UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State College of Education faculty member is among the top 2% of researchers to have their work referenced in the disciplines of languages and linguistics, according to statistics compiled by Stanford University professor John P.A. Ioannidis and available through the Elsevier Data Repository. Researchers included in the database are categorized in 22 scientific disciplines and 174 sub-fields.
Matthew Poehner, professor of education (world languages education and applied linguistics), made the list in the area of languages and linguistics.
“[This] is one useful way of getting a sense of who are being the movers and shakers in an academic discipline, in a field of research,” Poehner said. “To be included in that list is humbling and surprising and wonderful.”
Poehner researches how people develop abilities in other languages. The research topic that he is perhaps most strongly associated with is dynamic assessment — a manner of testing in which, when test takers encounter problems, support is provided and how the test taker responds becomes part of the interpretation of their abilities.
“The idea with dynamic assessment is that by engaging in that interaction, it actually allows me to go beyond simply ‘these students can do it and those can’t,’” Poehner said. “I can determine how much support or what kinds of support different individuals might need to be successful. It provides more information about their abilities and where they are rather than a simple yes/no, pass/fail kind of approach.”
Recently, Poehner has been collaborating with researchers in China and Finland for projects using this approach with students studying English as a as a second language in high schools and universities. The researchers are looking to measure a range of students’ abilities, including listening, speaking and writing.
“[Dynamic assessment] connects with and is interesting to other people who are interested in new ways of looking at assessment of language abilities and also other people who are interested more generally in the teaching and learning of English as a second language,” Poehner said.
Poehner called the theoretical work he does the second prong of a two-pronged approach known as the school of cultural-historical psychology. It is also sometimes called sociocultural theory and was started by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky.
Poehner considers himself “one of the advocates” of that approach and, as such, has started a dialogue with people who are advocating other theoretical traditions.
“We're discussing similarities and differences and what our approach has to offer that maybe other approaches don't,” he said. “But also by being one of the people who is really pushing forward sociocultural theory and that broad framework, I think anybody who wants to work within that framework is likely referring to work that I do and that some of my colleagues do as we attempt to interpret the theory and its relevance to various contexts and questions.”
For example, Poehner said, if someone is interested in doing research on preparing new teachers or on integrating technology into classrooms, if they're drawing upon sociocultural theory, they're probably referencing the work that he and some of his colleagues have done to explain that theory to show what it has to offer.
Poehner said it is validating that so many of his peers respect his work enough to want to cite it when pursuing their own research projects.
“Obviously, I want to engage with my colleagues and students here at Penn State and continue to do that, but I think this is showing that the work is resonating with researchers and practitioners and students all around the world,” Poehner said. “Because this is the top 2% in the world — not just even in the United States — it is validating in that way.”
Poehner has worked as a consultant in China, and, in 2022, he served as guest editor of a special issue of a field publication, “Language Assessment Quarterly,” which was themed around dynamic assessment research in China.
“I think work like that is going to continue to be important — to use, if you're in a position of influence, to try to use that influence to help advance the field and to support up-and-coming researchers, doctoral students, people who have not yet managed to establish themselves,” Poehner said. “How can you support them? And I think that also goes to, thinking about here in the College of Education, we're known as being a premier research institution. My hope is that this will continue to attract interest in terms of researchers at other universities who would like to partner with us, visiting scholars who might want to come and learn alongside us as well as prospective students who would like to come and do their doctoral work with us because they see faculty members who have an international reputation and faculty members who are making an impact on the field.”