Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition
College of Letters & Science

More About Our Alumni

(Photo by Jeff Miller / UW-Madison)

A full list of SLA alumni can be found here. Alumni info is being updated as it comes in.

Akira Kondo took a position as Conversational AI Specialist at Discover Financial Services in Chicago, IL and published the following:

Kim, A.A., Chapman, M., Kondo, A., & Wilmes, C. (2019). Examining the assessment literacy required for interpreting score reports: A focus on educators of K–12 English learners. Language Testing, 37(1), 54-75.

Amy Clay (last update May 2024), Teaching Assistant Professor and Director of French Basic Language at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Amy won a grant to support the integration of virtual experiences in French language courses.

Atsushi Hasegawa (last update May 2024), Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Linguistics, East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Recent publications include:

  • Hasegawa, A. (2024). Conversation analysis and second language research. In B. Paltridge, & M. T. Prior (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse (pp. 11-23). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Hasegawa, A. (2021). Sociomateriality of semi-scripted pair-work prompts in beginner-level Japanese as a foreign language classrooms. The Modern Language Journal, 105(S1), 65-85. doi:10.1111/modl.12689
  • Hasegawa, A. (2021). Developing friendship or practicing Japanese? Differential impacts of language pledge on study abroad students. In N. Kurata & A. J. Carhill-Poza (Eds.), Social networks in language learning and language teaching (pp. 184-208). London: Bloomsbury.
  • Mori, Y., Hasegawa, A., & Mori, J. (2021). The trends and developments of L2 Japanese research in the 2010s. Language Teaching, 54(1), 90-127. doi:10.1017/S0261444820000336
  • Mori, J., & Hasegawa, A. (Eds.). (2020). Exploring who we are and who we aspire to be: Diversity, inclusion, and professionalism in Japanese-language education. A special section of Japanese Language and Literature, 54(2). doi:10.5195/jll.2020.131
  • Hasegawa, A. & Shima, C. (2020). Differential social experiences of international students in a residential hall in Japan. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.

Bicho Azevedo, Assistant Professor, University of San Diego, launched the Spanish Language Writing Center at University of San Diego.

Bingjie Zheng (last updated May 2024) is a researcher at Answerlab. Bingjie won the American Educational Research Association, Bilingual Education Research Group’s Outstanding Dissertation 2021 award.  Publications include:

  • Compton-Lilly, C., Shedrow, S., Hagerman, D., Hamman-Ortiz, L., Chi, Y.-K., Kim, J., Lee, S.Y., Papoi, K., Quast, E., Ward Taira, B., & Zheng, B. (2022). Children in Immigrant Families Becoming Literate: A Window into Identity Construction, Transnationality, and Schooling (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003242154
  • Kim, A., Chapman, M., West, G., Zheng, B. & Cranley, M. E. (2020). Assessing preschool English learners’ receptive and expressive language ability to inform instruction. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.183580
  • West. G., Zheng, B. & Tran. T. (2021). Youth transmodally indexing social discourses: A Vietnamese video narrative analysis in M. Hawkins (Ed.), Transmodal Communications: Transpositioning Semiotics and Relations. Multilingual Matters.
  • Zheng, B. (2020). Neoliberal multilingualism and “humanitarian connections”: discourses around parents’ experiences with a Mandarin Chinese immersion school. Language and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2020.1828451

Carolina Bailey, Chair of World Languages Department, Madison Area Technical College, created (with grant support) Language Proficiency Certificates for both Spanish and French at Madison College, created a professional network partnerships with the community for certificate students to have professional experiences in the target language while at the same time helping the community and became a certified ACTFL rater for Spanish. She also participated in a paid summer (2019) teacher immersion program for French, 3-weeks, in Quebec City, Quebec.

Carolina Bernales, Associate Professor, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile, co-edited Cognitive Insights into Discourse Markers and Second Language Acquisition a Peter Lang publication.

