Pragmatics is the unwritten rules of a language and to foster genuine human connections, one must heavily prescribe to the notion that knowing the cultural and social rules of the target language is paramount (Roever, 2017). This area of linguistics is a primary focus of mine and has been throughout my academic career. Working with Yancee Larson - a 2017 linguistics bachelor's graduate - we created a fictitious website targeted at teaching ESL students the fundamental elements of a profoundly important aspect of the colloquial English language: swearing. F-Bombs and the like is a website designed to run students through five micro-module experience that covers (in our opinion) foundational swears of informal English: “ass, damn, fuck, hell, and shit.” Within each section, students are introduced to cultural uses of the words in the correct contextual place (citation here about using first-hand information) To grasp the usage of colloquial language, utilizing authentic, first-hand examples is the paramount, and Larson and I found collecting culturally significant samples relatively easy. Language and its “curse words” are ever altering, and having a scaffold of evergreen words aids students in the whirlwind of a living language. 

I selected this as one artifact of language as a dynamic system as it is a personal philosophy that learners must have the tools necessary to convey their authentic personalities and emotions. Languages, intrinsically, have nuances that are fundamentally complex and next to impossible to translate directly. I believe that by withholding from students the necessary tools to convey their emotions - in this case, the most common usage of swearing in English is intensification - an instructor has failed their students. Language is about the communication of ideas, thoughts, and emotions, and redacting these words from the entire learning procedure due to personal grievances is a disservice. This website will be further discussed as a Digitally-Mediated Language Learning tool in section 3. 

This artifact is focused on the dynamic system of topological communication within languages. When learning a another language, one difficulty that is often seen is how to communicate position of self, others, and objects. The research paper that I created was focused on determining the ways in which the Japanese language uses lexemes to determine the location of objects and determining if Japanese postpositions cause similar trouble for learners of English. When conducting the data collection, I used the BowPed topological relations picture series tests designed to observe how individuals use prepositions and/or postpositions to denote location (Bowerman et al., 1992).
    I chose this artifact as a way to articulate the intricacies of language and how a seemingly small part of communication creates large differentiations in speakers' perceptions. I am fascinated by how greatly complex language conveys the same human experiences, but in vastly varied ways.  I believe that a hallmark of an excellent language educator is the understanding of these concepts and knowing how best to articulate these facts.

This artifact represents my earlier realizations and attempts at how best to teach a second language. With my group partner, Yancee Larson, we had constructed a research proposal about current in-person classroom issues regarding the practices of language learning/teaching. I believe that though the material is concrete, the way we convey the importance is flawed.
Within a lesson design, one of the eight key criteria for a successful class is how the objective/purpose is explained (Yerian, 2022). I believe that the current practices within the classroom rely on past, arbitrary rules. Pedagogical research and tools (such as DMLL - see second 3) have improved exponentially. Similarly to Moore's Law, the application of new ideas and theories should be implemented to better our educational systems and ultimately better our understanding of one another. 

The environments that people live in have can have a great impact on how the world is viewed. Connotation and the connected emotions to seemingly arbitrary concepts is a main focus of my last artifact. Within my research article, I write about how utilizing color theory can be an additional effective story telling devise.  

I am a big fan of the animation medium and this project allowed me to fully engross myself in the artform. I wrote about the legendary film director Hayao Miyazaki's film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and its purposeful use of color to depict unspoken characterization within the animated fictional world.

The reason why I chose this artifact is that with language comes the varied perception of reality. What fascinates me so much about this phenomenon is that is it quite entrenched in philosophy. For example, could the languages that we speak have an impact on the way we view and communicate with the world? I view that there is a probability that the language(s) that individuals speak has a definite effect on how the world is viewed. One example of this being in Winawer et al.'s (2007) article conveying that within native Russian speakers had a perceived advantage when discriminating between different hues of blue.