Rashida Aziz Rashida Aziz teaches in the Academic ESL Program in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition. Prior to becoming a full-time faculty member of the Academic ESL Program in September 1979, she was an adjunct teaching ESL and reading in the Academic ESL (The FESL), non-credit (DIP, SNIP, ENIP), and Adult Education programs for a few years. She teaches all ESL courses offered by the program, especially writing, to all levels. Since 1996, she has been actively involved in developing the joint syllabus and theme-based materials and projects in collaboration with Professor Gao for the ESL New Student House, in which she teaches two courses. Click here for detailed information about the ESL New Student House. She has served as coordinator of the ESL Program and is now coordinator of ESL097 courses. Her professional involvement ranges from attending conferences and making presentations at local CUNY-ESL Council, NYS TESOL Applied Linguistics and international TESOL levels. She has an MA in English literature from the Punjab University, Pakistan, and an MA in TESOL and an EdM in Reading and Learning Disabilities from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also did further graduate work at Teachers College. She holds New York State permanent certification in teaching and a New York City license for ESL. | Habiba Boumlik Dr. Habiba Boumlik is a Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia. She received her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Strasbourg, France. She also holds an M.A. in Arabic and Islamic Studies and a BA in French as a Foreign Language from the University of Besancon, France.
Dr. Boumlik's academic background and teaching experience include Arabic, French language and francophone literature, and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) cinema.
She is the founder and co-director of the New York Forum of Amazigh film ( www.nyfaf.com), an annual film festival showcasing shorts, documentaries and features celebrating the Amazigh (Berber) people.
For a complete list of Dr. Boumlik's publications, refer to: https://hboumlik.wixsite.com/boumlik | John Collins John Collins holds a Masters Degree in Deaf Education from Gallaudet University and a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego. A 20 year veteran of the Lexington School for the Deaf, he taught a wide variety of deaf students. While at Gallaudet University, his teaching duties included teaching deaf undergraduates general biology and microbiology lab sections. He has been teaching American Sign Language at LaGuardia Community College since 2009 and currently serves as the Coordinator for the Deaf Studies Program. | Angela Cornelius Dr. Angela Cornelius is an Assistant Professor of Education in the in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, the City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University, where she focused on interdisciplinary curriculum development within literacy and arts education. Her research interests include interconnected, interdisciplinary, foci: (1) Teacher Education and Instructional Practice; (2) Visual and Cultural Literacy; (3) Art Education; and (4) Social Justice as curriculum. Dr. Cornelius is author or co-author of a book chapter and journal articles in art education and curriculum theory. She holds a B.F.A. in Communication Design and M.Ed. in Elementary Education from Texas State University. |
Monika Ekiert Dr. Monika Ekiert is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York.
Her doctorate in Applied Linguistics is from Columbia University. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Columbia University. At LaGuardia, she teaches all levels of academic writing for multilingual students as well as Introduction to Bilingualism (ELN 101), Introduction to Language (ELL 101), and First Year Seminar for Liberal Arts (LIF 101).
Dr. Ekiert's research interests lie at the interface of second language acquisition and second language instruction, including issues of form-meaning connections in second language learning, crosslinguistic influence in second language acquisition, and second language learnability and teachability. SCHOLARLY WORK
Révész, A. Ekiert, M., & Torgersen, E. (2016). The effects of complexity, accuracy, and fluency on communicative adequacy in oral task performance. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 828-848. (Oxford University Press)
Ekiert, M. (2016). Article omission: How are referents tracked in L2 discourse? In Ortega, L., Tyler, A., Park, H-I., & Uno, M. (Eds.), The Usage-based Study of Language Learning and Multilingualism (pp.155-170). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Ekiert, M., & Han, Z-H. (2016). L1-fraught difficulty: The case of L2 acquisition of English articles by Slavic speakers. In Alonso, R. (Ed.), Cross-linguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 147-172). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Ekiert, M. (2010). Linguistic effects on thinking for writing: The case of articles in L2 English. In Z-H. Han & T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in L2 acquisition: Evidence of L1 thinking for speaking (pp. 125-153). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. AWARDS
Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Research Article Award 2017, International Association for Task-based Language Teaching, tblt.org
Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) Abstract Award, SLRF, University of Maryland, 2010. Awarded by the SLRF organizing committee
Outstanding Teacher Award, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006. Awarded by the Dean of the College