Chiharu Shima received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor at Akita International University in Japan. She also published the following with SLA faculty member Junko Mori:

Mori, J. & Shima, C. (2020). Person reference and recognition in shift handovers: An analysis of interactions between Japanese and international care workers, Multilingua. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2019-0091

Colleen Hamilton took a position as Assistant Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at National Louis University and published the following with SLA faculty member Mariana Pacheco:

Hamilton, C., & Pacheco, M. (2019). Bilingual youth and networks of support: Designing a formula for success on the path to college. In M. Pacheco, P. Z. Morales, and C. Hamilton (Eds.), Transforming Schooling for Second Language Learners: Policies, Pedagogies, and Practices (pp. 199-216). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Gordon West (last updated May 2024), Assessment Researcher at WIDA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Publications include:

  • West, G. B., & Beck, J. (2024). Cultivating and making meaning of kindergarten multilingual learner multimodal writing. MIDTESOL Journal, 6, 51-62. https://midtesol.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/3.-Cultivating-and-making-meaning-of-kindergarten-multilingual-learner-multimodal-writing.pdf
  • West, G. B. (2023). “Everybody is 1% of everything”: Youth ethnoracial positioning and constructing a semiotics of race. Multimodality & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795231187083
  • Goldberg, S., & West, G. B. (2023). Building a sense of community through equity-driven afterschool programming. MinneTESOL Journal, 39(2). https://minnetesoljournal.org/building-a-sense-of-community-through-equity-driven-afterschool-programming/

Isabelle Drewelow, Associate Professor, University of Alabama,  published the following:

Drewelow, I., Koronkiewicz, B., & Range, R. (2019). “Rethinking and Shifting Discourses and Practices of ‘Testing’ – From Accuracy to Engagement With Situated Contexts,” Pathways to Paradigm Change: Critical Examinations of Prevailing Discourses and Ideologies in Second Language Education, ed. B. Dupuy & K. Michelson, (pp. 45-74). Boston, MA: Cengage.

Isil Erduyan (last update May 2024), Assistant Professor, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, turned her dissertation into a book, Multilingual Construction of Identity: German-Turkish Adolescents at School, published by ibidem Press. Here are some of their publications:

Lundqvist, U., & Erduyan, I. (2024). Syncretic literacy practices among Arab heritage students in Denmark . Language and Education, 39(1), 111–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2308813

Bayyurt, Y., & Erduyan, I. (2023). Sociolinguistic research on Turkic languages. In J. N. Stanford & D. R. Preston (Eds.), The new sociolinguistics reader (pp. 345–362). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003198345-23

Erduyan, I. (2020). The Scale of Modernity in the Heritage Language Classroom. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 21(4), 265–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1791712

Erduyan, I. (2020). Contemporary urban Turkey-Turkish in the German-Turkish classroom. In F. Bayram (ed.), Studies in Turkish as a Heritage Language (pp.267-285. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Erduyan, I. (2020). Multilingual subjectivity in linguistic ethnographic fieldwork. Türkisch-Deutsche Studien: Jahrbuch 2020.

Jina Lee, Professor and Chair of the Department of English Education, Sangmyung University, South Korea, is the vice president of The Applied Linguistics Association of Korea and the vice president of The English Linguistics Society of Korea.

Michele Back (last update May 2024), Associate Professor at University of Connecticut. Publications include:

  • Back, M. (2024). Interrogating Racialized Discourses in Educator-Focused Study Abroad: An Ecological Approach. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 36(1), 202–228. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v36i1.771
  • Back, M. & Wagner, M. (2024). Bridging the artificial gap: TESOL frameworks for World Language education and advocacy. SCOLT Dimensions, 59. Special issue: Focus on bridging language education fields. Available at https://www.scolt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2_Dimensions-2024_chap2.pdf.
  • Back, M. (2023). Identity Work and Intercultural Awareness Through Cultural Excavation: Teacher Candidates Studying Abroad. The New Educator, 19(4), 368–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688X.2023.2287666
  • Back, M., Han, M. & Weng, S.-C. A. (2020). Emotional scaffolding of emergent bilinguals through translanguaging strategies: Case stories. Language and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2020.1744638.
  • Back, M. (2020). “It is a village:” Translanguaging pedagogies and collective responsibility in a rural K-8 school district. TESOL Quarterly.  https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.562
  • Back, M. (2020). Interlocutor differences and the role of social others in a Spanish peer tutoring context. In L. Gurzynski-Weiss, (Ed.) Interlocutor individual differences in language learning: Theoretical and empirical approaches (100-123). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.53.05bac
  • Back, M. & Wagner, M. (2020). Languages for all: World languages for meaning-making and intercultural citizenship. In B. Dupuy & K. Michelson (Eds.), Pathways to Paradigm Change: Critical Examinations of Prevailing Discourses and Ideologies in Second Language Education (pp. 176­­­–198). American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Language Programs (AAUSC).

