together my experiment and by Friday, I was ready to test. So far, I have had about 12 participants. It has actually been pretty difficult to...

I had the most amazing past week! Last weekend I went to Berlin (like I mentioned in my last blog). I saw all the touristy sites, like the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, etc... Then I spent a week on recruitment. I went to classes, posted fliers, emailed...

Hello everyone, my name is Shane Cummings, and I am a junior at Penn State currently at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. My experiment focuses on idiom comprehension in a second language, and whether or not second language learners of English can effectively...

It's hard to believe that it has already been two months since I clumsily arrived at the Hannover airport, carrying all 4 of my bags, arriving in Braunschweig several buses and trains later. This experience has been absolutely amazing and affirmed my inclination that,...

This past lab meeting was my final one with the Braunschweig group, and I was able to give a short presentation about my research. I had given a short presentation before about my study during a lab meeting in the Spring at Penn State. I was very nervous for the first...

One of the best experiences I've been able to have while on this amazing trip is getting to meet up with my High School German teacher. Herr Smith was one of the reasons that I kept learning German for as long as I did and also one of the factors that helped me get a...

One of the things that I really appreciate doing in the lab meetings at Penn State, after reading a text, is that Dr. Jackson will go around and ask all of the lab members to rate the article on how difficult it was to read on a scale of 1-10. It's nice to know when...

I was really hoping to practice my German while I'm here, which I was worried about at first because all of my coworkers like to speak English most of the time, but I do feel that I have improved. Listening and trying to understand what other people have been saying...

I have always associated barbecues with being the quintessential American thing, but Germany has proved me wrong. Last week, I was invited to a barbecue with the Didactics department a little down the hall from me. I was very excited to experience a barbecue in...

Now that all of the preparation for the study and all of the conference stuff is over, recruitment and running participants is in full swing! And it is exhausting! With previous studies that I have worked on through Dr. Jackson, I have at the most had to work on...

One of the best parts of this experience is that there are so many things for me to explore when I am not in the office! I have been able to travel to Vienna, Austria and Heidelberg, Germany during my weekends thus far and I am looking forward to a weekend in...

I was very fortunate to be able to be in Braunschweig during the second International Symposium on Bilinguals and L2 Processing in Adults and Children. This was my first conference, and to be able to be a part of some of the planning and to help out during the...

After walking in many wrong directions to get to the lab on my first day, I did finally find my way. My officemates and coworkers are very friendly and welcoming, and I already feel a part of the team. Right now, they are planning for a big conference on bilingualism...

I can't believe I have been in Braunschweig now for over a week! It has been an exciting journey of feeling lost and confused one minute and then feeling on top of the world for figuring something out, constantly back and forth. Everything that I would do on a regular...

Last Saturday night, the university hosted an event called TU Night, an open house of sorts for the community to visit the campus.  Each department had a station displaying some of the research done currently being conducted.  My department, the English linguistics...

(Sorry about the lack of blog posts, I’ve been busy with research and traveling!  My next few posts will be an overview of the past few weeks.) Flashback to three weeks ago. I’m desperate.  It’s the beginning of week 4 of my 8 weeks here and I have exactly 2 native...

25 May, 2017 Happy Ascension Day!  (German federal holiday celebrated 40 days after Easter) And Happy Father’s Day!  (also celebrated in Germany on the same day as Ascension Day) I’ve already run 13 participants in one of my studies!  I’m extremely excited about how...

I’ve been in Braunschweig for 6 days and I am already starting to feel at home. I started recruiting in classes with Holger and already have 15 (!!!!) participants scheduled for one of my studies!  The next few weeks are going to be busy with running participants but...