About

Ari is an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. During the 2015-16 academic year, he was a J. William Fulbright Scholar at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. During June 2019, Ari was a distinguished guest researcher at the University of South Africa. He holds a PhD in Second Language Development, an MA in Applied Linguistics, and a BA in the Humanities.  He is certified as an EFL and ESL teacher as well as a School Principal. Ari’s research and language revitalization interests include Mikasuki, Salish Ql’ispe (a.k.a. Salish-Pend d’Oreille, Montana Salish, and Flathead Salish) and Safaliba. His ethnographic work documents situated practice in grassroots policy initiatives and school-based activism among the Safaliba in rural Ghana.  His language documentation includes conceptual metaphors and formulaic language in Salish Ql’ispe and Safaliba. He also explores applications of task-based language teaching in the pedagogy of revitalization. His practitioner papers analyze integrated content and language instruction, academic English instruction for graduate students, and asset-based coaching for and by language teachers (e.g., peer coaching, critical friending in educational contexts).  Ari has planned and facilitated language and literacy workshops and lectures, as well as curriculum development, in Ghana, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Documentation, reclamation, and revitalization of indigenous languages; language ideologies and policies; language education; second language acquisition/development; teacher education; multilingual and multimodal meaning making; ethnography; autoethnography; indigenous literacies; semiotics; complexity theory; materiality.