Staff
Dr. Okim Kang, Director
My research focus lies in the areas of speech production and perception, second language (L2) oral assessment and automated scoring, L2 pronunciation and intelligibility, language attitudes, World Englishes, and L2 phonology in second language acquisition. My overall research goal is to investigate the nature of accented speech of non-native speakers (NNSs) of English, which includes several sub-areas of research: (a) how accent is perceived by listeners, (b) how accented speech is characterized linguistically, (c) how the assessment of accented speech is validated through automatic systems, (d) how speakers with accents can better communicate with others, and (e) what constitutes intelligible speech and how we can promote intelligible speech in the global contexts.
Affiliated Faculty
Dr. Romy Ghanem
Romy Ghanem is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Linguistics program at Northern Arizona University. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from NAU in 2017 and has had appointments at Ohio University and the University of Memphis. Her research areas include second language spoken discourse, speech perception and production, and L2 pronunciation instruction. Some of her recent projects have explored linguistic and reverse linguistic stereotyping, improving International Teaching Assistants’ overall intelligibility, the creation and annotation of spoken corpora, and the description of L2 spoken discourse.
Dr. Meghan Moran
Meghan Moran is a Lecturer in the English Department at NAU. Since receiving her doctorate in Applied Linguistics from NAU (under the tutelage of Okim Kang and Mary McGroarty), she has been continuing her research in intelligibility, speech perception, and linguistic prejudice. She has taught pre-K through adult learners; ESL, teacher training, and English composition. Recently, she has collaborated with Mexico's Language and Education Consulting in the development of an online EFL teacher training course.
Students
Katherine (Kate) Yaw
Kate is a fifth-year student in the Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics program at NAU. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, and program administrator at schools and universities in the U.S. and the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq since 2007. She is also trained as a CEA site reviewer. She holds an M.A. in TESOL from the American University in Washington, D.C., as well as a B.A. in anthropology and Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include language attitudes, speech perception, psycholinguistics, and listener training.
Mohammadreza (Reza) Dalman
Reza is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Applied Linguistics. His research interests lie in second language (L2) pronunciation and intelligibility, L2 phonology in second language acquisition (SLA), and L2 speech production and perception. He is currently working on his dissertation entitled “Online-based Intelligibility Instruction for Second Language Learners”. Reza has taught a number of Applied Linguistics courses, including Fundamentals of Second Language Teaching, ESL Methods and Materials, and Assessment for Second Language Skills.
Maria (Masha) Kostromitina
Masha is a third-year PhD student in Applied Linguistics and the President of GSAAL. Her research interests include second language psycholinguistics and pragmatics; she has also been involved in corpus linguistic research projects. Masha serves on the NAU Graduate Student Government and on the Event Planning Sub-Committee of AAAL Graduate Student Council.
Kevin Hirschi
Kevin is a third-year doctoral student who is interested in the intersection of second language pronunciation and corpus linguistics, including descriptions of lingua Franca variants of English and French, learner acquisition of pronunciation in classroom contexts, and mobile-assisted pronunciation technology. He has taught English and French as second / foreign languages and has served as a Peace Corps volunteer as well as an English Language Fellow in Eurasia.
Sung Eun Choi
Sung Eun is a second-year Ph.D. student of Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include spoken interaction of second language (L2) learners of English with a specific focus on prosody and pronunciation. She holds an M.A. in TESL from NAU and a B.A. in English Education from Seoul National University. The aim of her research is to understand L2 interaction and to promote communication in English as a second language.
Vito Miao
Vito Miao 缪永智 is a first-year PhD student who is interested in listeners’ perception of accented speech, linguistic biases and prejudice, and Global Englishes. He earned his bachelor’s degree in translation and interpreting from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, during which he spent one year studying literature at University of California, Berkeley. Before joining NAU, he completed a master’s degree in applied linguistics and second language acquisition at the University of Oxford. He is currently teaching first-year English composition at NAU, and he previously taught IELTS preparation, introduction to applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and yoga in China.