Susan Gass


Susan Gass is an American linguist who has won the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize. She is currently a professor emerita, retired from the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on applied linguistics with a special focus on second language learning, corrective feedback, and task-based language learning. She graduated in 1961 from Kingswood School Cranbrook.

Career

Gass served as the director of the English Language Center, co-director of the Center for Language Education And Research, co-director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement and director of the Second Language Studies Ph.D. program at the Michigan State University.
Between 2002 and 2008 she served as president of the International Association of Applied Linguistics.
She is currently the editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

Research

According to Google Scholar, Gass's most cited publications include: Second language acquisition: An introductory course, Second language research: Methodology and design, and Input, interaction, and the second language learner.
One of her major publications is a journal article, published in Applied Linguistics in 1985, entitled Non-native/Non-native Conversations: A Model for Negotiation of Meaning. The article, co-written with Evangeline Varonis, builds on the research focusing on conversational interactions between native speakers and non-native speakers. The paper focuses on interactions among non-native speakers of English. Varonis and Gass noted that negotiation of meaning was the most common among non-native speaker/non-native speaker pairs.

Publications

Gass has had work published in several major journals such as Applied Linguistics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning, The Modern Language Journal, and AILA Review.
She has co-written books with Larry Selinker, Alison Mackey, Charlene Polio, and Bill VanPatten.

Awards

Gass has received numerous outstanding awards throughout her career.