Corinne Crane

Associate Professor of German
German Language Program Director

  • email: cpcrane@ua.edu
  • phone (205) 348-5059
  • office location BB Comer Hall 232

Education

  • PhD, Georgetown University
  • MA, University of Pennsylvania
  • BA, Cornell University

Research Areas

  • world language pedagogy and curriculum development
  • systemic functional linguistics
  • language teacher education
  • reflective teaching and learning
  • transformative learning

Bio

Dr. Corinne (Cori) Crane is an applied linguist and language teacher educator who has taught beginning to advanced levels of German and graduate seminars in world language teaching and applied linguistics for over fifteen years. Her research interests closely align to her extensive language curriculum development and teacher mentoring work, with recent and current projects located in the areas of critical reflection and transformative learning, systemic functional linguistics and second language (L2) literacy development, and language teacher education. Her publications have appeared in the Foreign Language Annals, L2 Journal, Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, ProfessionADFL Bulletin, and various AAUSC volumes. She currently serves on ACTFL’s Research and Assessment Committee and on the editorial boards for Second Language Research & Practice, Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, Korean Language in America, and Foreign Languages & the Literary in the Everyday.

Dr. Crane’s work on structured reflection across language curricula draws on the theoretical framework of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991) that sees ‘disorienting dilemmas’ as catalysts for deep reflection and structural change in one’s frame of reference. In recent publications, she has investigated the connections that beginning L2 learners make between learning in and out of the classroom (Crane, 2018), the potential for perspective-shifting experiences among students, teachers, and program coordinators in navigating complicated social pedagogies (Crane, Fingerhuth, & Huenlich, 2018), and the role of structured reflection for undergraduate curriculum design (Crane & Sosulski, 2020). Most recently, Dr. Crane has extended her study of perspective transformation to advanced sociolinguistics coursework where she is studying how critical reflection can support students in developing deeper and new understandings about linguistic diversity and equity.

In her discourse analytic work, Dr. Crane has focused on the writing development of L2 learners across non-academic genres, work that stems from her dissertation on the expression of affect and stance in personal letter writing among advanced L2 learners of German. Working within the framework of systemic functional linguistics, she is currently investigating the relationship between genre pedagogies and Integrated Performance Assessment (multi-task language assessment that engages interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication) through a study on beginning L2 learners’ narrative writing (Crane & Malloy, 2021).

In her role as a program director and language teacher educator over the years, Dr. Crane has additionally studied and regularly offers workshops on exploratory practice, a fully inclusive practitioner research model that aims to support instructors in creating a regular, sustainable practice of classroom inquiry focused on developing deeper understanding about teaching and learning. With Judith Hanks (University of Leeds), Inés Miller (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), and Assia Slimani-Rolls (Regent’s College), Dr. Crane is co-convener of a three-year Research Network (ReN) sponsored by the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) on Fully Inclusive Practitioner Research with special focus on exploratory practice.

Selected Publications

Books

Niekerk, C., & Crane, C. (Eds.). (2017). Approaches to Ali and Nino:  Love, identity, and transcultural conflict. Lake Placid, NY: Camden House.

Hamilton, H., Crane, C., & Bartoshesky, A. (2005). Doing foreign language: Bringing Concordia Language Villages to language classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Articles and Book Chapters

Crane, C., & Malloy, M. (2021). The development of temporal-spatial meaning in personal recounts of beginning L2 writers of German. System, 99, 1-15.

Crane, C., & Sosulski, M. J. (2021). Identifying and evaluating transformative learning in language learning. In B. L. Leaver, D. E. Davidson, & C. Campbell (Eds.). Transformative language learning and teaching (pp. 217-226). NY: Cambridge University Press.

Lorenz, A., Crane, C., Benjamin, J., & Boas, H. (2020). L2 German learners’ perceptions and use of an online semantic frame-based dictionary for vocabulary learning. Die Unterrichtspraxis /Teaching German, 53 (2), 191-209.

Crane, C. (2020). Transforming our perspectives as language professionals during COVID-19. Second Language Research & Practice, 1 (1), 168–173.

Crane, C., & Sosulski, M. J. (2020). Staging transformative learning across collegiate language curricula: Student perceptions of structured reflection for language learning. Foreign Language Annals, 53 (1), 69-95.

Crane, C., & Warner, C. (2019). Zwischen Studierenden und Lehrenden: Graduate School als Lehrerausbildung an amerikanischen Universitäten. IDV-Magazin. June 2019, 56-61.

Hlas, C. A., & Crane, C. (2019). Linking research and practice. The Language Educator. April/May 2019, 30-33.

Crane, C., Fingerhuth, M., & Huenlich, D. (2018). ‘What makes this so complicated?’ On the value of disorienting dilemmas in language instruction. In S. Dubreil & S. L. Thorne (Eds.). Engaging the world: Social pedagogies and language learning (pp. 227-252). Boston, MA: Heinle.

Crane, C. (2018). Making connections in beginning language instruction through structured reflection and the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. In P. Urlaub & J. Watzinger-Tharp (Eds.). The interconnected language curriculum: Critical transitions and interfaces in articulated K-16 contexts (pp. 51–74). Boston, MA: Heinle.

Crane, C. (2016). Understanding and evaluating L2 personal letter writing: A systemic functional linguistics analysis of student texts in German. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 49 (2), 122-139.

Crane, C. (2015). Exploratory practice in the FL teaching methods course: A case study of three graduate student instructors’ experiences. L2 Journal, 7 (2), 1-23.