Languages and Literacies Education (LLE) Graduate Student Profiles

Master of Arts (MA) Candidates

JON LAMBERT, HBa jon.lambert-at-mail.utoronto.ca As a part-time graduate student at OISE, Jon is also continuing in a writing-recording project with students at Sichuan University for Nationalities.  His research interests include learning and teaching in plurilingual environments and student perspectives.

DANIEL RICCARDI, HBa daniel.riccardi@mail.utoronto.ca Daniel graduated from UofT in 2008 specializing in Social/Cultural Anthropology, at which point he moved to South Korea to teach English at the university level and then to Chile to complete a CIDA funded internship with a human rights organization in Santiago.  Daniel also spent time learning Spanish and traveling throughout South America. Following four years outside of Canada, he has returned to Toronto to complete the MA program at OISE in Second Language Education.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidates

HYEYOON CHO, MA hyeyoon.cho@mail.utoronto.ca Hyeyoon is a PhD Candidate in the Second Language Education program. Her research is primarily focused on second language writing. For her Masters degree, she conducted research on the needs and struggles of EFL Korean writers and bi-directional rhetorical transfer in the writing of Korean learners. Her current research interests include collaborative L2 writing through Web 2.0 (e.g., Social media); Second Language Writing; Computer-assisted Language Learning and Conversation Analysis MAGGIE DUNLOP, MA maggie.dunlop@utoronto.ca Maggie’s current research interests include the integration of language assessment, technology and instruction, specifically in multilingual and resource-restricted contexts. Her resume includes projects for the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative, York University, Save the Children, and various Chinese regional Ministries of Education. Project topics include development of language assessments and practices, research in young learner multilingual literacy development, and program monitoring and evaluation. She taught English to a variety of students in China and Japan, and currently volunteers in a multilingual Toronto public school classroom. Maggie speaks English, Mandarin Chinese and Portuguese.  EUN-YONG KIM, MEd euni80@gmail.com Eun-Yong was born and raised in South Korea, but spent three years of her childhood in Paris, France, and three years of adolescence in Ontario, Canada. Through this background, she acquired spoken and written English and a fascination with language. Eun-Yong taught English in a Korean-Chinese elementary school in China as a student volunteer while in college, which heightened her sense of her own ethnicity and the divided reality of the Korean Peninsula. Her research interests include second language education, sociolinguistics, global English and North Korean defectors. AHMED KANDIL, BA, MEd ahmed.kandil@mail.utoronto.ca Ahmed Kandil started his TESOL career in 1992 upon obtaining his BA from Ain Shams University (Cairo, Egypt). Ten years later, he received his Master’s degree from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK). Throughout his career, Ahmed assumed the roles of TESOL instructor, curriculum designer, instructional supervisor, and unit coordinator. His main research interests are related to instructional supervision and the teaching of vocabulary. He started his PhD degree in September 2011.   TIFFANY Y.Y. NG, BSc, BEd, MEd tiffanyyy.ng@mail.utoronto.ca Tiffany Ng is a second-year PhD student in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning department at the University of Toronto (OISE).  Her diverse research interests stem from her fascination with languages and her personal language experience as a young immigrant in Canada.  Recently, she has developed a growing interest in the areas of mixed-method research and second language education policies.  She is fluent in English and Cantonese Chinese; currently, she is also learning German, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.   Her current research interests include: multilingual education, minority language learning and maintenance, second language teaching and learning, mutlilingual pedagogies, language policy, mixed-method research.   HEEJIN SONG, BFa, BA, MA heejin.song@utoronto.ca Heejin was a secondary school EFL teacher in South Korea. She completed her MA in applied linguistics at York University in Canada and is currently pursuing her PhD at OISE, University of Toronto. Her areas of interest are applied linguistics, second/foreign language education, multiculturalism, intercultural education, critical pedagogy, critical discourse analysis, language ideology and policy issues, and curriculum and textbook analysis.  Her research interests include: Critical examination of culture in EFL/ESL classrooms, specifically investigating how curricula and accompanying language textbooks are ideologically constructed and how these documents shape language teaching practice. MARYAM WAGNER, HBSc, BEd, MEd maryam.wagner@utoronto.ca Maryam is involved in multiple aspects of second language research, writing, and research. At OISE, she has been involved in multiple research studies including: Validation of STEPs to English Proficiency, and Using Think-alouds to Understand Students’ Cognitive Strategy Use. Maryam teaches an undergraduate course on ‘Principles of TESL’ and works as a writing advisor. She is a past editor of a graduate student journal and is currently an advisory member of the Canadian Journal of Education.  Maryam’s research interests include language assessment, feedback, validity and fairness issues in assessment, cognitive diagnostic assessment and second language writing development and assessment, self-assessment, and self-regulation of learning. CHOONGIL YOON choongil.yoon@utoronto.ca Choongil’s thesis research focuses on the use of Internet-based language reference resources as writing assistance for L2 writers.  His other research interests include: L2 writing, English for Academic Purposes and Corpus Linguistics.

