Jean Costa-Silva

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PhD
Transition to the Professoriate Scholar

My primary linguistic interests pertain to Second Language Acquisition, Cognitive Linguistics and Formal Linguistic Theory (Syntax and Semantics). My work focuses on the development of motion descriptions by English-Portuguese bilinguals. In essence, I am interested in how learners employ different linguistic strategies to describe movement through space.

I have a BA in English Linguistics, Literature, and TESOL from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, as well as teaching certificates from the University of Oregon and the University of Cambridge. Prior to coming to UGA, my career was mostly focused on TESOL: I taught English in Slovakia and Brazil for over 10 years altogether. In 2017-2018 I received a Fulbright scholarship and worked in the Department of Romance Languages at UGA. Upon starting my PhD at UGA, I was awarded a Goizueta Foundation Fellowship, which I held from 2019 to 2023.

I am currently a Transition to the Professoriate Scholar (formerly SEC Emerging Scholars) dedicated entirely to my research on language acquisition. I am also the coordinator of the Second Language Acquisition and Cognition Lab in the Department of Linguistics.

Education:
  • 2019- present, PhD in Linguistics, University of Georgia.
  • 2024- Graduate Certificate in University Teaching, University of Georgia.
  • 2009- 2014, B.A., English Studies (Linguistics, Literature and TESOL), magna cum laude, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil.
Areas of Interest:
Language Acquisition
Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
Semantics
Syntax and Morphology
Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics
Specific Research Areas:
  • Second Language Acquisition
  • Cognitive Linguistics
  • Motion Semantics and the Acquisition of Motion Encoding in the L2
  • Semantic Typology and Motion Event Semantics
  • Second Language Pragmatics
Grants:
  • PORT-LACSI Research Grant Award
    Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, University of Georgia, 2024; ($800)
  • Charlayne Hunter-Gault Giving Voice to the Voiceless Program Grant, Grady College, University of Georgia, 2021; ($1,000)
  • Shelter Projects Micro-Fellowship, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Georgia, 2021. ($500)
Selected Publications:

Peer-Reviewed Publications:

  • Costa-Silva, J., Zhang, S., & Lee-Schoenfeld, V. (2025). The effects of bilingual proficiency on the acceptability of motion encoding strategies. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672892400052X
  • Costa-Silva, J., Lee-Schoenfeld, V. (2024). Syntactically Branching out Beyond the Traditional Classroom: A Report on the Discovery Method. Language, 100 (3), e99-e123. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2024.a937195
  • Costa-Silva, J. (2024). Neither Portugal nor Brazil: an investigation of the decolonial efforts in instructional materials adopted in early Portuguese courses at U.S. universities. Hispania, 107(1), 67-86. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2024.a921462
  • Costa-Silva, J. (2024). Islandhood in Brazilian Portuguese Revisited: Evidence for Sensitivity Effects. UGA Working Papers in Linguistics.
  • Costa-Silva, J., Fischer, D. N. (2022). Voicing the Global South: Translanguaging for Social Justice. In Língua(gem) e justiça social: saberes, práticas e paradigmas, 2, 40-53.
  • Costa-Silva, J., Saccomani, J. (2021). A revista de um programa de português como ferramenta didática: uma alternativa translíngue e multicultural. In Microgeopolítica da língua portuguesa: ações, desafios e perspectivas, 187-198.
  • Costa-Silva, J. (2018). Uma proposta interdisciplinar para o ensino de inglês: a história dos multi-word verbs. In Revista de Letra em Letra, 5, 74-82.

Creative Writing:

  • Costa-Silva, J. (2021). “The Lost Star: A estrela perdida”, e-book, Sponsored by the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts’s Shelter Project Micro-Fellowship, University of Georgia
  • Costa-Silva, J. (2015). “O Último Natal”, e-book.
  • Costa-Silva, J. (2014). “Sinais de Trânsito” (“Traffic Lights”), short-story, II "Travessia" Writing Contest, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Awards and Special Recognitions:

Internal Awards:

  • 2024, Transition to the Professoriate Scholarship (formerly SEC Emerging Scholars).
  • 2024, Summer Doctoral Research Assistantship, Graduate School.
  • 2024, Graduate Research Award
    Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Georgia.
  • 2024, Excellence in Teaching Award, Office of the Vice President for Instruction.
  • 2023, Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Center for Teaching and Learning.
  • 2023, Outstanding Contributions to the Department, Department of Linguistics.
  • 2018, Team Work: Career Readiness Challenge, Career Center, University of Georgia - with Fala Aí Magazine.

