Deborah Idowu, a first-year French and Francophone Studies PhD student in the Department of French and Italian at The Ohio State University, has been named co-winner of the prestigious international Prix Henriette Walter d’Article de Mastérant.es/Doctorant.es from the Association for French Language Studies (AFLS). The international prize recognizes the best essay on French linguistics submitted by graduate students. The AFLS committee praised Deborah's work for "the rigor of its methodology and the originality of the research question." Deborah receives £150 and a two-year AFLS membership.

Deborah's award-winning study, "Beyond Pattern-Specific Learning: Transfer Effects of Morphological Suffix Instruction in L2 French," originated from her MA thesis research at the University of Florida. The study examines whether explicit morphological instruction develops pattern-specific knowledge or generalizable analytical skills. Her experimental study with 40 undergraduate French learners revealed an expected transfer effect: students who received explicit instruction on French suffixes with minimal English correspondence (such as "-issement" and "-ir") significantly outperformed their peers on suffixes with clearer cross-linguistic parallels (such as "-tion" and "-able"), despite never studying these patterns explicitly. This finding suggests that even brief morphological instruction can develop transferable analytical skills that extend beyond specifically taught content. The research has important implications for vocabulary pedagogy in beginning language courses and supports early integration of morphological awareness activities.

Professor Wynne Wong, Deborah's current PhD advisor at Ohio State, provided mentorship during the competition revision process. As a member of her research team, Deborah looks forward to continuing her contributions to French second language acquisition and pedagogy research.