Newsletter Story 3
“Student and Alumni News Stories”
Ahmad Al-Issa, a C&T alumnus, continues to teach at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where he has recently helped to start an MA TESOL program, approved by Middle States. Ahmad’s wife, Laila, is working as the Manager for the College of Arts and Sciences. As many of you likely recall, Laila was the Director of International Affairs at IUP for a number of years. The couple’s four-year old son is named Saif.
Rebecca Day is the winner of this year’s International Writing Centers Association Graduate Research Grant to support her dissertation research, directed by Ben Rafoth.
Karen Englander presented at two conferences in October, both in Mexico, where she lives and works. The first presentation was at the Baja California Foreign Languages Conference and was entitled “But It’d Be Good in Spanish: Contrastive Analysis Told for Writers.” The second was at the Mexican National EFL Conference, sponsored by MEXTESOL in the resort town of Oxextepec. She presented an Academic paper in progress based on a pilot study she did last year entitled, “Becoming Less Provocative, or How a Scientist Gets Published in English.”
Tom Farrell, a C&T alumnus, has had his paper, “Teaching English During the First Year: Personal Issues and Challenges” published in Teaching and Teacher Education.
Frank Hermann published an article entitled “Differential Effects of Reading and Memorization of Paired Associates on Vocabulary Acquisition in Adult Learners of English as a Second Language” in volume 7.1 of the journal TESL-EJ.
Yunghwan Kwon, a C&T alumnus, teaches in a tenure track position at Busan National University of Education where he is also the General Secretary of the professors’ union. Yung reports that another C&T alum, Soo-Jeong Shin, is now teaching in a tenure track position at a Baptist university in South Korea.
C&T alumnus David Purnell is in his second year at Central College where he is a tenure track assistant professor. David has started an ESL program as well created an undergraduate course, Teaching ESL. He has also been to China where he checked in on ten American exchange students from Central College who are studying at Zhe Jiang University in Hangzhou.
Recent MA TESOL alumna, Stephanie Rummel, is teaching in Vientiane, Laos. She is working there with a team of international teachers, four from the Philippines, two from Australia, and one from India.
Patricia Thatcher, a C&T alumna, is serving as an Assistant Professor of English and Writing Program Director at Eastern New Mexico University. She has also been elected to the English department’s Faculty Evaluation Committee.
Emma Wilson, an MA TESOL alumna, is presently the ESOL Coordinator for the Department of Alternative Programs, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland. She is also working on her doctoral degree at Georgetown University.