Current students
Seda Acıkara Eickhoff
a Ph.D. student in Applied Linguistics. She received her M.A. degree in TESL from Northern Arizona University in 2020 and her bachelor’s degree in ELT from Middle East Technical University (Türkiye). She has over 10 years of experience teaching English in institutions such as Bilkent University (Türkiye), Scuola Centro-Fagnani (Italy), and Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include second language writing (accuracy), corpus linguistics, and pragmatics.
Lizzy Hanks
started NAU's PhD program in applied linguistics in Fall 2021. She uses corpus methods to address questions related to vocabulary and pragmatics. She holds an MA in TESOL from Northeastern Illinois University and a BA in linguistics from Brigham Young University. She has taught English in Thailand, Austria, and the US.
Vito Miao 缪永智
joined the PhD Applied Linguistics program in 2021. He is interested in applied linguistics, social psychology, and social justice. He attended schools at Oxford University, UC Berkeley, and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. His recent research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as System and Language Testing, and TESOL Quarterly (see here for details).
Nairui Chen
is a Ph.D student in Applied Linguistics and a GTA in Interdisciplinary Writing Program (IWP). Her research interests are task variation, L2 writing, and writing quality of EFL learners.
Francesca Grixoni
Francesca Grixoni is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Applied Linguistics at NAU. She holds a BA in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation from University of Bologna and an MA in Interpreting and Translation from University of International Studies in Rome. Currently, she teaches Italian classes at NAU. Her research interests include speech perception, corpus linguistics, and forensic linguistics.
Nur Yağmur Demir
is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Applied Linguistics. She holds an M.A. in ELT from Middle East Technical University (Turkey) and a B.A. in ELT from Bogazici University (Turkey). Before coming to Flagstaff, she taught English as a foreign language at several universities in Turkey. She also received Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year and worked as a Turkish Language Teacher Assistant at Indiana University. Her research interests include corpus linguistics, ELF pragmatics, computer-mediated communication and sociolinguistics.
Wesley H. Acorinti
joined the M.A. program in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University in 2024. He earned his B.A. in Language Teaching (Portuguese, English and Literature) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, also in 2024. His research interests include English for specific purposes, corpus linguistics and Portuguese as an additional language.
Taehyeong Kim
is a Ph.D. student in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. He received his M.A. degree in English Language Education from Seoul National University, and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include corpus linguistics, language assessment, and natural language processing (NLP).
Dilara Dikilitas
joined the Applied Linguistics Ph.D. program at NAU in 2023. She received her M.A. in TESL-Applied Linguistics from NAU and B.A. in TEFL from the Middle East Technical University. Currently, she teaches English Composition classes at NAU and serves as a team leader for the Lumberjack Writing Center tutors. Her research interests include World Englishes; linguistic discrimination; and issues of inequity, particularly in spoken modality.
Yuna Bae
is a PhD student in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. She holds an M.A. in English Language Education from Seoul National University and earned her B.A. in English Language and Literature from Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea. Her research interests include L2 speech perception and production, L2 prosody, speech technology, and L2 pronunciation pertaining to assessment.
Nathaniel Seres
is a MA student in Applied Linguistics at NAU. His research interests principally include second language acquisition, fossilization/attrition, and corpus linguistics. He received his bachelor's from Kent State University in TESOL and English. He is excited to be part of the GSAAL team.
Olivia Wilson
is currently enrolled as a first-year student in NAU's BA-MA program for TESL and Applied Linguistics. She tutors academic writing within NAU's Lumberjack Writing Center. Furthermore, she has worked for the Program of Intensive English, having the privilege to teach English as a second language to adult students from China, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia. Her research interests include forensic linguistics; comparison of English L2 online/in-person instruction; and psycholinguistics. As a new member of GSAAL and the Corpus Club at NAU, Olivia hopes to learn professional practice in the field, modeling after peers and faculty.
Shujing Zhao
is a Ph.D. student in Applied linguistics at Northern Arizona University. She received her master’s degree from University of Pennsylvania in TESOL. Shujing has over 6 years of experience teaching English at both ESL and EFL settings, and she is currently teaching an undergraduate-level English Academic Writing course at NAU. Her research interests include second language acquisition, second language instruction, individual differences, and translanguaging.
Michelle Richter
is a PhD student in the Applied Linguistics program and a GTA with the Interdisciplinary Writing Program. Michelle received her Master of Philosophy degree in Linguistics from the University of Ghana in 2022. She’s taught Introductory linguistics courses and English in Ghana and Cotê d’Ivoire, respectively. Her research interests are corpus linguistics, register variation, and AI applications for language teaching and learning.
Kelly Kendro
is a PhD student in Applied Linguistics. She holds a BA in Cognitive Science and Romance Languages from University of Michigan and an MA in Linguistics from University of Utah. Her research interests include multilingualism and cognition, language variation, corpus linguistics, and forensic linguistics.
Mark Sullivan
is a Ph.D student whose principal research interests are L2 writing, particularly teacher feedback on discourse features and relations; teaching Mandarin, particularly the teaching of tones; language change, particularly transmission, preservation, and innovation of linguistic forms such as slang; the application of statistical techniques into literary criticism, particularly as these relate to modern (post WWII) English poetry and Tang shi; the philosophy of language, no particularity; and how generative AI might help tilt at each of these windmills.