Graduate

Melike Akay

Melike received her BA from Bogazici (Bosphorus) University and completed her MA in Foreign Language Education. Melike has experience teaching EFL courses at the university level, as well as working as a research assistant in the Department of ELT in Turkey. Her research interests include pragmalinguistics, digital discourse analysis, and multimodal communication.
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Crystal Bonano                                           

Crystal received her M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019. Since then, she has primarily taught ESL/EAP courses to adult learners at the university level. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning, L2 creative writing, heritage language acquisition, and dialectology.                    Email  LinkedIn

Kübra Çekmegeli

Kübra earned her bachelor's degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) from Hacettepe University in Ankara in 2018. After completing her bachelor's degree, Kübra taught English at the post-secondary level for two years. Prior to joining the LALS program, Kübra received her master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2022. Her research interests are classroom discourse, conversation analysis, L2 interaction, and language teacher education.
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Zhuwen Chen                                         

Zhuwen received her BA from Shandong University in China and her MS in Linguistics with a concentration in sociolinguistics from Georgetown University. Her primary research interests include computer-mediated discourse analysis, identity and community construction in spontaneous talk and online discourse, and intercultural communication.

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Thalyta Duczak Alves 

Thalyta double-majored in Portuguese and English as a Foreign Language at the University of Blumenau, Brazil, and received her MA in Applied Linguistics/TESOL from the University of Alabama. Her teaching experience spans K-12 and undergraduate levels. Her research interests include digital discourse, CALL, and teacher education.

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Rikiya Kawano                                               

Rikiya received his MA in Applied Linguistics / TESOL from the University of South Florida. He possesses extensive experience teaching Japanese as a foreign language at the undergraduate and middle school levels. His research interests include sociolinguistics, SLA, heritage languages, and CALL.           Email  LinkedIn

Mika Koiso                                                     

Mika earned her M.A. in Second Language Acquisition, Policy, and Culture from the University of Southern Indiana. She has experience teaching English at high schools in Japan and Japanese as a foreign language in the U.S. Her research interests include second language instruction, L2 speaking, and affective variables.                                        Email

Sarah Rahman                                              

Having received her BA from The Ohio State University, Sarah completed her MA in TESOL at the University of South Florida before joining the LALS program. She has previously tutored students in French and Linguistics. Sarah’s research interests include academic writing, digital discourse, and SLA.                    Email  LinkedIn

Memry Rasch                                                 

Memry received her BA in French from the University of South Florida and her MA in French and Francophone Studies with a specialization in French Linguistics from the University of Florida. She taught French at the high school level for five years. Her research interests include SLA, individual differences/motivation, and CALL.                      Email

Juan M. Rostrán Valle

Juan received his BA in TEFL from Universidad Centroamericana (Nicaragua) and his MA in TESOL from the SIT-Graduate Institute in Vermont. He has experience teaching EFL/ESL and Spanish in different academic settings, both in the USA and Nicaragua. His research interests include second language teaching methodology, L2 writing, and error treatment in the L2 classroom.
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Tiffany Sorensen                                  

 Tiffany earned her MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts - Boston and her MS in Translation from New York University. She taught English and German during a 10-year stay in Mexico and has worked as a copywriter, US News columnist, curriculum designer, test prep tutor, and subtitler. Tiffany's research interests include accent associations, multilingualism, language acquisition, language attrition, and forensic linguistics.

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María José Torres Centurion

María received her MA in TESOL from Kent State University and her MA in Linguistics from Ball State University. She has experience teaching EFL in Argentina. She has also taught ESL and Spanish classes at the university-level in the United States. Her research interests include bilingualism and direct applications of translanguaging in the classroom.
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Luoxiangyu Zhang

Prior to joining the LALS program, Xiangyu received her MA in TESOL from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Xiangyu's research areas fall broadly into sociolinguistics, gender studies, and how these topics are reflected in online discourse and pedagogical materials.
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