Alumni

Anna Ciriani-Dean is an American and Italian graduate of the Master’s program in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in French and Francophone Studies with a minor in German from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate, Anna worked as a multilingual writing tutor at the Norman M. Eberly Writing Center at Dickinson College, where she aided students with their papers in three different languages: English, French, and Italian. In 2012-2013, she worked as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Toulouse, France, and as program assistant to the Dickinson in

France study abroad program. Starting in 2013 and throughout her studies at Teachers College, she worked as an Assessment Specialist at Educational Testing Service, where she developed test items for the TOEIC and TOEFL tests of English, coordinated a section of the English Language Learning group’s summer internship program, and led test redesign projects, among other roles. Anna was the registration chair for the 37 th NYS TESOL Applied Linguistics Winter Conference and the on-site registration chair for the 46 th NYS TESOL Annual Conference, as well as a volunteer for several other conferences. Starting in Fall 2017, she will teach college composition for ESL learners at Fordham University. Her research interests include second-language writing, task-based language teaching, writing-center pedagogy, Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, and assessment. Her goal as a teacher is to empower learners by giving them agency in their learning process, helping them reach a confident level of language proficiency, and providing them with the tools they need to excel in their academic, professional, and personal lives.

Bridget Filarski holds Bachelor's degrees in Spanish and International Relations and Diplomacy from The Ohio State University. Before attending Teachers College, Bridget worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Phoenix, Arizona, at a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant youth. It was here, while teaching English and supporting all aspects of programming at the shelter, she found her passions for linguistics, immigrant rights, and teaching seamlessly merge, inspiring her to obtain a Masters in TESOL, PK-12  from Teachers College. During her time at Teachers College, Bridget worked as a student assistant to the TESOL PK-12 program and volunteered as a committee member for the TESOL PK-12 department’s annual Celebration of Teaching conference. She is thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to teach and learn from our nation’s beautifully multilingual future.

Makiko Habu comes from Japan where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English Education and obtained a degree in teaching. Prior to joining the Applied Linguistics program at Teachers College, she worked as a high school teacher in Kumamoto, Japan. There she was chosen and honored as a prominent teacher from the regional Board of Education for advancing communicative language teaching, efficient and effective team teaching between Japanese teachers and native English speakers, and students’ cognitive development through language instruction. Her teaching performance earned her an honorary fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in the United States. Upon joining Teachers College, she began teaching Japanese at Columbia University.

Her current research focuses on issues of effective language instruction, writing instruction for non-native language learners, teacher professional development, and the use of mixed design of quantitative and qualitative research in education. Her projects include professional development of Japanese teachers who teach English, the potential of English phonics instruction for Japanese students, effective strategies to teach and learn more than one language simultaneously, and content and language-integrated learning. She also devotes her time to supporting young Japanese-English bilingual students located in New York to develop literacy skills that are required in American schools.

Bashir Harrell holds a bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of South Florida. Before attending Teachers College, Bashir taught English as a foreign language in Japan at public and private schools while studying Japanese. During this time, Bashir became fascinated with second language acquisition theory and practice both as a teacher and as a self-taught student. This inspired him to pursue a master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College. During his time at Teachers College, Bashir served as Social Operations Co-Chair of the TESOL AL/Roundtable and Treasurer of the Friends of Japan student organization. His research interests include Computer Assisted Language Learning and Learner Autonomy. Since leaving Teachers College, Bashir has relocated to Beijing, China where he studies Mandarin Chinese as a Chinese Government Scholarship recipient while self-learning web programming.

Mini Hu received her M.A. in TESOL in 2016. A native of China, she taught English in Ukraine, China, and New York prior to arriving at TC, and continued her career teaching Mandarin in NYC for two years after graduation. Currently she is serving as an English curriculum designer in Beijing providing support for more than 300 kindergartens across China. She is preparing to open her own English immersive kindergarten in her hometown Wuhan, China.

Kristine Nana Kamimura is a California transplant with a sunny attitude. She is a native bilingual Japanese-American, who received her B.A. in Linguistics at University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!). After her study abroad program at Doshisha University ended, she worked as an English teacher at international preschools in Kyoto and as a guest instructor for a summer program at a university in Kobe, where she was in charge of creating and teaching English classes for aspiring teachers.

Kristine then came back to her home in Los Angeles and started working at Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) Los Angeles News Bureau. While she was working there, she realized how much she missed teaching and remembered her burning desire to assist Japan in improving on their English educational system in this rapidly changing world. This realization led Kristine to pursue her M.A. in TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kristine’s ultimate goal is to spread the benefits and beauty of learning a second language to the next generation in Japan.

