Gale Stam, Ph.D.

Title:

Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology

Programs/Classes Taught:

B.A. in Psychology
M.A. in Psychology
Ph.D. in Community Psychology

LAP 303 Introduction to Psycholinguistics
LAP 348 Cross-Cultural Communication
LAP 350 Culture and Self
LAP 351 Language and Identity
LAP 441 Psychology of Artistic Expression
LAP 499 Psychology Seminar (with a focus on gesture research)
LAP 507 Theories of Cognitive Psychology
LAP 516 Research Design for Psychology
LAP 518 Child and Adolescent Development
LAP 548 Ethics and Legal Issues in Psychology
INT 512A Research Design and Methodology
LAP 670 Advanced Cross-Cultural Communication

Areas of Expertise:

Psycholinguistics, Speech and Gesture, Language and Culture, Language and Cognition, Cognitive Development, First and Second Language Acquisition and Gesture, Linguistics, Teachers' Gestures, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Writing, Grammar

Biography:

Gale Stam, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at National Louis University in Chicago, Illinois. She is an alumna of the McNeill Gesture Lab at the University of Chicago, was an invited researcher at the Laboratoire Parole et Langage (LPL) in Aix-en-Provence, France (February - June 2010), and retains close ties to both labs. Her research interests include language and culture, language and cognition, gesture, and first language and second language acquisition. She has published articles on changes in thinking for speaking, the importance of looking at gesture in second language (L2) acquisition, gesture and lexical retrieval in a L2, and language teachers’ gestures. She is a member of editorial board of the journal Gesture and co-editor of two volumes on speech and gesture – Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research (Routledge, 2008) and Integrating Gestures: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Gesture (John Benjamins, 2011).

Education:

Ph.D. Psychology — Cognition and Communication June 2006
The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

M.A. Linguistics — TESL April 1985
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL

B.A. with Honors Political Science, Minor History June 1974
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Research and Interests:

My research interests include language and culture, language and cognition, gesture, and first language and second language acquisition. I am particularly interested in thinking for speaking and gesture (the development of first language thinking for speaking and how thinking for speaking about motion changes both linguistically and gesturally with second language acquisition), speech and gesture interlanguage, the effect of gesture in oral proficiency interviews, the function of gesture in lexical retrieval, and language teachers' gestures. My current research projects are a study of gestures in teacher talk with Marion Tellier, Aix-Marseille University and CNRS Laboratoire Parole et Langage, a longitudinal study of L1 thinking for speaking, and a longitudinal study of changes in L2 thinking for speaking.