Paula Winke
(She/Her)
winke@msu.edu
(517) 353-9792
B252 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
paulawinke.hcommons.org
paulawinkephd
paulawinkephd
FacultyLinguistics, Languages, and CulturesSecond Language Studies
Professor
Director, Second Language Studies PhD
Arts & Letters Professor
Second Language Studies & TESOL
Biography
Ph.D, Georgetown University
Paula Winke is the Inaugural Arts & Letters Professor in the College of Arts & Letters and the Director of the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program in the Applied Linguistics Program in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. Her primary research is on foreign and second language assessment. She researches language-test reliability and methods for creating (and managing) placement and proficiency tests. Paula also researches language teaching methods, with a particular focus on task-based language assessment and task-based materials design. With Aline Godfroid, Paula co-directs the Second Language Acquisition Program’s Eye-tracking Labs. She is co-editor (with Luke Harding, Lancaster University, UK) of the journal Language Testing. From 1998 to 2000, Paula was a Peace Corps Volunteer in China. In 2008, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Hungary, and in 2022, a Fulbright Scholar to Germany. In 2008, she received the CALICO Article of the Year Award with Senta Goertler. In 2012 she received the International TESOL Distinguished Research Award. She received the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Research Article Award in 2020, and in 2021, the Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in World Language Education from the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association (NFMLTA), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL), and the Modern Language Journal (MLJ). Currently, Paula is serving on a U.S. Department of State Task Force as part of an Interagency Agreement between MSU and the U.S. State Department. With the Task Force, she is advising the U.S. Foreign Service Institute on foreign language proficiency test redesign.
Media Mentions
How Captions in TikTok Videos and Dictionary.com Are Remaking Internet Culture and How We Literally Talk About Disability in Tech
Forbes Online
March 7, 2022
Why captions are everywhere on TikTok: ‘Glasses for your ears’
Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2021
Paula Winke, a Michigan State University linguistics professor who has researched the educational benefits of captioning, described captions as “glasses for your ears” that can make it easier to parse dialogue.
The Case for Abolishing the Citizenship Exam
SLATE
November 26, 2020
But, as Michigan State University professor Paula Winke argues, even for those who do pass, the test only measures how well they have mastered the study guides, not how well they know their history or their rights.
Quiz: Can You Answer the Hardest Citizenship Test Questions?
New York Times
July 3, 2019
Citizenship officials have not made public how they determine which questions are hardest. “Perhaps the greatest problem with the civics test is that it is possible that not everyone takes an equally difficult test,” Dr. Winke wrote in the study.
What does the US citizenship exam actually test?
Public Radio International, The World
October 15, 2013
Winke’s premise was that, before immigrants study for the test, they should get the questions wrong that US citizens would naturally get right. “I think we’ve got ten items that are working really well and 90 that are not,” Winke said.
Awards and Honors
Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck Guest Professorship
University of Innsbruck
2024-2025
Visiting Scholar at the University of Innsbruck 2024-2025, with award of a Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck Guest Professorship in Summer 2025
Arts and Letters Professorship
College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University
2022
Paula Winke holds the College of Arts and Letters’ inaugural Arts and Letters Professorship. Arts & Letters Professors are recognized for their significant experience and accomplishments in their fields. https://cal.msu.edu/faculty/arts-letters-professorships/
Fulbright Scholar
Fulbright Germany
2022
Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research at the University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, with faculty host Dr. Erwin Tschirner, April through July.
The ACTFL-NFMLTA/MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in World Language Education
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the National Federation of Modern Language Teaching Associations, and the Modern Language Journal
2021
Created in 1977 as a memorial to Paul Pimsleur, this award recognizes his contributions to the profession as an outstanding teacher, researcher, and expert on test creation and interpretation. Recipients of the Pimsleur Award shall be the authors of an outstanding contribution to research in world language or second language education.
American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Research Article of the Year Award
American Association of Applied Linguistics
2020
Research Article of the Year Award for “The cognitive validity of child English language tests: What young language learners and their native‐speaking peers can reveal,” published in TESOL Quarterly with graduate student coauthors Lee, Yoon, Ahn, Choi, & Cui. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.396
TESOL Award for Distinguished Research
TESOL International
2012
The International TESOL Award for Distinguished Research recognize excellence in research on language teaching and learning. The annual award is given for empirical research that advances English language teaching policies, programs, or practices, or generates new knowledge about additional language acquisition.
