H Douglas Adamson

I have been retired for several years but continue to read and write about areas of applied linguistics that interest me. A longstanding interest is variation in interlanguage, especially whether learners of second languages acquire appropriate identity-marking features (do men learning English “drop their g’s” at the same frequency as men who speak English natively?). A second interest, which is reflected in my 1991 and 2005 books, is the teaching of English as a second language in the public schools. My latest interest is the application of notions from linguistics and cognitive science to literary criticism, and this work is reflected in my 2019 book and its forthcoming sequel titled Language, Linguistics, Philosophy and Where They Meet.

My former academic lives include: EFL teacher, Ethiopia; ESL teacher, Barcelona, Spain; ESL teacher and administrator at:  University of California, Santa Barbara, San Francisco Community College, San Jose Adult School System, American University, George Washington University, George Mason University. At the University of Arizona I served as Director of the English Applied Linguistics Program, Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. I was also a Melon Mid-Career Fellow in the Linguistics Department at the University of Pennsylvania.