Professional Biography
Jeff MacSwan is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education at the University of Maryland. He is also Professor of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, and affiliate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Maryland Language Science Center. MacSwan’s research program focuses on the linguistic study of bilingualism and codeswitching (or language alternation), and its implications for theories about the role of language in educational settings for multilingual students. He is the editor of the International Multilingual Research Journal, and serves on several editorial boards. Examples of his published work appear in American Educational Research Journal, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Lingua, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Teachers College Record, and in edited collections and handbooks. MacSwan recently served on the Committee on Fostering the Development and Educational Success of Dual Language Learners of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and of the National Education Policy Center. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from AERA's Bilingual Education Research SIG and the Leadership through Scholarship Award from AERA's Second Language Research SIG, both in 2021.
Personal Biography
For my personal biography, please see my chapter in Prasad, Auger and Le Pichon-Verstman's collection, Multilingualism in Context: Researchers’ Pathways and Perspectives (Cambridge, 2022).
Select Articles and Chapters
MacSwan, J. & K. Rolstad. (2024). (Un)grounded language ideologies: A brief history of translanguaging theory. International Journal of Bilingualism.
MacSwan, J., Thompson, M., Rolstad, K., McAlister, K., & Lobo, G. (2017). Three Theories of the Effects of Language Education Programs: An Empirical Evaluation of Bilingual and English-Only Policies. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 218-240. doi:10.1017/S0267190517000137
MacSwan, J. (2017). A multilingual perspective on translanguaging. American Educational Research Journal, 53(1), 54(1), 167–201. DOI: 10.3102/0002831216683935
MacSwan, J. (2016). Codeswitching and the timing of lexical insertion. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 6(6), 786-791.
MacSwan, J. (2016). Codeswitching in adulthood, pp. 183-200. In Nicoladis, E., & Montanari, S. (eds.). Lifespan perspectives on bilingualism. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association & Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
MacSwan, J., ed. (2014). Grammatical Theory and
Bilingual Codeswitching. Cambridge: MIT
Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02789-2.
Rolstad, K., & MacSwan, J. (2014). The facilitation effect and language thresholds. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01197
MacSwan, J.
(2013). Code switching and linguistic theory, pp. 223–350. In T. K.
Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Krashen, S., Rolstad,
K. & MacSwan, J. (2012). Review of “Research summary and bibliography for
Structured English Immersion programs” of the Arizona English Language Learners
Task Force, pp. 107-119. In C. Faltis & B. Arias (eds.) English Learners in
Arizona. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
MacSwan, J., & Rolstad, K. (2006). How language tests mislead us about children’s abilities: Implications for special education placements. Teachers College Record, 108(11), 2304–2328.
MacSwan,
J. (2005). Codeswitching and generative
grammar: A critique of the MLF model and some remarks on “modified
minimalism.”
Bilingualism: Language
and Cognition, 8(1), 1-22.
MacSwan,
J. (2005). Remarks
on Jake, Myers-Scotton
and Gross’s response: There is no “matrix language.” Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 8(2), 277-284.
MacSwan, J., & Pray, L. (2005). Learning English bilingually: Age of onset of exposure and rate of acquisition of English among children in a bilingual education program. Bilingual Research Journal, 29(3), 687-712.
MacSwan, J. & Rolstad, K. (2005). Modularity and the facilitation effect: Psychological mechanisms of transfer in bilingual students. Hispanic Journal of the Behavioral Sciences, 27(2), 224-243.
MacSwan, J., & Rolstad, K. (2003). Linguistic diversity, schooling, and social class: Rethinking our conception of language proficiency in language minority education, pp. 329-340. In C. B. Paulston & R. Tucker (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Oxford: Blackwell.
MacSwan,
J., Rolstad, K., & Glass, G. V.
(2002). Do some school-age children have no
language? Some problems of
construct validity in the Pre-LAS Español. Bilingual
Research Journal, 26(2), 213-238.
Teaching
- TLPL664 Foundations of Language Minority Education: Legal, Social and Historical Trends and Issues
-
TLPL646 Linguistics in Education
Contact Information
2223 Benjamin BuildingDepartment of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Division of Language, Literacy, Culture, and Social Inquiry (LLCSI)
College of Education
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Email: macswan@umd.edu (best contact method)
Phone: (301) 405.3141
Fax: (301) 314.9055