As a Fulbright Student from Sierra Leone, I was part of the Teachers College, Columbia University MA TESOL program between 2010 and 2012 with May 16, 2012 as graduation date. I have since returned to my native land, Sierra Leone to continue as an educator with affiliation in the corridors of academia, the public service and religion.

My academic interests are in Teaching Methodology, Language Acquisition, Language Assessment and the use of Literature in the Language classroom. With the following academic qualifications: MA TESOL, MA Educational Administration, Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PDGE) and Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science, I look forward to pursuing a Doctorate degree from a multi-disciplinary perspective with a view to improving academic and social standards in my beloved motherland, Sierra Leone.

Cho-Hang (Jessica) Lei is a second year TESOL student. She got her Bachelor of Education at the University of Macau, majoring in English Education. Before graduation, she had a two-month supervised teaching practice at a local English medium school. Through this practice, she realized what she learned in her undergraduate education was not enough to cope with the complexities of the modern classrooms and language teaching. She then decided to further her studies in an English speaking country. She had studied in the University of Michigan as an exchange student for a semester. She loved the cultural diversity and learning atmosphere in the U.S. Thus, she decided to pursue her master’s degree in the U.S. She had experience in teaching kids and adolescents English before she came to TC. She loves teaching and cooking. 

Amanda McKenna got her start teaching English to speakers of other languages first as a volunteer, then while working at language camps in France and the United States, and finally at an International Baccalaureate School in Indonesia. She moved back to the United States in 2012 to begin the TESOL PK-12 program at TC. While attending TC, she was the Publicity/Web Chairperson and Logo Designer for the 2014 Applied Linguistics Winter Conference and participated in the 2013 Fall into Music Program where she took voice lessons and performed alongside other students and faculty who learned new musical instruments. She was also the recipient of the 2014 Fanselow Award, and was the Arts and Humanities banner bearer and student speaker finalist for the Arts & Humanities / Curriculum & Teaching 2014 TC Masters Convocation Ceremony. She is excited to now be teaching 9/10 grade ESL history at Brooklyn International High School where she will be working with students from over 30 countries, who speak over 35 different languages. She will also be the teacher advisor for STOKED.

Prior to leaving TC, Amanda Meier received the APPLE Award for Excellence for her MA Project entitled "L2 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Extensive Listening to Podcasts." She earned her BA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Colorado. Currently, she is teaching at the English Language Institute at Westchester Community College. Her research interests include task-based language teaching, L2 vocabulary acquisition, and public pedagogy.

Andras Molnar completed his MA in Applied Linguistics in 2015. He taught abroad in Japan, China, and Taiwan previous to arriving at TC, and continued his career teaching in New York City after graduation. He taught Japanese at Hunter College and The New School, and English with Tools for Clear Speech at Baruch College. Currently he is working abroad with goal of eventually opening his own language school.

Tara Nair is a graduate of the M.A. in TESOL (General track) program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to coming to TC in 2015, she completed a year of national service with AmeriCorps as an English/Spanish bilingual literacy tutor for Literacy First in Austin, Texas. While in Austin she taught adult ESL classes with a nonprofit called Lifeworks and also completed her CELTA certification at the University of Texas.

Tara became interested in a career in TESOL through her passions for teaching, language learning, and travel. She is fluent in English and Spanish, with an intermediate level of Hindi, Malayalam, and Portuguese. In 2012, she studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain, and in 2015 she returned to Spain to teach in Madrid. Additionally, she has been an online English instructor for students around the world for the past 3 years. Tara’s research includes collaborative work on Hindi phonics acquisition as well as Second Language Writing teacher training, the latter of which was presented at the 2017 TESOL International Convention. This summer, Tara will travel to China to teach college students at the English Communication Program at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan.

Hsu-Ping Tuan received her M.A. in TESOL through the PK-12 program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also holds an M.S. in Brain Science from National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. Prior to Teachers College, she dedicated herself to integrating the latest research findings of neuroscience and English teaching to develop curriculum to facilitate the learning of struggling students in Taiwan. She was interested in learning the public school systems in the U.S. However, considering that the training in the General track may be more directly applicable to her home country, Taiwan, which is an English as a Foreign Language setting, she decided to complete courses in both the General and PK-12 track. During her studies, she also presented at forums and conferences organized by the Applied Linguistics and TESOL department, and volunteered as a committee member of the annual Celebration of Teaching Conference.

Hsu-Ping was awarded the John F. Fanselow Award for developing outstanding ESL materials. Additionally, she was nominated as Student Speaker for the Teachers College Master’s graduation, and selected as a featured student at convocation. Hsu-Ping is thrilled to apply what she has learned to establish a language school and improve English education in Taiwan.