Nelly Martin-Anatias (last updated March 2024), Lecturer of Academic English, Massey University, New Zealand. Nelly has published a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes, edited by A. Moody of the University of Macau, and published in March 2024. Nelly’s chapter is entitled ‘English in Expanding Circle Popular Cultures of Southeast Asia.” In it, she uses popular cultural products from Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia to showcase how English and local languages have been used creatively. Nelly’s other publications include:

  • Martin-Anatias, N. (2024). 684 English in Expanding Circle popular cultures of Southeast Asia. In The Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes (pp. 684-705). Oxford University Press
  • Martin-Anatias, N. (2020). English at the periphery: Evidence from Indonesian popular novels, Text and Talk. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2020-2070

Paula Garrett-Rucks, (last update May 2024), Associate Professor and World Languages Education Coordinator, Georgia State University, and editor of SCOLT Dimension, the journal for the Southern Conference on Language Teaching. Publications include:

  • Fäcke, C., Gao, X. & Garrett-Rucks, P.  (Eds.) (October, 2024). Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning. [38 Chapters], Blackwell Wiley.
  • Garrett-Rucks, P.  & Kemp, J. A. (Eds.) (2024). Dimensions 2024 Special Issue: Bridging Language Education Fields. vol. 59, SCOLT.

Peter De Costa (last updated May 2024) is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University. Some of their publications include the following:

  • De Costa, P., Karimpour, S. & Nazari, M. (2024). Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles. Applied Linguistics Review, 15(6), 2613-2637. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0191
  • De Costa, P. I., Ojha, L. P., Lee, V. W. Y., & Montgomery, D. P. (2023). Decolonizing higher education pedagogy: Insights from critical, collaborative professionalism in practice. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 56(8), 784–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2023.2279925
  • De Costa, P. (2022). Identity work and the symbolic power of language in the ELT classroom: advancing the intercultural citizenship and ELF agenda. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 11(1), 117-124. https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2022-2073
  • De Costa, P.I., Li, W., Lee, J., & Rawal, H. (2020). Ethics in applied linguistics research. In J. McKinley & H. Rose (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of research in applied linguistics (pp. 122-130). New York: Routledge.
  • De Costa, P.I., Li, W. & Rawal, H. (2020). Should I stay or leave?: Exploring L2 teachers’ profession an emotionally-inflected framework. In C. Gkonou, J.-M. Dewaele, & J. King (Eds.). Language teaching: An emotional rollercoaster (pp. 211-227). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Robin Worth, (last updated May 2024), Senior Evaluation Researcher, Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative, UW-Madison, continues as the Principal Investigator for the statewide longitudinal evaluation of the WI Department of Public Instruction’s Academic and Career Planning initiative winning a contract for a seventh year of evaluation and was invited to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Coalition for Career Development Center.

Sandra Descourtis (last updated May 2024), Assistant Teaching Professor of French at Emory University. Sarah’s research interests are French language variations and developing AI activities to enhance listening comprehension in French language classrooms. Below is their recent publication.

  • Descourtis, S. (2024). French Variations and Language Weaponization in US Higher Education. In Bryan, K.C. and Pentón Herrera, L. J. (Eds.), The Weaponizing of Language in the Classroom and Beyond. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110799521

Sandra Terra, Assistant Professor, Linfield University, was elected president of the Confederation in Oregon for Language Teaching.

Shenika Harris, Associate Professor, Spanish, Lindenwood University, serves as part of the editorial board of Reading in a Foreign Language and published the following with current SLA student Tim Cavnar:

Harris, S., Cavnar, T., & Dolosic, H. (2019). Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in other venues 2018-2019. Reading in a Foreign Language, 30(2), 315–351.

Snezhana Zheltoukhova, Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian and Language Commons Director, Stetson University. Recent publications include:

  • Zheltoukhova, S. (2021). Language Learning in a “Fishbowl” Environment: Working with Student Perceptions of Videoconferencing. In W. Lehman, M. Grieb, & Y. Clemmen (Eds.). Work and Labor in World Languages, Literatures, and Film (pp. 103-114). Irvine, CA: BrownWalker Press.
  • Zheltoukhova, S. (in press). Developing Global Competence in an Advanced Language Course. In S. Nuss, & W. Martelle (Eds.). Task-Based Instruction for Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language. London: Routledge.