Dan teaches first and second language acquisition, pragmatics and nonverbal communication, and neurolinguistics. As a second language acquisition specialist, he studies not just the language learners acquire but also the social, psychological, cognitive and neurological variables that influence language acquisition. He has focused on social network analysis, self-regulation, and positive psychology. Most recently he has turned to using functional neuroimaging (fNIRS) to understand how language is processed and stored and how speaking additional languages affects our brains. Specifically, he is interested in how social working memory (measured via fNIRS) is involved in second language acquisition.