Applied Linguistics and Language Education (APPLE) Award for the outstanding M.A. Essay in TESOL, “ The Bilingual Brain,” Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003. Awarded by the Programs in TESOL and Applied Linguistics
| Jose Fabara Bios cominig soon. | Wen Juan Fan Dr. Wenjuan Fan teaches in the Academic ESL Program. She has taught ESL classes clustered with Introduction to Business and Gateway, ESL paired with Group Communication, ESL paired with Principles of Accounting, ESL paired with Introduction to Computers and their Applications, ESL paired with Desktop Publishing, and ESL paired with Math. | Lorna Feldman Lorna has a BA in linguistics from The City College of New York and an MA and MPhil in linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center. She has taught linguistics and English at Queens College, Adelphi University, the CUNY Graduate Center, and LaGuardia. Her research interests include phonetics, dialectology, adult second language acquisition, and sociolinguistics. In the latter area, she has written on issues related to expressions of formality, politeness, power and solidarity among Greek-American bilinguals. She speaks Greek, Spanish, French, and some Japanese. Prior to joining the ELA Department, Lorna was the Coordinator of the College Now program. |
Xiwu Feng Dr. Xiwu Feng is a Professor of the Department of Education and Language Acquisition and also serves as a Coordinator of the Human Research Protection Program of LaGuardia Community College and a Member of the Institutional Review Board of the City University of New York. Professor Feng has been teaching college reading and writing, linguistics, second language reading, and TESOL methodology. He received his Ed. D in Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University. His research interests include second language acquisition, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication, writing acquisition in Chinese, and language-related learning disabilities. Professor Feng serves as a referee for the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and an external reviewer for SCOLAR’s Research and Development Projects of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research of Hong Kong. He has been appointed as a visiting professor by several Chinese universities in the past two decades. | Linda Forrester Linda Forrester holds a BFA in Music from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MA in TESOL from Adelphi University. She has been teaching at LaGuardia since the fall of 1999 and has been in a full-time position since spring 2004. She is a classical singer as well as an ESL teacher, and her love of music and the arts infuses her teaching. She is a strong believer in integrative learning, and enjoys collaborative teaching across the disciplines in ESL pairs and clusters. Forrester has contributed articles on ESL learning communities to NYSTESOL Idiom and In Transit. Most recently, she has written a chapter in "Effective Second Language Writing," entitled: "Modern Heroes: From Content to Composition via Critical and Creative Thinking." | Jie Gao Jie Gao graduated from Beijing University and Beijing Foreign Language Institute in the People's Republic of China. He holds an MA equivalent. His original major was Polish language and literature. He taught English in China from 1963 and worked in China as a freelance interpreter and translator for many years. He came to LaGuardia Community College in 1990 as an exchange professor, and since then has been teaching ESL.
He has served as ESL099 coordinator since 1995. His research interests include comparative rhetoric and methodologies of teaching English to speakers of Chinese. Gao is a major contributor to the book Get It? Got It! (New Century American English Living and Learning in the West), published in China in 2001 and now a bestseller there. He is co-author of the article "Essay of Changes: The Role of L1 in L2 Writing," published in The English Record (Volume 51, Fall 2000). He is a member of the University Affirmative Action Committee (UAAC), CUNY. He has been selected three times
for inclusion in Who's Who Among American Teachers. In addition to ESL classes, he is currently teaching courses in Chinese language for heritage speakers and in Chinese literature. | Leigh Garrison-Fletcher Leigh Garrison-Fletcher is an Assistant Professor of ESL and Linguistics in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, the City University of New York. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the Graduate Center, the City University of New York, where she focused on second language acquisition. Her research interests include the role of the native language in second language learning, the acquisition of second language literacy, and the assessment of bilingual students. |
Laurie A. Gluck Laurie Gluck joined the Education and Language Acquisition Department in 2004 after teaching many years at the LaGuardia English Language Center and other CUNY ESL programs. In addition to ESL teaching, she has trained prospective ESL professionals in the New School University Certificate Program in methods of teaching ESL writing and pronunciation. Her approach to teaching ESL writing and grammar highlights the interaction between sentence grammar and the sound and intonation patterns of spoken English.
Through this lens students discover predictable patterns in both listening and grammar that increase their awareness of and enhance their linguistic knowledge. Ms. Gluck also teaches ELL 101, Introduction to Language, an introductory linguistics course for Liberal Arts and Education majors. She wrote the guidelines for the teaching of ELL 101 and maintains a Blackboard site of resources for instructors in this course.
