Research

As a language learner, teacher and teacher educator, I am curious about how individuals view themselves as learners and teachers and how they understand their learning and teaching experiences. My research uses narrative and discursive approaches to examine student and teacher identity construction in relation to ideologies about language learning and teaching. 

My dissertation study, which has been awarded an ACTFL Research Priorities Grant and a National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations / Modern Language Journal Dissertation Writing Support Grant, is a linguistic ethnographic study of university student investment in additional language learning. My dissertation combines classroom discourse analysis and narrative inquiry to examine how students' language learning investment develops in and out of classroom spaces and informs their subsequent decisions to (dis)continue language study.

Most of my work explores the experiences of U.S. university students engaged in world language study and pre-service teachers in TESOL teacher education programs. I am also interested in graduate student wellbeing and academic socialization as well as research ethics and qualitative research more broadly.

Here are a few recent publications:

Here is a recent presentation from the Thriving Language Programs Learning Community organized by the Center for Language Teaching Advancement at Michigan State University:

Below is a list of publications organized by topic, many of which are collaborative efforts with colleagues.

I support the Postprint Pledge, a movement toward making scholarship more accessible. If you or your institution do not have access to any of the publications below, the [postprint] links will open an accepted version of each publication that is freely available.

World Language Education

• Cinaglia, C. (2024). (Re)shaping students' attitudes toward learning Spanish in the US: An autoethnography of a teacher as policy interpreter. In M. R. Barbosa & T. Bugel (Eds.), Language attitudes and the pursuit of social justice: Identity, prejudice, and education (pp. 99–119). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003462736-8 [postprint]

• Cinaglia, C. (2023). University students' beliefs about the language requirement: Policy as articulated and as perceived. In E. Heidrich Uebel, F. A. Kronenberg, & S. Sterling (Eds.), Language program vitality in the United States: From surviving to thriving in higher education (pp. 141–157). Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43654-3_11 [postprint]

• "It boils down to respect": Identity, positioning, and investment in learning Spanish (in revision)

Language Teacher Education

• Cinaglia, C., Montgomery, D. P., & Coss, M. D. (2024). Emotionally (in)hospitable spaces: reflecting on language teacher-teacher educator collaboration as a source of emotion labor and emotional capital. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 62(3), 1321–1347. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0087 [open access]

• Montgomery, D. P., Cinaglia, C., & De Costa, P. I. (2024). Enacting well-being: Identity and agency tensions for two TESOL educators. In Z. Tajeddin & B. Yazan (Eds.), Language teacher identity tensions: Nexus of agency, emotion, and investment (pp. 212–230). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003402411-17 [postprint]

• Cinaglia, C. (2023). Collaborative complaints, alignment, and identity positioning during teacher-mentor post-observation meetings. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2023.2282694 [postprint]

• Cinaglia, C., Montgomery, D. P., & De Costa, P. I. (2023). Teaching-as-caring and caring institutions: An ecological view of TESOL teacher well-being. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 12(1), 191–211. https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/kf4et [postprint]

• Cinaglia, C., & De Costa, P. I. (2022). Cultivating critical translingual awareness: Challenges and possibilities for teachers and teacher educators. RELC Journal, 53(2), 452–459. https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882221113659 [postprint]

• "They didn't even know that?": A small-story analysis of TESOL student-teacher-mentor identity positioning (in revision)

Graduate Student Academic Socialization

• Cinaglia, C., & Lee, V. W. Y. (2024). Investing in peer academic socialization and graduate student community through scholarly publication. Working Papers in Second Language Studies, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.17613/m5a2b-9es41 [open access]

• Cinaglia, C., & Rabie-Ahmed, A. (2024). Ethical dilemmas of graduate students negotiating new roles and responsibilities: The importance of mindful engagement, self-care, and reflexivity. In P. I. De Costa, A. Rabie-Ahmed, & C. Cinaglia (Eds.), Ethical issues in applied linguistics scholarship (pp. 310–327). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.7.20cin [postprint]

• Cinaglia, C. (2023). Navigating the first year of doctoral study: Developing a researcher identity and other lessons learned outside of the program handbook. In B. Yazan, E. Trinh, & L. J. Pentón Herrera (Eds.), Doctoral students' identities and emotional wellbeing in applied linguistics: Autoethnographic accounts (p. 148–171). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305934-13 [postprint]

Research Methodology

• De Costa, P. I., Rabie-Ahmed, A., & Cinaglia, C. (2024). Ethical issues in applied linguistics scholarship. John Benjamins. https://benjamins.com/catalog/rmal.7  

• Ghanbar, H., Cinaglia, C., Randez, R. A., & De Costa, P. I. (2024). A methodological synthesis of narrative inquiry research in applied linguistics: What's the story? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 34(4), 1629–1655. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12591 [open access]

• Al-Hoorie, A. H., Cinaglia, C., Hiver, P., Huensch, A., Isbell, D. R., Leung, C., & Sudina, E. (2024). Open science: Considerations and issues for TESOL research. TESOL Quarterly, 58(1), 537–556. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3304 [open access]

• De Costa, P. I., Randez, R. A., Cinaglia, C., & Montgomery, D. P. (2022). Qualitative ISLA research methodologies and methods. In L. Gurzynski-Weiss & Y. Kim (Eds.), Instructed second language acquisition research methods (pp. 55–78). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.3.03dec [postprint]

Pedagogical Resources

• Cinaglia, C. (2024). Balancing technical, emotional, and reflective mentoring support to develop thinking and feeling language teachers. Working Papers in Second Language Studies, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.17613/m33g-2v80 [open access]

• Cinaglia, C. (2019). Teaching conversational closings: Why "How are you?" is not enough. As We Speak (Newsletter of the TESOL International Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening Interest Section), 15(1). http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolsplis/issues/2019-01-22/7.html [postprint]

Reviews

• Cinaglia, C. (2023). Review of Ayres, Z. J. (2022). Managing your mental health during your PhD: A survival guide. Springer. AAALGrads: The American Association for Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Council Newsletter, 8(1), 20–22. [open access: link]

• Cinaglia, C. (2022). Wassell, Beth and Cassandra Glynn, editors. Transforming World Language Teaching and Teacher Education for Equity and Justice: Pushing Boundaries in US Contexts. Multilingual Matters, 2022. Pp. 203. Pb. $49.95. Spanish and Portuguese Review, 8, 107–110. https://spanportreview.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/14-cinaglia-spr-vol-8.pdf [open access]

• Cinaglia, C. (2021). Janet M. Fuller & Jennifer Leeman, Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language (2nd ed.) Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2020. Pp. 327. Pb £30. Language in Society, 50(4), 628–629. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404521000440 [postprint]