Marc Wisnosky Research Associate University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA Email: maw101@pitt.edu

Education

• University of Pittsburgh (MA in Linguistics, 2003)
• University of Pittsburgh [Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), 2003]
• University of Pittsburgh (BA Self-Designed, 2003)

Areas of Expertise

• English as a Second Language Instruction
• International Education
• Sociolinguistics/Dialects: Pittsburgh Speech

Professional Biography

Marc Wisnosky earned his MA in Linguistics in 2003.  His thesis focused on Pittsburghers’ attitudes towards humor skits and jokes performed in the local dialect.  In addition, he worked with Dr. Scott Kiesling on the Pittsburgh Speech and Society Project, which spawned a paper and a poster, as well as coining a new linguistic term, that of “heritage prestige.”  Their work and Mr. Wisnosky’s thesis have been used by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for the Pittsburgh portion of the documentary “Do You Speak American?”  Mr. Wisnosky also earned a certificate in Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and embarked on a career teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at the university level for ELS Language Centers at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is currently the Assistant Academic Director.  Mr. Wisnosky began coursework towards the Ed.D. in Higher Education Management in the Fall of 2007, which he continues with today in addition to his teaching and administrative duties with ELS.

Research Interests & Current Projects

Mr. Wisnosky is interested in International Education in the United States.  Working with diverse student populations at ELS Language Center at the University of Pittsburgh, he became interested in how foreign educational background affects performance in second language US classrooms. He is also interested in the management of domestic ESL/EFL programs.  An issue of future research for Mr. Wisnosky is exploring if and how foreign educational systems have been implemented in the United States, with a focus on religious/seminary education.

Courses Taught

• English as a Second Language, all ages and skill levels
• LING 1000 - Introduction to Linguistics
• Language Acquisition II
  

Selected Publications

Kiesling, Scott F., and Marc Wisnosky. 2003. Competing norms, heritage prestige, and /aw/-monophthongization in Pittsburgh. Poster presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 32, Philadelphia.

Wisnosky, Marc. 2003. “Pittsburghese” in Pittsburgh Humor. Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.