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Faculty

 

 

 Marc Cadd

Marc Cadd is Associate Professor of German and Director of World Languages and Cultures.

His Spring 2012 Office Hours are Mondays 10-11, Tuesdays 12-1, Wednesdays 12-2 and Thursdays 12-1.

His Spring 2012 teaching schedule includes The Study Abroad Experience I, The Study Abroad Experience III, and Intercultural Communication.

Dr. Cadd received a B.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an M.A. from the University of Houston, both in German. He received a Ph.D. in German, completing the SLATE (Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education) program at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.

He has been at Drake since 2005. Dr. Cadd teaches the Study Abroad Experience courses, as well as courses such as Intercultural Communication and U.S. Pluralism. His research interests include integrating Web. 2.0 tools into language learning and teaching, and using and assessing electronic portfolios.
Contact Marc Cadd or by phone: 515-271-3923.
 

 

Eduardo Garcia

Eduardo García-Villada is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in World Languages and Cultures. 

His Spring 2012 Office Hours are Wednesdays 12:30-2pm, and Fridays 9:30am-1pm.

His Spring 2012 teaching schedule includes Beginning Spanish II, Spanish for Business and Spanish Film.

Dr. García received a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instructional Technology from Iowa State University, and an M.A. in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Iowa. 

He is a certified Spanish Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) tester by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). He has taught Spanish language in Iowa at the college and elementary school level for over twenty years.  His research interests and publications are in the areas of learner differences and motivation, Spanish language proficiency assessment, Spanish language acquisition, and Latin American cultural studies in computer-assisted language learning environments. 

Professor García-Villada is a staunch advocate for study abroad experiences and has traveled in Latin America, Europe, and Japan.  His other interests include multilingual poetry and bookmaking.
 
 
 
Sofía Paredes

Sofía Paredes is an Assistant Professor of Spanish

Professor Paredes' Spring 2012 Office Hours are Mondays 9:30-11am and Wednesdays 9-11am and 12:30-2pm.

Her Spring 2012 teaching schedule includes Intermediate Spanish II and Spanish Language and Literature.

Dr.  Paredes received her Ph. D. in Spanish Linguistics with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of California Davis in 2011.  She received her M.A. in Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar and her BA in Spanish Literature and Pedagogy from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador in Quito, Ecuador.  She previously taught Spanish at the university level for several years in Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.  

Her research interests include Spanish in the US, heritage language pedagogy and development, and writing development of Spanish as a second language.

 

 

Chinatsu Sazawa

Chinatsu Sazawa is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at Drake.

Professor Sazawa's Spring 2012 Office Hours are TBA

Professor Sazawa's Spring 2012 teaching schedule includes Beginning Japanese II, Intermediate Japanese II, and Japanese Language and Culture

She has taught Japanese at several institutions in Japan and in the United States including Middlebury College and PII (Princeton in Ishikawa).  She also teaches language teaching methods and world language cultural immersion courses.

She received her MA in Japanese pedagogy and Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture, from the University of Iowa.  While a doctoral student, she studied ESL/EFL theory and pedagogy at Fresno Pacific University as a visiting scholar.

 

 

Zhijun Xu

Zhijun Xu is an Instructor of Chinese Language at Drake.

Instructor Xu's Spring 2012 Office Hours are Tuesdays 9-11am, Wednesdays 12-1pm, and Fridays 9-11am.

His Spring 2012 teaching schedule includes Beginning Chinese II, Intermediate Chinese II, and Chinese Language and Culture.

Zhijun Xu is from Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, the sister state of Iowa, in China.  In 2007, he moved to Iowa to join his family. In China, Xu had been an associate professor of Comparative Literature, and Vice President of the School of Foreign Languages at Hebei University of Science & Technology. He was also a member of the executive council of Hebei Translators’ Association.  
 
He received his Master’s degree of English Literature and Linguistics from Hebei Teachers’ University, continued his study of comparative literature as a visiting scholar at Beijing University for one year and at Nottingham University in the United Kingdom for another year. After that, he began his doctoral work of comparative literature at Nankai University in 2005. His publications include essays and translations on Literature and Culture.
In China, Zhijun Xu taught foreign students Chinese language and culture for more than ten years, and has been working for the Drake since the summer of 2009.
 
 
 
Lakhdar Rebahi

Lakhdar Rebahi is an Adjunct Instructor of Arabic at Drake University.  He began working at Drake in the Fall of 2012 teaching Beginning Arabic I and Arabic Practical Speaking and Writing.

 

Nahed Waly

Lakhdar Rebahi is an Adjunct Instructor of Arabic at Drake University.  She began working at Drake in the Fall of 2012 teaching Intermediate Arabic I and Arabic Language and Culture.

 

Heather Crawford Carlson

Heather Crawford Carlson is an Adjunct Instructor of French at Drake University.  She began working at Drake in the Fall of 2012 teaching Beginning French I and French Practical Speaking and Writing.

 

Frances Rockey

Frances Rockey is an Adjunct Instructor of German at Drake University.  She began working at Drake in the Fall of 2012 teaching Beginning German I and German Practical Speaking and Writing.

 

 

Staff

Clayton Mitchell

Clayton Mitchell is the Director of the Jane Evans Language Center.  Clayton helps students in their language learning by showing them how recent technologies can aid them in their explorations of language. Contact Clayton Mitchell  

Clayton's Spring 2012 Office Hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 9-11am.

 

 

Christen Bain

Administrative Assistant of World Languages and Cultures, Christen assists prospective and current students with application, registration, and enrollment in language courses. 

Christen's Spring 2012 Office Hours are M, T, F 8-4:30 and W, Th 8-3:30

Christen received her BA from Drake University in 2008 and expects to complete a Masters in Public Administration at Drake in 2013

Contact Christen Bain  

 

 

 

 

Faculty Emeritus

Jan Marston

Jan Marston directed Drake University Virtual Language Studies, piloting a model for offering less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) online, using real-time videoconferencing. The federally-funded research study was conducted during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years.  Five private colleges and universities participated in the consortium.

From 2007-2009, Dr. Marston led The Network for Effective Language Learning (NELL) program under the auspices of the Council of Independent Colleges, and funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation.  NELL was designed to help institutions explore innovative approaches to foreign language learning. More than 40 institutions participated in this three-year grant project.  

Dr. Marston came to Drake in 2002, when she founded the Drake University Language Acquisition Program (the predecessor of World Languages and Cultures).  She retired from the University in the Fall of 2011