Nadine Di Vito specializes in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, especially as they relate to second language acquisition and teaching. Her book, Patterns Across Spoken and Written French: Empirical Research on the Interaction Among Forms, Functions, and Genres(1997), focuses on the frequency and contextual use of particular grammatical structures (the subjunctive, relative clauses, the passé composé, passé simple, and imparfait, etc.) in over 53,000 clauses of a variety of genres of contemporary spoken and written French discourse from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. This work challenges many prevalent notions regarding the relationship between spoken and written French and the grammatical distinctions between literary and non-literary French genres, as well as offers new insights in the ways in which the French language has evolved and is continuing to evolve.
In addition to published writings, Nadine has developed and analyzed several corpora of authentic French spoken discourse and has created Web-based audio exercises on these recordings for all French language levels. The discourse in these corpora are representative of diverse types of educated native speech, including one-on-one interviews, formal academic speeches, and everyday telephone conversations.
Nadine has also published research and developed pedagogical materials in the domain of foreign culture acquisition. These studies involve a cross-cultural examination of various speech acts (e.g., invitations, compliments, excuses) and culture-bound values (e.g., being creative and original, being articulate).
Awards, Honors, and Professional Experience
- Director of Romance Language Programs, University of Chicago, 1992-2018
- Excellence in Teaching, University of Pennsylvania
- Recipient of numerous grants involving research in second language acquisition and pedagogical materials development
Recent Courses in RLL
- FREN 10100 Beginning Elementary French I (Autumn 2018, Winter 2019, Autumn 2019)
- FREN 10200 Beginning Elementary French II (Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Winter 2020)
- FREN 10300 Beginning Elementary French III (Autumn 2016, Winter 2017, Autumn 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Autumn 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020)
- FREN 20100 Language, History, and Culture I (Autumn 2019)
- FREN 20200 Language, History, and Culture II (Winter 2020)
- FREN 20300 Language, History, and Culture III (Spring 2020)