She is a second level doctoral student in the Linguistics Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research focuses on the Second Language Acquisition with a concentration in the role of phonology and prosody in the acquisition of a second language. She completed undergraduate work at Ryerson University in Toronto and received teacher certification at Laval University in Quebec City. She has a MA in TESOL from Hunter College of CUNY. | Lilik Gondopriono Bio coming soon. | Ana Maria Hernandez Bio coming soon. | Rosa Herrera-Rodriguez Rosa Herrera-Rodriguez is Sr. CLT/Lab supervisor of the ESL Lab. She teaches ESL and Spanish in the ELA Department. She holds a MS in Education/ TESOL from Fordham University and a MA in Spanish from Hunter College. In addition, she holds the equivalent to a Masters Degree in Social Work and a teaching degree from Peru. She has also earned a Certificate for the Teaching of French as a foreign language from the University of Grenoble. |
Givanni M. Ildefonso Givanni M. Ildefonso, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia, where she teaches Foundations of American Education.
Dr. Ildefonso holds a doctorate from Columbia University, where she conducted research in the Program of Philosophy and Education. Her main work focuses on what the ancients called otium: the time and freedom from overt action that allows people to think about the world and their reasons for being.
This research lends itself as an occasion to examine the value of otium (leisure) in order to recover its original educational significance and to derive crucial implications for the theory and practice of teaching. | Maria Jerskey My current writing project is an autoethnography in which I trace my development toward a translingual orientation to writing instruction, situating that narrative in its cultural, social, and political contexts.
I've published and presented widely on issues around language ideology and the concerns of multilingual writers of English who write and publish in academic environments. In addition to teaching ESL writing and linguistics at LaGuardia, I teaching Effective Academic Writing at CUNY's Graduate Center. I coordinate the Literacy Brokers Program (to promote publication practices of multilingual scholars) at LaGuardia and I'm involved in professional committees and organizations that address issues of language, writing, and literacy within CUNY, nationally, and internationally.
I've authored several college writing handbooks, including Globalization: A Reader for Writers (Oxford University Press) and, with Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers, 6th edition (Cengage). My research interests also include using Web 2.0 platforms to address the writing self-efficacy of multilingual writers.
See my CV here: Click Here | Rebekah Johnson Dr. Rebekah Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia. She teaches introductory linguistics, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, Academic ESL composition, and first-year seminar courses at LaGuardia. Dr.Johnson received her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University Teachers College in 2011.
She also holds an M.A. in TESOL and an Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University Teachers College. Prior to her current position at LaGuardia, she was the Director of the Writing Center at Pace University.
She has taught ESL, EFL, academic writing, business writing, English composition, and teacher training courses in TESOL in Japan, Thailand, and in colleges and universities in New York City. Dr. Johnson was selected to be an English Language Fellow (a fellowship through the U.S. State Department) at Khon Kaen University in Thailand from 2001-2003.
Dr. Johnson served as President of the NYS TESOL (New York State Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) organization in 2011-2012. She is also Editor of the newly launched peer-reviewed journal, the NYS TESOL Journal, which had its inaugural issue published in January, 2014.
Her research interests include the discursive construction of identity, classroom discourse, family discourse, second-language writing, writing conferencing, technology and education, learning communities, and literacy. | Caterina Almendra Bio coming soon |
Hyun-Joo Kim Dr. Hyun-Joo Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia. She holds an M.A. in TESOL, and Ed.M. and Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University, Teachers College.
Her area of specialization and research interests include second language assessment, second language acquisition, and second language speaking and writing ability. Dr. Kim teaches ESL writing classes and Korean at LaGuardia. | William Kurzyna William Kurzyna has been a member of the Education and Language Acquisition Department for the past two years. For the early part of his career at LaGuardia he served in various capacities for the former Communication Skills Department. Specializing in basic academic reading comprehension, he began as a tutor attached to the Communication Skills Department, then taught as an adjunct, before being appointed as a full time faculty member, with the rank of Lecturer with CCE.
He attended high school at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, and graduated with honors from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, with a B.A. for the study of Comparative Literature. He was granted an M.A. from the CUNY Graduate Center with a major in Comparative Literature, where he was awarded a High Pass in the program’s written comprehensive exam. Throughout his career here, Mr. Kurzyna has served on the LaGuardia College Senate for several years, first as the representative of Communication Skills, later as the Senator from Faculty Council.
