People Type: Graduate Students

Biography After receiving a master’s degree in Language, Literacy, and Culture from Stanford University, I worked as a Hmong language consultant for several Hmong bilingual education programs in California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This experience led me to explore the appropriateness of aligning Hmong language standards to the Common Core State Standards. My research interests revolve …

Biography I’m a PhD candidate in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Doctoral Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Before beginning the program in 2025, I received a Fulbright scholarship through the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program and taught Korean at Michigan State University after earning my Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at Korea University. …

Biography With a background in linguistics and language education, I received my master’s degree from the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. To deepen my understanding in language acquisition, I gained hands-on experience through immersion-based foreign language programs in Wisconsin and Texas. I have taught bilingual children in charter schools as well as …

Biography My name is Lovely Paul Kweka, and I am from Tanzania. I grew up in a multilingual environment where Swahili and Chagga were part of everyday life, while English became an increasingly important part of my formal education. I earned a Bachelor of Education (Arts) from Tumaini University Makumira, with a major in Swahili …

Biography Oluwatoyin Margaret Olanipekun Everyone calls me Toyin. I received my BA and MA in Education and English from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and have taught English for many years. Through the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Fellowship, I taught Yorùbá at the University of Michigan (2019/2020) and have since had multiple reasons and opportunities …

Biography My name is Nafisa Awadh Omar, and I am from coastal Kenya. Born into a Swahili family, Kiswahili is both my first and native language. I earned a Bachelor of Education (Arts) degree in 2019 from Pwani University in Kilifi, Kenya, with a with a focus on Kiswahili and Islamic Religious Education. Driven by …

Biography I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Doctoral Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where I have been studying since 2021. With over seven years of experience as a language educator, I specialize in teaching Russian across all proficiency levels, from absolute beginners to heritage speakers. My research in SLA …

Biography I received my M.A. degree in Applied Linguistics from Fuzhou University, China. I am currently a Ph.D. student in Second Language Acquisition and a Chinese teaching assistant in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. My research explores the dynamic interplay between emotions and engagement in foreign language classrooms (both Chinese and English as …

Biography I am a PhD student in Second Language Acquisition with a minor in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to joining the program in 2024, I earned an M.S.Ed. in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania and taught ESL in an urban high school. My research centers on two major streams. …