Jarod Yong was a Fulbright scholar from Malaysia who graduated with an M.A. in TESOL in 2017. He holds a B.Ed. in TESOL from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he studied under renowned linguists like Paul Nation and Janet Holmes.

During his time at Teachers College (TC), he was elected to the 2016/2017 Student Senate as the International Student Senator where he advocated for international students, shared useful tips and events via #InternationalTC, and played a part in organizing numerous international-themed events. He has also presented and participated in numerous forums and conferences organized by the TESOL/AL department, like the Second Language Research Forum, the Language and Social Interaction Working Group, New York State TESOL Applied Linguistics Winter Conference, and Celebration of Teaching.

Additionally, he designed an after-school ESL program curriculum for Bresee Foundation, collaborated with Education Malaysia and Malaysian-American Commission on Education Exchange on a video exchange project between students in Malaysia and the US, travelled across the US on a train with the Millennial Trains Project, and participated in a Fulbright education justice conference at George Washington University.

Prior to enrollment at TC, he taught ESL to adolescents at a secondary school deep in the rainforests of Malaysia. During his 7 eventful years as a teacher in Malaysia, he was awarded the Excellent Service Award by the Sarawak state education department, involved with examining and item-building for the national English examination paper, participated in the development of a new English curriculum for secondary schools, examined the English examination papers for matriculation colleges, and conducted national-level professional development workshops.

In order to broaden the horizons of the students of his isolated school who were disadvantaged socioeconomically, academically and geographically, he brought in guest speakers from all over Malaysia as well as those from Japan and the US for motivation speeches, workshops and camps at his school. His collaborators include the US Department of State, Teach for Malaysia, and various schools and departments under the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

He loves motorcycling, bagels and a good latte. He can be reached at JarodYong.com and is open all forms of educational collaboration. Feel free to say hi!

Yuanheng (Arthur) Wang is a doctoral student in Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University, where he teaches courses on academic writing and second language writing, and conducts research on corpus-based genre analysis, conversation analysis, and language teacher education. He graduated from the AL/TESOL program at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2019 and earned his undergraduate degree in English from Penn State. Arthur’s interests include second language writing, corpus linguistics, second language pedagogy, and English for academic/specific purposes.

Ann Tai Choe was admitted as an Ed.M. student in the TESOL and Applied Linguistics program at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2015. She holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Chung Deh College, Taiwan, and an M.A. in TESOL from Hawai`i Pacific University. Prior to joining the program, she was an English instructor at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan, where she taught Public Speaking & Debate and Freshmen English for two years. In addition to language teaching, Ann enjoys art and has taught art to students of all ages in Taiwan, China, and Malaysia.

Her research interests are conversation analysis, discourse analysis, interlanguage development, pragmatics, and interactional competence. She has presented her work at the 6^th International Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (ALAPP) and the 38^th NYS TESOL Applied Linguistics Winter Conference (ALWC). Recently, Ann was accepted to the Ph.D. program in Second Language Studies at University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. 

Kaylee Fernandez began her Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2016 and has recently been admitted into the Ed.D. program in Applied Linguistics (Second Language Acquisition Track). She graduated from the University of Florida with a B.A. in Spanish and minors in English and Education. She also holds an M.A. in Teaching Spanish and English as Foreign Languages from the University of Seville, Spain. For her Master’s thesis, Kaylee compared heritage speakers’ and second language learners’ acquisition of the subjunctive mood in Spanish.

Prior to coming to TC, she taught EFL classes in Spain for four years. Her research interests include second language vocabulary acquisition, second language processing, instructed second language acquisition, bi/multilingualism, and heritage language acquisition. She presented her study, "Repeated-reading-based instructional strategy: A replication of Han and Chen (2010)" at the 2017 NYS TESOL Applied Linguistics Winter Conference.

Yoon Namkung has recently been admitted into the Ed.D. program in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, specializing in Second Language Acquisition. She began her Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics at TC in 2016. Exposure to both Korean and English at an early age left Yoon fascinated with how people learn and use languages. Yoon graduated from Ewha Womans University, South Korea with a B.A. in English Language and Literature. She also holds an M.A. in Linguistics from her alma mater. For her Master’s thesis, Yoon examined Korean EFL learners’ acquisition of English articles, focusing on article substitution errors. She developed online English learning and teaching materials at a textbook publisher in Seoul, South Korea before coming to TC. Yoon’s research interests include second language vocabulary acquisition, second language reading, focus on form instruction, and cross-linguistic influences.

