Peter De Costa

Peter De Costa

Associate Professor

Office: B-257 Wells Hall
Phone: 517-353-9776
Email: pdecosta@msu.edu
Curriculum Vitae/CV (PDF)

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison

Peter I. De Costa is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures (LiLaC). Within this department, Peter directs the Master of Arts in TESOL (MATESOL) Program. He is part of the core faculty within the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program and the MATESOL Program. He also directs the Language Policy and Practice lab that is situated within the College of Arts & Letters.

Through a joint appointment with the College of Education, Peter is also a member of the MSU Department of Teacher Education (TE):  http://education.msu.edu/search/Formview.aspx?email=pdecosta@msu.edu

Within this department, Peter is the Director of the ESL K-12 endorsement in the MATC (Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum) Program, the Director of the Graduate Specialization in K-12 English as a Second Language in the MATC Program, and the Director of the Graduate Certificate in English Language Learner Education in the CITE (Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education) Program.

Before joining MSU, Peter taught at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. 

Peter’s primary area of research is the role of identity, ideology, and emotion in applied linguistics. He researches other applied linguistic issues, including World Englishes, critical classroom discourse analysis, and culturally sustaining pedagogy for immigrant ESL learners. Much of his current work focuses on conducting ethical applied linguistic research.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Second Language Acquisition
  • Sociolinguistics (specifically Language Policy and Planning)
  • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

To find out more about his work, go to:

https://independent.academia.edu/PeterDeCosta

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_De_Costa

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0389-1163

Peter is a recipient of several awards: the Fulbright scholarship (Harvard University, 2001-2002), the M.A.K. Halliday scholarship (conferred by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, 2008), the American Association of Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Travel Award (2010), the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dissertator Fellowship (2010), the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Second Language SIG Dissertation of the Year Award (2012), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Language and Social Processes SIG Emerging Scholar Award (2016).

Peter is the co-editor of TESOL Quarterly:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15457249/homepage/editorialboard.html

He is the First Vice President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL):

https://www.aaal.org/executive-board

Peter is also an active member of the following professional organizations:

  • American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • Comparative & International Education Society (CIES)
  • TESOL International Association

He is the past (2017-2019) chair of the Second Language Research SIG of AERA.

If you have questions about Peter’s research, please feel free to contact him.