What is FLARE?

FLARE stands for Foreign Language Acquisition, Research, and Education. It is the name of the interdisciplinary program at The University of Iowa that sponsors the PhD in Second Language Acquisition. In other words, FLARE is not the name of the degree that students achieve; rather, it is the program within which students study to obtain the PhD in Second Language Acquisition.

The FLARE program at The University of Iowa began with its first class of students in the fall semester of 2000 after undergoing a rigorous review and approval process by The Graduate College the previous year. That first cohort of FLARE students numbered just four. To date, FLARE has graduated nine students and currently has over 20 full-time students in its program. In addition, FLARE students are able to take a variety of courses taught by the 20+ affiliated faculty members from a number of departments and programs here at Iowa.
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	Catering to Your Academic Interest(s)

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the FLARE program at The University of Iowa, students are able to specialize in one of the following three tracks within SLA: linguistics, language program direction, and technology. What follows are short descriptions of each specialization and what typical coursework is like in each area.

SLA with specialization in linguistics: Students in this track are more interested in studying areas of formal linguistics (e.g., syntax, phonology, morphology) and/or applied linguistics issues related to their particular second language focus. Sample student projects and foci within this area of SLA include topics such as the acquisition of the syntactic structures and/or phonological features of a second language (L2), generative and cognitive approaches to explaining acquisition.

SLA with specialization in language program direction: Students opting for this track express more of an interest in issues where SLA and L2 pedagogy converge. Some examples of areas of interest in this track include issues related to course design for second language instruction, second language program management, SLA research related to each of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking), and approaches to acquiring cultural competence.

SLA with specialization in technology: The third and final track focuses on the many aspects of technology and how it facilitates second language acquisition. Students hoping to specialize in technology might take courses that focus on designing issues, the use of multimedia and L2 learning, web-based learning and its effect on SLA, developing software or multimedia modules tailored to a specific second language of study.