Outstanding Article of the Year Award
Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO)
2009
Research Article of the Year Award for “Did we forget someone? Students’ computer access and literacy for CALL” published in the CALICO Journal with Senta Goertler. https://www.jstor.org/stable/calicojournal.25.3.482
Fulbright Scholarship
Fulbright Hungary
2008
Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research and teach at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary, January through July.
Publications
Winke, P., Zhang, X., & Pierce, S. J. (2022). A closer look at a marginalized test method: Self-assessment as a measure of speaking proficiency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263122000079
Winke, P., & Brunfaut, T. (Eds.) (2021). The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and language testing. Routledge. ISBN: 9781138490680
Burton, J. D., & Winke, P. (2021). Building positive outcomes for English language learning: A case for focusing on positive individual differences. TESOL International Association AL Forum. http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolalis/issues/2021-02-09/3.html
Gass, S., Sydorenko, T., & Winke, P. (2021). Materials from “The effects of captioning videos used for foreign language listening activities,” published in Language Learning & Technology, 2010, by Winke, Gass, and Sydorenko [Materials and description]. Humanities Commons. http://doi.org/10.17613/dtyy-3k03
Winke, P., Heidrich, E., & Gass, S. (2021). Individual differences in Advanced Spanish proficiency: Cluster and case-matching analyses on 127 Advanced learners. In M. Menke & P. Malovrh (Eds.), Advancedness in second language Spanish: Definitions, challenges, and possibilities (pp. 368-395). John Benjamins.
Godfroid, A., Winke, P., & Conklin, K. (2020). Exploring the depths of second language processing with eye tracking: An introduction. Second Language Research, 36(3), 243-255. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658320922578
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2020). A principled approach to language assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25748
Winke, P., Zhang, X., Rubio, F., Gass, S., Soneson, D., & Hacking, J. (2020). The proficiency profiles of language students: Implications for programs. Second Language Research & Practice, 1(1), 25-64. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/69840
Zhang, X., Winke, P., & Clark, S. (2020). Background characteristics and oral proficiency development over time in lower-division college foreign language programs. Language Learning, 70(3), 807-847. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12396
Winke, P., & Ma, W. M. (2020). The assessment of Chinese L2 proficiency. In C. Shei, M., Zikpi, & D. Chao (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of Chinese language teaching (pp. 405-422). Routledge.
Winke, P. & Zhang, X. (2019). How a third-grade reading retention law will affect ELLs in Michigan, and a call for research on child ELL reading development. TESOL Quarterly, 53(2), 529-542. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.481 Video abstract: https://youtu.be/Xp1JXuiWZDY
Gass, S., Van Gorp, K., & Winke, P. (2019). Using different carrots: How incentivization affects proficiency testing outcomes. Foreign Language Annals, 52(2), 216-236. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12389 Video abstract: https://youtu.be/Br3Ct919IK8
Ma, W., & Winke, P. (2019). Self-assessment: How reliable is it in assessing oral proficiency over time? Foreign Language Annals, 52(1), 66-86. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12379 Video abstract: https://youtu.be/QhxEQOl_dcU
Rasool, G., & Winke, P. (2019). Undergraduate students’ motivation to learn and attitudes towards English in multilingual Pakistan: A look at shifts in English as a world language. System, 82, 50-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.02.015
Winke, P., & Gass, S. (Eds.) (2018). Foreign language proficiency in higher education: Curricular and assessment issues. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01006-5
Winke, P., Lee, S., Yoon, H-J., Ahn, J. I., Choi, I., & Cui, Y. (2018). The cognitive validity of child English-language tests: What young language learners and their native-speaking peers can reveal. TESOL Quarterly, 52(2), 274-303. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.396 Video abstract: https://youtu.be/GY0dRCTRtIk
Lee, S., & Winke, P. (2018). Young learners’ response processes when taking computerized tasks for speaking assessment. Language Testing, 35(2), 239-269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532217704009
Portfolio
Gass and Winke at the Herder Institut
Susan Gass and Paula Winke in Leipzig, Germany, at Erwin Tschirner’s Retirement Celebration at the Herder Institut
Plakans and Winke on Committee at the National Academies
Lia Plakans and Paula Winke serving at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington DC
Winke at EALTA
Publishing workshop at the European Association of Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) with Luke Harding, Dylan Burton, and Constant Leung
University News