He was elected Vice Chairperson of the Senate from 2006-2007, and later served two terms as the Secretary. In addition, he has represented the College at the University Faculty Senate, as a full representative and as an alternate, a role he fills at present. He served as the President of Faculty Council from 2013-2014, and since then has been elected to its executive committee as the Secretary. His interests include creative writing and acting. Since 2007 he has appeared in a number of LaGuardia theater productions, most recently “The Cherry Orchard Project,” directed by Handan Ogilzbin.
In summer 2014 he played a major role in an off-Broadway production of fellow LaGuardian David Rimmer’s play “The Reunion Guy.” | Arthur Lau Dr. Arthur C. Lau received his Ed.D. degree in applied linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation is titled "Written Representation of Oral Features in Cantonese Chinese."
Prior to becoming a college reading educator at LaGuardia in 1994, he taught at Cornell University from 1991 to 1993, and was in charge of Cantonese Chinese curriculum development and instruction. He also has extensive experience teaching English as a Second Language in Hong Kong and Macau.
Dr. Lau is interested in orality and literacy research and for the past ten years has served on the Executive Editorial Board of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. | Sue Livingston Sue Livingston holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and has taught elementary through college-aged Deaf students for over 35 years. She has also been a teacher-trainer at New York University and a literacy consultant for several schools for Deaf students in New York City.
Currently, she teaches reading and writing courses to classes made up exclusively of Deaf students. Her publications include Rethinking the Education of Deaf Students (Heinemann), Working Text: Teaching Deaf and Second-Language Students to Be Better Writers (Gallaudet University Press) and Working Text: X-Word Grammar and Writing Activities for Students (Gallaudet University Press) as well as several articles in Sign Language Studies, American Annals of the Deaf, The Journal of Post-Secondary Education and Disability, and English Language Teaching. |
Michele Malone Michele de Goeas-Malone teaches Introduction to Language, Language and Literacy in Childhood Education, and Language and Literacy in Secondary Education. She earned her BA in Linguistics and Speech Pathology from Queens College, City University of New York, and is currently a PhD student in Linguistics at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Her research focuses on the development and processing of complex syntax in elementary and high school second language learners and its relationship to reading comprehension in the second language.
Other research interests include sociolinguistic and cultural variation in the development of language and literacy as well as the development of sign language as a first and second language. Michele's previous teaching experience includes courses in Syntax, Language Acquisition, and Quantitative Methods at the undergraduate level and a Grammar course at the graduate level. | Bede McCormack Dr. Bede McCormack's twenty-five-plus year career in TESOL has included EFL and ESL teaching, EFL program management, and EFL/ESL teacher education courses including methods and materials, second language acquisition theory, and linguistics.
Teaching
Dr. McCormack has taught a wide range of courses including general EFL courses, EAP and content-driven EFL and ESL courses at the college level, as well as TESOL teacher education courses. His career in TESOL began shortly after receiving his Bachelor's in English Literature from Grinnell College, IA, when he moved to Japan, where he lived and taught for fourteen years. His MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Durham, England, provided him with his initial training in the field, and was followed by a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition, also from Durham. In addition to teaching at LaGuardia, he has also taught at Hunter College and Teachers College.
Research
Dr. McCormack's research interests focus on the relationship between teachers' understanding of language acquisition theory and how that impacts their classroom practice. This includes the development of speaking and discourse skills, the role of grammar instruction in the L2 classroom, and the integration of language skills in the content-based ESL classroom. One project he is currently involved with is an examination of teachers' knowledge of lexico-syntactic structures and how teacher candidates use that knowledge to identify, analyze, and possibly correct learner errors. Dr. McCormack has also conducted workshops and made conference presentations on TESOL-related topics in Algeria, Austria, Britain, Canada, Japan, Libya, and the United States. Dr. McCormack was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. | Ernesto Menéndez-Conde Dr. Ernesto Menendez-Conde is an Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature, Advanced grammar and Spanish, in the in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, the City University of New York. . Menendez-Conde is a Ph D. in Romance Studies from Duke University (2009). He is also the editor in chief of the e-magazine ArtExperience:NYC, which he founded in 2010.
