Nicole Mills

Academic Degrees: Ph.D. in French and Educational Studies, Emory University; M.A. in French literature, Emory University

Research Interests: Psychology of language learning and teaching, virtual environments in language learning, curriculum development, & language program evaluation

Instructor and Student Access to La République virtual reality immersive experiences here 

(Collaboration with Wonda VR, Rus Gant, and Chris Dede)

My research intersects the fields of psychology of language learning and teaching, educational technology and virtual environments in language learning, curriculum development, & language program evaluation. My recently published book Perspectives on Teaching Language and Content (2020) (with Stacey Katz Bourns and Cheryl Krueger, Yale University Press) aims to create links between foreign language pedagogy and meaningful content through the intersection of innovative theories, approaches, and practices. Collaboratively written by scholars with expertise in theoretical linguistics, literary and cultural studies, and education, the book provides guidelines and models that prepare instructors to teach in a rapidly changing and evolving field (see book review here). My research has also been featured in the Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) Journal, Language Learning, the International Journal of Applied Linguistics, and various edited volumes

In curriculum design, I aim to move away from more traditional classroom structures and include experiential and virtual learning contexts. I was also honored to receive the Innovation in Language Program Direction Award in 2020 for my efforts to implement online teaching as Director of Language Programs in RLL at Harvard during the pandemic from the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators. With the support of a grant from the Harvard Inititiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) (2017-2018), I collaboratively developed a virtual reality (VR) project for a beginning French course that immerses students in the lives of four diverse Parisians who live in the same quarter of Paris (in collaboration with Rus Gant, Chris Dede, and Wonda VR). I have been invited to speak about the initiative at various conferences and institutions including Yale, Princeton, MIT, Bennington, and Columbia and the project was featured in Boston.com (What we learned at Hub Week 2018) and the Educause Review (Three Examples from the Field AR and VR in Teaching and Research). The teaching team and I were fortunate to receive the ABL Connect award for Teaching Innovation from Harvard's Center for Teaching and Learning (2018) for this VR program and its accompanying pedagogical materials. Details on this project are featured in a chapter entitled "Engagement and Immersion in Virtual Reality Narratives" (2020, Multilingual Matters) and an article entitled "Culture and Vision in Virtual Reality Narratives" (2020, Foreign Language Annals). Expanding on the work from this project, we received an additional HILT grant to support virtual reality pedagogical initiatives across Harvard (2019-2020) (with Susan Berstler & Rus Gant).

In collaboration with Wonda, I have also engaged in several curricular design initiatives exploring artificial intelligence in language education with funding from the Course Innovation fund from Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education, the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, as well as the Provost Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration. These initiatives explore the intersection of digital literacy with creative AI Pedagogies and their transformative possibilities with an eye to research-based design. I have been invited to present on this topic at Princeton University, Harvard University, the University of Calabria (Italy), Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University, the EUROCALL AI special interest group, Harvard XR, Northeastern University, MIT, Northwestern University, and Villanova University as well as at the CALICO and MLA conferences. One of these projects was featured in the March/April 2024 Harvard Magazine article Applying AI - How and Why. 

I have also had the opportunity to work in the realm of digital humanities as one of the co-founders of the Charlie Archive at Harvard Library, a multimedia collection of printed and digital materials produced in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. The support from the Lasky-Barajas Fund for Digital Arts & Humanities has allowed us to grow this digital humanities project, and it now includes a collection of diverse donations from around the world. In January 2017, we curated an interactive exhibit of digital and ephemeral materials from the Charlie Archive at the French Cultural Center in Boston. The archive was also featured in the popular press (Le Monde, TV5 Monde, L'Obs, and the Harvard Gazette).

BOOKS

Bourns, S., Krueger, C., & Mills, N. (2020). Perspectives on Teaching Language and Content. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Norris, J., & Mills, N. A. (2014). Innovation and Accountability in Language Program Evaluation. Boston: Heinle Cengage.

PUBLICATIONS 

Guest Editor 

Aryadoust, N., Dede, N., Du, X., Li, Xuefan, Mills, N., Zappatore, M., Zhao, L. (Eds) (in preparation). 

Special Issue: Intelligence Augmentation and the Future Education: Transforming Learning Landscapes Across Modalities, IEEE – Transactions on Learning Technologies. 

Peer Reviewed Journals 

Mills, N., Hok, H., Dressen, A., & Veillas, Q. (2025). Design and Evaluation of an Interactive AI Companion for Foreign Language Writing. Foreign Language Annals. 