External Awards:

  • The Goizueta Foundation Fellowship, The Goizueta Foundation, 2019-2023.
  • Global Engagement Initiative Award, ACTFL Language Connects, for the Portuguese Flagship Online Summer Program, 2020;
  • Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship, U.S. Department of State, 2017-2018;
  • American English E-Teacher Program Scholarship, U.S. Department of State, 2015;
  • Crossing Countries through Culture, Youth in Action Programme, European Union Commission (Slovakia), 2007-2008;
  • Tales Inside Us, The Tale of Europe, Youth in Action Programme, European Union Commission (Turkey), 2007.

Travel Funding:

  • Graduate Student Domestic Travel Award. Costa-Silva, J., Lee-Schoenfeld, V. (2023, July). Syntactically Branching out Beyond the Traditional Classroom: A Report on the Discovery Method. Paper presented at the NSF-funded 2023 Conference on Scholarly Teaching and SoTL in Linguistics.
  • Linguistics Society at UGA Travel Funding: Costa-Silva, J. (2023, March). The Acquisition of Motion Encoding by English-Portuguese Bilinguals Across Proficiency Levels. Paper presented at the 90th Southeastern Conference on Linguistics.
  • Graduate School Domestic Travel Award: Rodríguez, Shannon, Paula Mellom, Jean Costa Silva, Rebecca K. Hixon, & Jodi Weber. (2021, March). Impact of Instructional Conversation on WTC in Undergraduate Foreign Language Courses. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Virtual.

Honors:

  • Blue Key Honors Society - University of Georgia Chapter.
  • Alpha Alpha Alpha (Tri-Alpha) Honors Society.
Courses Taught:
LING 2100
LING 3150W
LING 2100E
LING 4175/6175
LING 3160W
Articles Featuring Jean Costa-Silva

UGA Linguistics Hosts Annual LCUGA

The Linguistics Conference at the University of Georgia (LCUGA 2025) was hosted on March 15-16, 2025, in Athens, Georgia.

LSA 2025 Banner

UGA Linguists Present at LSA 2025

Last week we had some individuals from our program present in Philadelphia at the 2025 Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, the largest linguistics conference in the country!
 
…

PhD Candidate Jean Costa-Silva and Dr. Vera Lee-Schoenfeld publish article in Language

Late September, PhD Jean Costa-Silva alongside Dr. Vera Lee-Schoenfeld published the article, "Syntactically branching out beyond the traditional classroom: A report on the discovery method", in Language - the flagship journal of the…


Linguistics Ph.D. Candidate Receives Graduate Research Award

This past week, Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant Jean Costa-Silva received a Graduate Research Award from the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Advisory Board. The $900 award will go towards costs associated with his research project, “Acquisition of…


Linguistics Department Summer 2023 Round-Up

This past summer, Linguistics faculty and students represented UGA at several conferences. We are excited about all of the phenomenal research taking place in the department, and we would like to take the opportunity to recognize some of the projects that…

Photos of the three recipients of the outstanding teaching award

Congratulations to the 2023 Outstanding Teaching Award winners

The Department of Linguistics is proud to announce the 2023 Outstanding Teaching Award winners:

PhD student Jean Costa Silva looks towards the camera

PhD student Jean Costa Silva presents at the Instituto de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Our PhD student Jean Costa Silva has recently given a series of talks on second language acquisition at the Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil.

book cover

Book chapter by PhD student Jean Costa Silva

Congratulations to PhD student Jean Costa Silva, who recently published a chapter titled "A revista de um programa de português como ferramenta didática: uma alternativa translíngue e multicultural (The magazine of a Portuguese program as a pedagogical tool for…

Contact Information

jeancosta@uga.edu

Other Information

Curriculum Vitae: 2025 CV.pdf (161.7 KB)
Professional Web site: Jean Costa-Silva
Other Affiliations: Second Language Acquisition and Cognition Lab

View Directory

Major Professor:

Vera Lee-Schoenfeld

Associate Professor of Linguistics
vleesch@uga.edu

Paula Mellom

Senior Research Scientist, The MERIT Center
pjmellom@uga.edu
706-542-3415

Committee Members

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