Dr. Graves has been interested in human language and the cultures of the world since he was in junior high school, where he took both French and Spanish classes. He bought his first two language-learning books, Teach Yourself Swahili and Teach Yourself Icelandic, when he was in the eleventh grade. As an undergraduate in college, he was delighted to meet people from assorted cultures around the world. He has had friends, roommates, and acquaintances from a variety of countries including China, Ghana, Iran, Japan, Korea, Nicaragua, and Samoa. His interactions with international students have also generated an interest in language acquisition, especially since he would often help his friends learn to speak English better. They, in turn, would often help him to learn some of their native languages and tell him about their cultures. He has continued to retain his passion for exploring languages, cultures, and history, as well as his interest in teaching such subjects effectively.
Academically, Dr. Graves is interested in human language, history, culture, and the pedagogical aspects of language acquisition. He has focused his research interests in various areas. One is exploring effective methods of learning and teaching language. Other domains include the most efficient way to describe the grammatical structures and their functions in a given language, as well as the use of language in discourse and social encounters.
Dr. Graves is currently working on several projects. He is writing a textbook on spelling and word formation. He is also writing an introductory textbook on the languages of world, since he has discovered that there is no level-appropriate book on this subject. This textbook introduces the student to basic grammatical concepts that are necessary for understanding the mechanisms of human language. The textbook then expands on the genetic and areal relationships among languages, investigates their morphological and syntactic traits, and also elaborates on the languages in their historical and cultural contexts.
Dr. Graves is able to play a decent game of chess and a passable game of go, and he spends much of his time listening to language CDs and reading grammars on a variety of languages.