Dr. Jennifer Behney

Associate Professor
Dr. Jennifer Behney - profile photo

Dr. Jennifer Behney

Associate Professor

English & World Languages

DeBartolo Hall 508

phone: (330) 941-3462

jbehney@ysu.edu

Bio

I completed my PhD in Second Language Studies at Michigan State University in 2011. I have experience teaching English as a second language in Asia, Europe, and the US. I have taught Italian as a second language in the US. I have been teaching at YSU since 2012.

Research Interests

My research interests lie in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and language teacher training. In SLA, I am interested in second language processing, and I have conducted research on grammatical gender processing and eye-tracking. In teacher education, I am interested in teacher candidate performance and role of corrective feedback in the classroom.
I am co-author of an introductory SLA textbook and co-editor of books on second language interaction and the role of salience in SLA. I also have articles that have appeared in the professional journals Language Learning, Foreign Language Annals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and several book chapters.

Teaching Interests

I am cross-appointed to the Department of English and World Languages, where I teach linguistics, TESOL, and Italian language courses and to the Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies where I teach methodology courses and supervise teacher candidates in the field.

  • Education
    • 2011

      Ph D, Second Language Studies (SLS)

      Michigan State University

      Dissertation/Thesis Title — "L2 gender facilitation and inhibition in spoken word recognition "

    • 1997

      MA, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

      The University of Findlay

    • 1995

      BA, French

      Capital University

  • Professional Positions
    • 2019 -

      ACTFL

      Target Language Expert & Quality Assurance for Italian AAPPL proficiency tests

    • 2019 -

      ACTFL

      Rater of OPIc English proficiency tests

    • 2012 -

      Youngstown State University

      Associate Professor

    • 2011 - 2012

      Michigan State University

      Assessment Specialist – Testing Office of English Language Center (ELC)

    • 2009 - 2011

      Michigan State University

      Instructor (language acqusition, Italian, ESL courses)

    • 2006 - 2011

      Michigan State University

      Research Assistant for Professor Susan Gass

    • 2002 - 2006

      Johns Hopkins University--Bologna, Italy

      English Instructor

    • 2001 - 2004

      Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy

      English Lecturer

    • 1998 - 2000

      Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

      Co-Coordinator of Special English Programs (SEP)

    • 1997 - 2000

      The University of Findlay

      Instructor

  • Intellectual Contributions
    • 2023

      ""

      N. Mifka-Profovic, J. Behney, S. Gass, M. Macis, G. Chiuchiù, G. Bovolenta

    • 2021

      "Interaction"

      J. Behney, S. Gass

      Cambridge University Press

    • 2021

      ""

      J. Behney, E. Marsden

    • 2021

      ""

      J. Behney, S. Gass

    • 2020

      "Introduction to SLA"

      J. Behney, E. Marsden

      Routledge, p. 37-50

    • 2020

      ""

      S. Gass, J. Behney, L. Plonsky

    • 2018

      ""

      J. Sarkissian, J. Behney

    • 2018

      ""

      J. Behney, P. Spinner, S. Gass, L. Valmori

    • 2018

      ""

      J. Behney

    • 2018

      ""

      S. Gass, P. Spinner, J. Behney

    • 2016

      ""

      J. Behney

    • 2014

      ""

      J. Behney

    • 2013

      ""

      S. Gass, J. Behney, B. Uzum

    • 2013

      ""

      J. Behney, S. Gass

    • 2013

      ""

      P. Spinner, S. Gass, J. Behney

    • 2013

      ""

      S. Gass, J. Behney, L. Plonsky

    • 2013

      ""

      P. Spinner, S. Gass, J. Behney

    • 2011

      ""

      J. Behney

    • 2009

      ""

      J. Behney

    • "Second Language Acquisition"

      S. Gass, J. Behney, L. Plonsky

      Routledge

Jennifer Behney

Ph.D., Michigan State University (2011)

Jennifer Behney is cross-appointed to the Department of English, where she teaches linguistics courses in the TESOL program, and to the Department of Foreign Languages, where she teaches Italian language and linguistics and foreign language teaching methods. She is also the University Supervisor of student teachers of Spanish and Italian and program coordinator of Foreign Language Education in the Beeghly College of Education (BCOE). In the Department of English, she regularly teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sociolinguistics and language acquisition.

Her research interests lie in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and foreign language teacher training. In SLA, she researches second language processing and has conducted research on grammatical gender processing and eye-tracking. In foreign language teacher education, she researches teacher candidate performance and perceptions on the World Language edTPA.

She is co-author of an introductory SLA textbook and co-editor of a volume on salience in SLA. Her work has appeared in Foreign Language Annals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and several book chapters.

Publications

Books

  • Gass, S., Spinner, P., & Behney, J. (Eds.). (2017). Salience in second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
  • Gass, S., with Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (4th edition). New York: Routledge.

Journal Manuscripts

  • Behney, J. (2016). Perceived influence of Cooperating Teachers on edTPA results. Foreign Language Annals, 49 (2), 271-286.
  • Spinner, P., Gass, S., & Behney, J. (2013). Ecological validity in eye-tracking: An empirical study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35, 389 – 415.

Book Chapters

  • Behney, J. (2018). Performance on the instructing and assessing tasks of the World Language edTPA and avenues for further research. In P. Swanson & S. Hildebrandt (Eds.), Researching edTPA problems and promises: Perspectives from ESOL, English, and WL. Information Age Publishing Inc.
  • Behney, J., Spinner, P., Gass, S., & Valmori, L. (2017). The L2 acquisition of Italian tense: The role of salience. In S. Gass, P. Spinner, & J. Behney (Eds.), Salience in second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
  • Sarkissian, J., & Behney, J. (2017). Salience of noun-adjective agreement in L2 Latin. In S. Gass, P. Spinner, & J. Behney (Eds.), Salience in second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
  • Behney, J., & Gass, S. (2013). Interaction and the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy: A study using syntactic priming. In J. Schwieter, Innovative research and practices in second language acquisition and bilingualism. John Benjamins.
  • Gass, S., Behney, J., & Uzum, B. (2013). Inhibitory control, working memory, and L2 interaction gains. In K. Droździał-Szelest & M. Pawlak, Psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives on second language learning and teaching: Studies in honor of Waldemar Marton. Heidelberg - New York: Springer.
  • Spinner, P., Gass, S., & Behney, J. (2013). Coming eye-to-eye with noticing. In J. M. Bergsleithner, S. N. Frota, & J. K. Yoshioka, (Eds.), Noticing and second language acquisition: Studies in honor of Richard Schmidt (pp. 235–254). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i, National Foreign Language Resource Center.