Teresa P. Pica Explained

Teresa P. Pica (26 September 1945 – 15 November 2011), also known as Tere Pica, was a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, a post she held from 1983 until her death in 2011.^[1] Her areas of expertise included second language acquisition, language curriculum design, approaches to classroom practice, and classroom discourse analysis. Pica was well known for her pioneering work in task-based language learning and published widely in established international journals in the field of English as a foreign or second language and applied linguistics.

Early years

Before entering the field of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Pica was a speech and language pathologist, working at the Child Development Center in Mount Vernon, New York, where she established a pre-school language stimulation program.

Education

Pica graduated from Trumbull High School in 1963, and then attended the College of New Rochelle, where she graduated in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in English and speech communications. She received her master's degree in speech pathology from Columbia University in 1969.^{[2] [3]} She earned her Ph.D. in educational linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in three years, graduating in 1982.^[4]

Teaching

In 1983, she took over the position of her advisor, Michael Long, who left Penn in 1982.^[5]

Pica supervised more than 50 doctoral dissertations at Penn and at universities abroad. Some of her best-known advisees include her first two doctoral students,^[6] Jessica Williams (1987)^[7] and Catherine Doughty (1988),^[8] as well as Richard Young,^[9] Valerie Jakar,^[10] Joanna Labov,^[11] and Shannon Sauro.^[12] Pica's last doctoral student to complete was Elizabeth Scheyder.^{[13] [14]}

Personal life

Dr. Pica was married to Robert Hamilton. She died in 2011 at her home in Philadelphia of viral encephalitis.^[2]

Select publications

• Pica . Teresa. 1 . Adult Acquisition of English as a Second Language Under Different Conditions of Exposure . Language Learning . December 1983 . 33 . 4 . 465–497 . 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1983.tb00945.x.
• Pica . Teresa. 1 . The Role of Group Work in Classroom Second Language Acquisition . Studies in Second Language Acquisition . June 1985 . 7 . 2 . 233–248 . 10.1017/S0272263100005398 . en . 1470-1545.
• Pica . Teresa. 1 . Research on Negotiation: What Does It Reveal About Second-Language Learning Conditions, Processes, and Outcomes? . Language Learning . September 1994 . 44 . 3 . 493–527 . 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01115.x.
• Pica . Teresa. 1 . Language Learners' Interaction: How Does It Address the Input, Output, and Feedback Needs of L2 Learners? . TESOL Quarterly . 1996 . 30 . 1 . 59–84 . 10.2307/3587607 . 3587607 . 0039-8322.
• Pica . Teresa. 1 . Classroom Learning, Teaching, and Research: A Task-Based Perspective . The Modern Language Journal . 2005 . 89 . 3 . 339–352 . 10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00309.x . 3588662 . 0026-7902.

External links

• Pica's research while affiliated with University of Pennsylvania and other places
• Teresa P. Pica's profile at the University of Pennsylvania

Notes and References

1. Web site: Teresa P. Pica, In Memoriam . University of Pennsylvania . Penn GSE . November 18, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20111122223837/http://www.gse.upenn.edu/teresa_pica_in_memoriam . November 22, 2011 .
2. News: Bonnie L. . Cook . Teresa Pica, 66, professor at Penn Graduate School of Education. 22 January 2018. The Inquirer. December 2, 2011.
3. News: Among the Graduates . The Bridgeport Post . July 7, 1969 . . 24.
4. Web site: Teresa P. Pica. Penn GSE. 15 November 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111105045308/http://www.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/pica. 5 November 2011.
5. Web site: Educational Linguistics as a Field: A View from Penn's Program on the Occasion of its 25th Anniversary . University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education . Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, V. 17 . Fall 2001 . November 19, 2011 . Hornberger, Nancy H. . 2 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110724035201/http://www.gse.upenn.edu/wpel/v17/v17Hornberger.pdf . July 24, 2011 .
6. Web site: Video of Memorial Service for Tere Pica, timestamp 16:15. PennGSE Video.
7. Williams. Jessica. 1987. PhD. Production principles in non-native institutionalized varieties of english. .
8. Doughty. Catherine J. S.. 1988. PhD. The effect of instruction on the acquisition of relativization in English as a second language. .
9. Young. Richard Frederick. Variation in interlanguage morphology: (s) plural-marking in the speech of Chinese learners of English. PhD. .
10. Jakar. Valerie S.. A society contained, a culture maintained: An ethnography of second language acquisition in informal education. PhD. .
11. Labov. Joanna L.. The roles of distinctive and redundant features in the production of the short A and E vowel contrast by L1 German speakers of English. PhD. .
12. Web site: Sauro. Shannon. A comparative study of recasts and metalinguistic feedback through computer mediated communication on the development of L2 knowledge and production accuracy. 2012-05-28.
13. Web site: Video of Memorial Service for Tere Pica, timestamp 18:45. PennGSE Video.
14. Scheyder. Elizabeth C. The impact of recordings on student achievement in critical language courses. PhD. .