Biography
In addition to serving as the Director of CeLCAR and the PI for the center's external grants, Öner is an Associate Professor of linguistics and second language acquisition in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies (CEUS) at Indiana University, as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Second Language Studies (SLS) in the same institution. He has a Ph.D. in Linguistics as well as in Language Acquisition from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and an MA in Applied Linguistics, with a TESOL Certificate, from the University of Pittsburgh, PA. He has taught courses and published research on phonology and phonetics, as well as on linguistics in general and second language acquisition/teaching. His research has appeared in numerous leading linguistics and language acquisition journals, including Phonology, the flagship journal of the field of phonology; more general linguistics journals, such as Linguistics, Glossa, The Linguistic Review, and the leading journals in second language acquisition (e.g. Second Language Research) and language acquisition in general (e.g. Language Acquisition), as well as area-specific journals (such as Turkic Languages) and various volumes/books. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the high-impact second language acquisition journal Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Education
-Ph.D., McGill University, Department of Linguistics, 2012
-Interdisciplinary PhD program option in Language Acquisition, McGill University
-M.A. University of Pittsburgh, Department of Linguistics, 2006
-Graduate Certificate in TESOL, University of Pittsburgh
-B.A. Boğaziçi University, Department of Foreign Language Education, 2004
Research Interests
Second language acquisition
Phonology and phonetics (with an emphasis on prosody)
Prosody-syntax interface
Phonology-morphology interface
Language pedagogy
Grants, Awards & Honors:
Grants received or administered:
2018 - 2022: PI, National Language Resource Center (LRC), Title VI Grant. Directing Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR), US Department of Education - $767,072.00 over a period of four years (highest amount received among all national LRCs)
2018 – 2019 Recently Tenured Working Group Award (selected from all units and schools at Indiana University), Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University - $8,000.00
2018: Co-PI, Indiana University Ostrom grant for conference organization: for the conference “Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America 9” – $6,000 (one time)
2017-2018: Co-PI, Indiana University College of Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) grant for conference organization: for the conference “Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America 9” – $6,000 (one time)
2015 – 2016: Principal PI, Indiana University Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Phase I Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) Grant: for teaching/learning-related research, titled ‘Determining effectiveness of Content Based Instruction in an online language learning environment’ (with Amber Kent and Rahman Arman as other project members)
2014 - 2018: PI, National Language Resource Center (LRC), Title VI Grant. Directing Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR), US Department of Education - $739,200.00 over a period of four years
2014: PI, Indiana University Ostrom grant for creative scholarly, artistic and pedagogical activities - $5,000 (one time)
2013 - 2014: PI, Indiana University College of Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) grant for conference organization: for a conference on the “acquisition of Central Asian languages” – $3,000 (one time)
2012 - 2013: Director/PI, Mellon Innovating International Research, Teaching and Collaboration Innovative Workshop grant (Andrew W Mellon Foundation), for the organization of an “Intensive Workshop on Distance Teaching and Learning for Less Commonly Taught and Critical Languages” at IU - $5,000.00 (one time)
2012 - 2013: Director/PI, Indiana National Guard grant for the organization of a seven-day seminar under CeLCAR on Afghan Languages and Cultures. - $13,403.00 (one time)
2012 - 2014: Director/PI, National Language Resource Center (LRC), Title VI Grant. Directing Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR), Department of Education - $168,681.00 per year (renewable)
2012-2013: Chief Applied Linguist, Indiana University Turkish/Turkic Flagship Program, National Security Education Program (NSEP), Department of Defense - $500,000.00 per year (renewable)
2012 Spring: Interim Director, Indiana University Turkish/Turkic Flagship Program, National Security Education Program (NSEP), Department of Defense - $500,000 per year (renewable)
Teaching Awards:
2015 Trustees Teaching Award, Indiana University (nominated by departmental award committee; selected by the Faculty Advisory Board of the School of Global and International Studies)
2013 Trustees Teaching Award, Indiana University (nominated by the department; selected by the College of Arts and Sciences)
2008 Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Teaching Award, McGill University
2005 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Teaching Award Finalist, University of Pittsburgh
Selected Awards:
2019 Language Acquisition: 2019 recipient of the Best Paper Award of the journal Language Acquisition, for papers published in 2018, with the paper ‘Universal Grammar and Second Language Phonology: Full Transfer/Prevalent Access in the L2 Acquisition of Turkish “stress” by English and French Speakers’ – paper will be highlighted on the Language Acquisition website, in addition to monetary award and availability for free
2019 Second Language Research:Best paper in the Most Recent Two Years Award of the journal Second Language Research, runner-up, for papers published in 2017 and 2018, with the paper ‘Emergent knowledge of a universal phonological principle in the L2 acquisition of vowel harmony in Turkish: a ‘four’-fold poverty of the stimulus in L2 acquisition’ (with Prof. Rex Sprouse) published in 2017.
2017 SGIS Faculty Research Grant, $2500
2010 Lara Riente Memorial Prize, Department of Linguistics, McGill University
2009 EUROSLA student presenter award, Cork, Ireland
2006 Robert T. Henderson Endowment Fund Award, University of Pittsburgh
2004 Ranked 1st among graduates in Faculty of Education, Boğaziçi University
2004 Ranked 1st among graduates in the Department of Foreign Language Education, Boğaziçi University