Mills, N. A., Dede, C., Gant, R., Dressen, A., & Courtney, M (2020). Culture and vision in virtual reality narratives. Foreign Language Annals, 53(4), 733-760. 

Mills, N. A. & Moulton, S. (2017). Students’ and instructors’ perceived value of curricular content. Foreign Language Annals, 50(4), 717-733.

Mills, N.A. & Minuchehr, P. (2014). The development of a national curriculum guide for Persian: Themes, genres, standards-based goals, and models. Journal of the Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, 16, 111-146. 

Mills, N. A. (2013). Action research: Bridging theory and practice. Academic Exchange Quarterly: Second language Acquisition & Pedagogy, 17 (1), 95-100. 

Mills, N. A. (2011). Teaching assistants’ self-efficacy in teaching literature: Sources, personal assessments, and consequences. Modern Language Journal 91 (1),1-11.

Mills, N. A. (2009). A ‘Guide du Routard’ simulation: Enhancing the Standards through project-based learning. Foreign Language Annals, 42(4), 607-639.

Mills, N. A., Pajares, F., & Herron, C. (2007) Self-efficacy of college intermediate French students: Relation to Achievement and Motivation. Language Learning, 57(3), 417-442. 

Mills, N. A., Pajares, M. P., & Herron, C. A. (2006). A re-evaluation of the role of anxiety: Self-efficacy, anxiety, and their relation to reading and listening proficiency. Foreign Language Annals, 39(2), 276-293. 

Mills, N. A., Herron, C. A., & Cole, S. P. (2004). Classroom presentation with teacher assistance versus individual viewing of foreign language video: Relation to comprehension, self-efficacy, and engagement. Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) Journal, 21 (2), 291-316.

Edited Volumes & Invited Contributions 

Mills, N. A. (in preparation). The Metaverse. In A. Al-Hoorie & T. Gregerson (Eds.) The Motivation of Uncertainty, Applied Linguistics Press. 

Mills, N. A. & Caspar, S. (2025). Immersive Technologies in language program direction: Considerations, applications, and implications. Invited contribution to the Routledge Handbook of Language Program Development and Administration. 

Mills, N. A. (2020). Language Program Direction During COVID-19: Collective Memories of the Extraordinary. Invited contribution to the Second Language Research and Practice Journal, 1 (1), 159-163.

Mills, N. A. (2020). Engagement and cultural immersion in virtual reality narratives. In P. Hiver, A. Al-Hoorie, & S. Mercer (Eds.) Student Engagement in the Language classroom (pp. 202-223). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Mills, N. & Belnap, K. (2017). Beliefs, motivation, and engagement: What every teacher of Arabic should know about self-efficacy. In K. Wahba, Taha, Z, & England, L. (Eds.) Handbook for Arabic Teaching Professionals in the 21^st Century (2^nd edition). Mahwah, NJ: Routledge. 

Norris, J. & Mills, N. A. (2014). Introduction: Innovation and Accountability in Foreign Language Program Evaluation. In J. Norris & N. Mills (Eds.) Innovation and Accountability in Language Program Evaluation. Boston: Heinle Cengage. 

Mills, N. A. (2014). Self-efficacy in second language acquisition. In S. Mercer & M. Williams (Eds.), Multiple Perspectives on the Self. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK. 

Mills, N. A. (2011) Situated learning through social networking communities: The development of joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and a shared repertoire. In S. Thorne & B. Smith (Eds.) CALICO Journal special issue: Second Language Acquisition Theories, Technologies, and Language Learning 28 (2), 345-368.

Mills, N. A. (2009). Task-based course development: A Guide du Routard simulation. In L. Stone & C. Wilson-Duffy (Ed.), Task-Based III: Expanding the Range of Tasks with Online Resources. International Association for Language Learning Technology. 

Mills, N. A., & Péron, M. (2009). Global simulation and writing self-beliefs of college intermediate French students. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (156), 239-273. 

Mills, N.A., & Allen, H.W. (2007) Teacher self-efficacy of graduate teaching assistants of French. In J. Siskin (Ed.), From Thought to Action: Exploring Beliefs and Outcomes in the Foreign Language Classroom. Heinle & Heinle: Boston.  

Allen, H. A, Dristas, V., & Mills, N. A. (2006). Cultural learning outcomes and summer study abroad. In M. Mantero (Ed.), Identity and Second Language learning: Culture, identity, and dialogic activity in educational contexts. Contemporary Issues in Language Education collection. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.