Onsutee W. Sudwan is a Thai graduate of the Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a B.Ed. in Secondary Education (English) from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and an M.A. in TESOL from the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the TESOL and Applied Linguistics program, Onsutee had taught English in her home country, Thailand, in both formal and vocational contexts. She was able to apply her knowledge in practice and was always excited to try different teaching strategies with her students from various backgrounds. Also, her passion for teaching led her to start a YouTube channel where she presents self-designed English lessons catering specifically to Thai learners of English. At TC, Onsutee was able to explore new areas of her research interests, including conversation analysis and classroom discourse analysis. Particularly, she is interested in teacher talk and how it affects classroom interactions as well as language learning as a whole. Besides taking a student role, she spent her free time volunteer teaching at Community Impact, Columbia University. This helped her develop not only her teaching and communication skills, but also profound interests and understandings of language, culture, and diversity.

Jorge Beltrán is a 2011 graduate of the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH), Mexico, where he pursued a B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. After working as a language teacher in his hometown for a couple years, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue graduate studies in the US. Following his completion of the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (AL) at Teachers College, he was admitted to the Master of Education program, with a concentration in language assessment, and was also awarded a CONACYT scholarship from the Mexican government. During this program, Jorge was granted a Zankel Fellowship, and led student publication projects for Student Press Initiative to promote writing skills in public schools with high ELL populations in the Bronx. In 2016, he was conferred the Master of Education in Applied Linguistics. This same year, however, he began his journey as a doctoral student in the Ed.D.  program in AL, continuing with the specialization in language assessment.  

His research interests and current projects include studies of scenario-based tests, construct validity of L2 reading comprehension tests, and studies of classroom-based assessment. His work has been presented at professional conferences such as the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL), the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the East Coast Organization of Language Testers (ECOLT).

During the summer of 2017, Jorge is interning at Educational Testing Services (ETS) as part of the Summer Internship in Research for Graduate Students.

Brian Carroll graduated from Ohio State University in 2005 with a bachelor’s in journalism and Russian language & literature. After many attempts to crack the field of journalism, he realized that his will to pursue writing was surpassed by his passion for language learning. He decided to move to St. Petersburg, Russia. He quickly took a job teaching English to Russian speakers, and beginner level Russian to native English speakers. After 5 years, he discovered that for him to become a better teacher of foreign languages, he needed to understand the mechanisms underlying foreign language teaching and learning. He arrived in NYC with a suitcase and the determination to become the best language teacher he could become. Brian is continuing his studies in Applied Linguistics at TC as an Ed.D. candidate.

Catherine Box earned her M.A. and Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a second M.A. in English from West Chester University, and an A.B. in English/French at Muhlenberg College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Phi Sigma Iota Award for Excellence in Romance Languages, and the Paul C. Scherr Award for Outstanding Writing. She has taught English Literature, ESL, and French in the United States at both the K-12 and the postsecondary level; she has also taught English in Paris, France, at secondary and postsecondary levels. Presently a teacher trainer, her passion is to advocate for immigrants and immigrant education and improve teaching methods in content-based classrooms. Her research focuses on interaction and multimodality in educational settings, both traditional and informal, conducting her work within the conversation analytic paradigm. Formerly an executive board member of New York State TESOL, Catherine has presented research at AAAL, NYS TESOL, SETESOL, TESOL International, as well as conferences in France, Greece, and Switzerland. Her work, often in collaboration with other researchers from Teachers College, has appeared in Applied Linguistics Review, Language & Information Society, Learning & Individual Differences, and Language, Culture, & Social Interaction. She is presently a Lecturer in the Educational Linguistics Division at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sarah Sok earned her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a M.A. in Applied Linguistics and a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, with departmental honors and Summa Cum Laude. She has taught ESL in Los Angeles and New York City, as well as EFL in China. She has also taught Second Language Acquisition courses in the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program and the TESOL Certificate Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include instructed second language acquisition, second language vocabulary acquisition, second language reading and writing, and second language teacher education. Sarah is currently an Academic Coordinator and Lecturer in the Program in Academic English/ESL at the University of California, Irvine.

Timothy Hall earned his Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University. He also holds a Bachelors in French Studies from Bristol University in the UK, and an Ed.M in TESOL at The College of New Jersey.  He has taught ESL and EFL in a variety of academic and non-academic settings since 1993.  Dr. Hall has taught numerous courses at the graduate level in applied linguistics and TESOL / bilingual teacher certification.  In addition to developing great teachers, Dr. Hall’s interests lie in usage-based theories of second language acquisition, the relevance of second language acquisition to teacher preparation, and the overlap between vocational training and ESL. Dr. Hall is currently a coordinator for a federal grant project at The College of New Jersey.

Advisor: Dr. Waring

Applied Linguistics, Language Use

Alexander Lee is a doctoral candidate in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Broadly, his areas of research interests include classroom discourse, conversation analysis, and interactional sociolinguistics.  A two-time recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, he has given invited talks and presented his peer-reviewed research at Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia, among others.