Paula J Mellom

Dr. Mellom holds a Ph.D. in linguistics specializing in second language acquisition and educational linguistics. She has more than 30-years experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the United States and Central America. She works primarily with pre and inservice teachers to develop their ability to make academic content accessible to linguistically and culturally diverse learners in face-to-face, hybrid and virtual spaces. Her qualitative analysis explores the role of collaborative, conversation-based instruction in identity construction, and cognitive and linguistic development.

Her current research interests are:

Development of research-based tools to facilitate K-12 teachers' implementation of culturally responsive, collaborative, conversation-based pedagogy
Qualitative analysis of the constructed responses of elementary students to examine the impact of a culturally responsive, collaborative, conversation-based pedagogy on student writing Analysis of face-to-face and online interventions on the development of teacher Professional Learning Communities Critical discourse analysis of written logs of teachers exploring their attitudes towards English language learners Discourse analysis of college application essays of English language learning high school students - examining issues of identity and how they index themselves and others