VEDRAN DRONJIC, MA vedranDOTdronjicATutorontoDOTca Vedran’s research interests include: Psycholinguistics, morphological processing, the mental lexicon, lexical testing, memory and language, language acquisition across the life span, language knowledge and language awareness, reading and bilingualism.  For more information and to download Vedran’s publications, please visit his personal web page:https://sites.google.com/site/vedrandronjic/   GARY G FOGAL, MA gg.fogal@mail.utoronto.ca Gary’s research interests include academic writing, sociocultural theory, EAP and the role of literature and creativity in L2 language learning, specifically pedagogical stylistics. In 2012 he published Global Focus, an EAP textbook, with Oxford University Press. He also teaches and tutors in the School of Graduate Studies Writing Centre at the University of Toronto. For more information and links to his published works, please see: http://utoronto.academia.edu/GaryGFogal.   IN CHULL JANG, BA, MA inchull.jang@mail.utoronto.ca InChull completed his BA and MA degrees in South Korea and has been studying in the Second Language Program at OISE since 2010. The keywords he keeps in mind during his academic journey are empathy, hospitality and community and hopes that these values can be realized through his research and life. His thesis topic is concerned with language ideologies and linguistic practices of South Korean young adults studying English abroad.  His research interests include: Sociolinguistics, language ideology, interdisciplinary approach, ethnography in language education, second language learner identity and foreign language curriculum   CONTTIA LAI, HBa, MPhil, PCEd, MA conttia.lai@mail.utoronto.ca Conttia taught academic and professional English to undergraduates at the University of Hong Kong prior to her studies at OISE.  Her interests in academic literacy, self-regulated learning and learner motivation have stemmed from her observation of the students’ learning experiences in the classroom where various levels of motivation and self-regulation could contribute to different levels of academic literacy.  Conttia would like to keep an open mind to learning new skills for her academic career.   PAUL QUINN, BA, MA paul.quinn@mail.utoronto.ca During the decade Paul spent teaching English in Japan, he became intrigued by the role that oral production plays in second language acquisition. That fascination grew stronger when he returned to the University of Toronto for graduate studies and gained experience teaching in Canadian post secondary contexts and researching second language education in the research projects of Dr. Jang, Dr. Spada, and Dr. Swain.  In, his M.A. thesis, Paul investigated the potential of students on short-term study abroad trips to learn through speaking as it is hypothesized in Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis (1985, 1995, 2005). In his PhD dissertation, he is investigating what role the timing of the corrective feedback on orally produced errors plays in second language development. For more information about Paul, please visit his blog: http://paulgquinn.wordpress.com MARLON VALENCIA, Lic, MA, MA m.valencia@utoronto.ca Marlon Valencia is originally from Cali, Colombia, where he received his Second Language Teacher Degree (Licenciado) at Universidad del Valle. He completed an M.A in Foreign Languages and Cultures at Washington State University, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics at York University. He teaches ESL and Spanish at a college in the city of Toronto, and works as a research assistant for the Concurrent Teacher Education Program at the University of Toronto. His research interests include: Second language teacher education, language policy and planning, multiliteracies, language and social identities. Academia profile: utoronto.academia.edu/MarlonValencia   JIN-SUK YANG jinsuk.yang@mail.utoronto.ca Jin-Suk Yang is a first year Ph.D. student at OISE/UT. Her research interests include: study-aborad, learner beliefs, qualitative research, and sociopragmatic aspects of language learning.