Mississippi State University is the permanent home for many professors, the temporary home for many students and a “rest stop” on a journey for guest professors. Former Peace Corps volunteer Lyn Wright Fogle has been hired as a visiting assistant professor in the English Department for the year.
She said she has great enthusiasm for the opportunity to work at MSU.
“I am very excited to be in the English Department at Mississippi State University, where I have the opportunity to work with students who are interested in language education and intercultural communication,” Fogle said.
She said she was raised in Savannah, Ga., and earned her bachelor’s degree at Emory University. She went on to gain her master’s degree in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages from American University and holds a doctorate in Linguistics from Georgetown University.
While at MSU, Fogle is teaching Studies in Language Acquisition and Methods in TESOL, among other courses in linguistics and TESOL. During her career, she has contributed work to numerous journals, including the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Language and Linguistics Compass. She comes to MSU after a one-year lectureship in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University.
         Fogle served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 1995 to 1997. She then was awarded with a full U.S. Fulbright grant to live in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 2002 to 2003. She said these opportunities worked together to inspire her future research.
“My own research has focused on language learning and identity, and I’ve looked at how Russian children adopted by U.S. parents learn English at the same time that they become members in a new family,” Fogle said. “This interest grew out of my own experiences living in Ukraine and Russia, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as a Fulbright fellow in St. Petersburg.”
         Fogle is currently working on a book titled “Second language socialization and learner agency: Talk in three adoptive families,” which focuses on the way a Russian-speaking adoptee and an English-speaking parent work together to learn from each other.
         Fogle said, for her, learning Russian also influenced her knowledge of English.
         “I learned Russian in a naturalistic context without very much classroom instruction, and I’ve always been interested in how my knowledge of Russia and living abroad influenced my knowledge of English, as well as how learning processes operate within and outside of the classroom,” she said. “In many ways, we find that learning a new language and living in a new culture transforms us in unexpected ways.”
         Fogle’s experiences began when she was a student in college. She said she enjoys teaching others who have had similar experiences because they help to enrich the course she is teaching.
         “I have met a lot of students in my classes here who share similar experiences and are curious about language learning in the world around them,” Fogle said. “MSU has a number of excellent study abroad programs, and students who have participated in those programs, including the students currently participating in an exchange program from Russia, really enrich the course that I am teaching.”
         Fogle said being a visiting professor allows her to continue her journey by meeting people she would have never met if she had decided to stay at home. Fogle said she considers her experience at MSU a great way to influence a new group of people.
         “I think that being a visiting professor at MSU is a great way for me to connect with students who have shared interests and are motivated to expand their horizons,” Fogle said.