He currently teaches Latin American fiction in Translation, and intermediate level of Spanish. His areas of research are related to Contemporary Cuban Art, Aesthetic Ideologies, and Theories of the image. He has published in magazines in New York City, Spain, Habana, and Miami. | Tomonori Nagano Dr. Tomonori Nagano is an Associate Professor of Japanese and Linguistics. He received his Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center and his MA in TESOL from New York University. His research interests are second language acquisition and Japanese as a heritage language. Dr. Nagano published papers in several journals, including Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Modern Language Journal, and Foreign Language Annals [See http://t-nagano.info/publicationsLink for the publication list]. Dr. Nagano teaches all levels of Japanese and introductory courses in linguistics and bilingualism. Dr. Nagano is a certified ACTFL OPI Tester in Japanese. |
Adhiambo Okomba Bio coming soon. | Agnieszka Rakowicz Dr. Agnieszka Rakowicz received her MA in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University and her PhD in Applied Linguistics/Multilingual Multicultural Studies from New York University.
Dr. Rakowicz has taught a range of courses, including linguistics, grammar and syntax, writing and Polish for high school and college Heritage Learners. She has a long-standing interest in pedagogical issues, having led faculty professional development seminars in the Writing Across the Disciplines program. In addition to teaching and learning with and for students from diverse backgrounds, Dr. Rakowicz's research interests include sociocultural contexts of language acquisition and maintenance, interlanguage pragmatics and language policy.
Dr. Rakowicz is the author of Ambiguous Invitations: The Interlanguage Pragmatics of Polish English Language Learners (2009), which investigates interlanguage behavior and pragmatic competence of English-language learners in multilingual and multicultural contexts. | Maria Savva Dr. Maria Savva is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. She received her PhD from University College London (UCL), Institute of Education where her research was funded by the European Council of International Schools. She also holds an MA from Columbia University in Comparative and International Education. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Savva taught in both primary and secondary schools in the United States and abroad. She is a New York State certified teacher in both early childhood and elementary education, while also holding Qualified Teacher Status in England. Some of her research interests include intercultural development, cross-cultural identity formation and the internationalization of higher education. Dr. Savva’s scholarship can be found on http://cuny.academia.edu/MariaSavvaPhD. Courses taught by Dr. Savva include Language Issues in a Global World, International Schooling in Global Contexts, Foundations of Early Childhood Education and Foundations of American Education. | Walter Sistrunk Walter L. Sistrunk is an Assistant Professor who teaches courses in the ESL program (ESL 097 and ESL 098) and in the Linguistics program (ELL 101). He received his Ph.D. in African American and African Studies from Michigan State University where he focused on the study of African American English. His research approaches language study from an interdisciplinary perspective incorporating concepts from the humanities and the field of social science where at language is both an object of scientific study as well as an artifact and storehouse of culture. From the humanities perspective, language is view as an object of scientific study and examined as a cognitive biological component of the brain. As a cultural artifact, language research is assessed by inquiring at various levels what it means to speak a particular language or dialect within a broader social context where language use in one’s culture both informs and is informed by global popular culture. His research interests include syntax, language acquisition, comparative linguistics, and the linguistic origin of Hip Hop. |
Kenneth J. Yin Kenneth J. Yin holds an AB from Cornell University and an MS in linguistics from Georgetown University. His research interests include the English-language learning process of students from China, as well as the Dungan language and literature. His translation of the Dungan folktale "Jondaje the Pheasant Hunter" appears in Esopus, issue 5, published in fall 2005. He has also written for Idiom, a publication of the New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (NYS TESOL). | Paula Zimmermann Paula Zimmermann is the Program Assistant for the Education Program. Paula received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont. She was a History and Secondary Education major. After graduation Paula worked as a Vista volunteer. Vista was the domestic Peace Corps. As a Vista volunteer Paula developed a reading tutoring program. Paula returned to school and completed her Ed. M degree in Reading and Language at Boston University.
Paula taught in both public and private schools in Boston. She also worked in an administrative capacity in a peer tutoring program at Suffolk University in Boston. For the past ten years Paula has taught as an adjunct in the Cooperative Education Department. For the past four years she has worked as a Program Assistant in the Coop Department. Paula developed internship sites and coordinated student placement on internships. She is also a volunteer in the English Language Center here at LaGuardia.
Paula is very excited to now be working in the Education program. She believes it gives her an opportunity to return to the career field she originally chose for herself. | | |