Gale Stam

Gale Stam

Professor, Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences

Areas of Expertise

Psycholinguistics, speech and gesture; First and second language acquisition; Language and culture; Language and cognition

Contact Info

Gale Stam is currently accepting and scheduling areas of expertise interviews. Please use the information below to arrange a meeting.

Campus: Skokie

Email: gstam@nl.edu

Phone: 224.233.2231

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Susan Barnett
Director of Communications
susan.barnett@nl.edu
312.261.3051

Biography

Dr. Gale Stam is professor of psychology at National-Louis University, where she has been a full-time faculty member since 1986.She has published several articles on how patterns of thinking for speaking about motion change both linguistically and gesturally with second language acquisition and has presented her research at state, national, and international conferences. She received the Excellence in Research Award from National-Louis University in 2007 as well as several faculty development grants to support her research.

Stam's co-edited book Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom (2008) is the first on the topic of gesture and second language acquisition. Her forthcoming chapter, “Can a L2 speaker’s patterns of thinking for speaking change?” in Z. Hong and T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in SLA discusses how a second language learner’s patterns of thinking for speaking in both her first language and her second language changed linguistically and gesturally in nine years. Her current activities include serving as vice-president of the International Society for Gesture Studies, conducting a research project “Development of L1 Thinking for Speaking: A Longitudinal Perspective” to investigate the development of first language thinking-for-speaking patterns longitudinally, and co-editing a volume entitled Integrating Gestures: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Gesture.

Education

Ph.D. in Psychology in Cognition and Communication from University of Chicago
M.A. in Linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University

Publications

Stam, G. and Ishino, M. (Eds.) (in progress). Integrating Gestures: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Gesture. Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins.

Stam, G. (forthcoming). Can a L2 speaker’s patterns of thinking for speaking change? In Z. Han, and T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in second language acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

McCafferty, S. and Stam, G. (Eds.). (2008). Gesture: Second language acquisition and classroom research. New York: Routledge.

Stam, G. and McCafferty, S. (2008). Gesture studies and second language acquisition: A review. In S. McCafferty and G. Stam (Eds.), Gesture: Second language acquisition and classroom research,3-24. New York: Routledge.

Stam, G. (2008). What gestures reveal about second language acquisition. In S. McCafferty and G. Stam (Eds.), Gesture: Second language acquisition and classroom research, 231-255. New York: Routledge.

Stam, G. (2007). Second language acquisition from a McNeillian perspective. In E. Levy, S. Duncan and J. Cassell (Eds.), Gesture and the dynamic dimension of language: Essays in honor of David McNeill. (Gesture Studies 1), 117-124. Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins.

Stam, G. (2006).  Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture. IRAL 44, 143-169.

Presentations

Gesture: How Gestures Indicate Language Proficiency” and“Gesture: Coding Videotaped Data” invited speaker at National Taipei University, Ta Tung University of Technology and Science, and National Cheng Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2009.

“Prosody, Gesture, and Communicative Dynamism in Second Language Development” invited speaker for Applied Linguistics/Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening InterSection Session “Gesture and Prosody in Embodied Second Language Learning,” TESOL 2005, San Antonio, TX, March 2005.

 

How Patterns of Thinking for Speaking Change: A Case Study,” Language, Communication and Cognition Conference, Brighton, UK, August 2008.

 Patterns of Thinking for Speaking, Years Later,” Third Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) Integrating Gestures, Evanston, IL, June 2007.

“Patterns of Thinking for Speaking, Nine Years Later,” American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Costa Mesa, CA, April 2007.

What Speech and Gesture Reveal about L2 Learners’ Thinking for Speaking about Motion,” Nijmegen Gesture Centre Lecture Series 2006, Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen the Netherlands, December 2006.

“What Gestures Disclose About Second Language Acquisition,” 14th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Madison, WI, July 2005.

 

 “Second Language Acquisition and Gesture,” symposium organizer, 14th World Congress of the International Assoiation of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Madison, WI, July 2005.

 

“Gesture Interlanguage,” Second Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS), Interacting Bodies - Corps en Interaction,Lyon, France, June 2005.

Images

Gale Stam

Video