Ali Ebrahimpourlighvani is a Lougheed Fellow doctoral student in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University, specializing in language and technology. Ali is a graduate student member of ILTA. His research focuses on SDS-based L2 speaking assessment and how AI-driven conversational agents can act as interlocutors to elicit critical thinking and support construct and interactional authenticity grounded in constructivist learning principles. He is exploring how critical thinking can be elicited in human-AI spoken interaction. He has presented his research at LARC and TSLL conferences.

Before joining Teachers College, Ali completed his M.A. in Applied Linguistics with a specialization in language assessment at Iowa State University (ISU), and his thesis is titled Speaking Assessment and Critical Thinking Test: An Innovation in Assessing Oral Communication Ability of International University-Level Students. During his MA at ISU, He served as instructor of record and redesign fellow for ISUComm foundational courses, including Introduction to Critical Thinking and Communication and Advanced Argument and Rhetoric. He also worked as a rater for the EPT of Oral Communication at ISU.