EML Welcomes Alyssa Kermad

We are thrilled to have a new linguist in the department: Alyssa Kermad. Dr. Kermad joined us in August as an Assistant Professor, coming to CPP from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University—but Dr. Kermad is no stranger to California, as her B.A. is from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Dr. Kermad researches and teaches classes in second language speech and pronunciation, second language acquisition, individual differences, speech perception and production, speech assessment, speech and pragmatics, methodological issues in speech research, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She is particularly interested in the speaker-listener interaction and how communication success is impacted by variance in second language speech production and listener perception. Dr. Kermad's most recent publications include “The Effect of Training and Rater Differences on Oral Proficiency Assessment,” “Effect of Classroom Assessment Stakes on English Language Learners’ Oral Performance,” and “Prosody in L2 Pragmatics.” This fall, she is teaching Grammar of Modern English, Structure of Language, and Language Acquisition.

Join us in welcoming Ally Kermad to campus!