Assistant Professor
- Email: lrzentz@central.uh.edu
- Office: 223D Roy Cullen Building
Dr. Zentz’s professional work focuses on language use, language users’ identity/-ies, and language policies in local contexts around the world in the contemporary era of “globalization.” Her research interests also include the social aspects of language learning that influence language users’ motivations and proficiencies in their non-native languages.
Stemming from these fields of inquiry, her doctoral project, entitled Global Language Identities and Ideologies in an Indonesian University Context, explores identity and motivation among undergraduate English majors in Central Java, Indonesia, emphasizing the impacts of global language policy trends and state language policies specifically on Indonesia’s public education system.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Arizona, Language, Reading, and Culture
- M.A., University of Ottawa, Sociolinguistics
- B.A., University of Florida, Health Sciences, French, Linguistics
Research Interests
- Globalization
- Language policy
- Language education
- Global English
- Language ideologies
- Language and identity
- Communicative competence
Selected Publications
Article In Refereed Journal
Poplack, S., Zentz, L., & Dion, N. (2011). “Phrase final prepositions in Quebec French: An empirical study of contact, code-switching and resistance to convergence.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
Zentz, L. (accepted for publication). “The porous borders of language and nation: English in Indonesia.” In themed issue, “Borders and Language: International Perspectives.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language.
Working Papers
Zentz, L. (2012). Linguistic biographies, expanding repertoires, and motivation in Global English language education. Tilburg Papers in Cultural Studies Paper 17. http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-researchgroups/ babylon/tpcs/paper17.pdf.
Works in Progress
Zentz, L. (manuscript in progress). “Love” the local, “use” the national, “study” the foreign: Shifting Javanese Language Ecologies in (Post-)Modernity, Postcoloniality, and Globalization.
Teaching
- 6330 Introduction to Applied Linguistics
- 4300 Introduction to the Study of Language
- 4305 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Syntax
Affiliations
- American Anthropological Association (AAA)
- Council on Anthropology and Education (CAE)
- American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL)