Megan Wadas is a fifth-year PhD Candidate in German Linguistics and Language Science. Her dissertation focuses on German learners’ motivation and engagement during short conversations with native speakers.

She loves teaching at Penn State, but has also chaperoned the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Summer Study Program to Bremerhaven (2025) and taught English to middle schoolers and college students at the PH Vorarlberg (USTA/Fulbright Austria (2023-24)). A fun fact about Megan is that while she was in Austria, she joined a traditional marching band and rollerbladed from Austria to Switzerland across Liechtenstein. She enjoys dabbling in Italian, knitting, and travelling (especially via train!).

Research interests:

L2 motivation and engagement, individual differences, learner psychology, multilingualism

Publications:

Wadas, M., Goetze, J., & Jackson, C. (2024). Going above and beyond: Motivations of L2 German learners to (dis)continue language study. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 57(1), 87–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12274