Graduate Students in the SLS Program are working toward their Ph.D. in Second Language Studies. They are listed below in alphabetical order.
Joanne Cheng joined the SLS program in the Fall of 2024. She received her MA in TESOL at the University of Mississippi and her BA in Language and Creative Writing, with a concentration in Chinese Education, from National Taipei University of Education in Taiwan. Prior to joining MSU, Joanne taught Chinese at an HBCU, and English as a Second Language (ESL) at various levels, including K-12, Intensive English Program, and adult learners in a faith-based ministry. Before coming to the US, she also taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for adults at community centers and public schools in Taiwan. Joanne is certified as a national ESL faith-based literacy workshop leader. Her research interests include the relationship between socio-affective factors and learners’ speaking performance, identity, games and learning in the classroom, and teacher education.
Caitlin Cornell is the Assistant Director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement at MSU. She entered the Second Language Studies program in 2017. She earned her MA in Linguistics (with a specialization in TESOL) from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009. She has taught English and trained teachers since 2005. Her research interests fall into the broad category of accessible teaching and learning for language learners with disabilities, and through this lens she explores individual differences, online education, CALL, and U.S. language education policy.
Matt Coss is a PhD student broadly interested in additional language (AL) educational innovation and evaluation. This includes aspects of instructed second language development and language teaching, assessment, language teacher education, and program design and evaluation, as well as the interface(s) of research and AL pedagogy. Prior to joining the SLS program in 2021, Matt taught Chinese and Spanish for 11 years in a variety of K-16 contexts. Matt also worked for 4 years at the National Foreign Language Center (University of Maryland) as a Graduate Assistant and then Second Language Specialist on the STARTALK project. Matt earned his BA in Hispanic Linguistics & Asian Studies from UNC Chapel Hill and his MA in SLA from the University of Maryland College Park.
April Day is a Ph.D. Student in the Second Language Studies program. She earned her MA in Applied Linguistics and her BA in Linguistics and Drama from the University of Queensland, Australia. April has taught in many countries around the world, including China, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan. Her research interests include critical multilingual language awareness, non-verbal interaction styles and critical discourse analysis.
Kevin Fedewa is currently a PhD student in Second Language Studies at Michigan State University and an instructor and coordinator of Foundations Writing courses for Environmental Science students at a University of Arizona micro-campus in China. Since 2009, he has served in various teaching and program administration roles for English and Mandarin language programs in China, Korea, and the US. His interests are in second language writing, language for specific purposes, task-based language teaching, as well as program development and evaluation.
Brittany Finch is a Ph.D. student in the Second Language Studies program. She earned her M.A. in TESL and B.A. in TESL and Spanish, Literature, Culture, and Translation from Kent State University. Her research interests include psycholinguistics, bilingualism, lexical processing, cognitive processes in reading and predictive processing.
Elena Gorshkova joined the SLS PhD program in the Fall of 2023 while completing her master’s degree in TESOL at Michigan State University. She holds BA with honors in Teacher Education with specialization in Foreign Language Instruction from Saratov State University in Russia. She has taught English in Russia, China, and the US. Her research interests include formative and standardized assessment, eye-tracking and nonverbal behaviors.
Xinyi Guan joined the SLS PhD program in Fall 2024. Her research focuses on task-based language teaching and assessment (TBLA), language teacher education, and program design. Prior to joining the program, she spent four years implementing TBLT in various educational contexts across mainland China. Her experience spans working with primary school children, young learners aged 2 to 6-, and 6- to 15-year-olds, college students, and ethnic minority Uyghur undergraduates. Driven by a commitment to addressing the “Mute English” phenomenon, she is dedicated to advancing the use of TBLT in China.
Leonardo Guedez is interested in linguistic variation, particularly with regard to using corpus methods to refine psycholinguistic accounts of learner language. Other areas of interest include studying the interaction between prosody and lexico-grammar across registers, and investigating the cognitive mechanisms of language production in non-native language varieties.
Shannon Harasta joined the SLS program in the fall of 2023. She earned her MA in Linguistics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and her BA in Cognitive Science and Game Simulation Arts and Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to her graduate studies she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal where she worked as a food security volunteer and taught ESL. She is broadly interested in the intersection of sociolinguistics and SLA.
Hendriwanto joined the SLS program in Fall 2024 as a scholarship awardee from the Center for Higher Education Funding, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Republic of Indonesia. He received his S.Pd. in English Language Education from Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati and his M.Pd. in Applied Linguistics from Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. He is a faculty member in the English Language Education program at the Faculty of Science and Education, Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati. His research interests include genre-based pedagogy, English for scholarly writing, and corpus analysis.
Hyun-Bin Hwang joined the SLS program in the Fall of 2021 as a grantee of Fulbright Graduate Student Program. He received his B.Ed. with the highest distinction, and M.Ed. in English Language Education from Korea National University of Education. He was an English Language teacher in South Korea for 7 years prior to joining the program. His research interests include (technology-mediated) instructed SLA and the research-pedagogy interface. He serves as the 2024-2025 Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Representative.
Eunmi Kim joined SLS in Spring 2024. She holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), South Korea. After she earned her doctorate, she has worked as an academic research professor at the Language Research Institute at HUFS. Her research focuses on the differences between synonymous linguistic items and the different semantic, pragmatic, and morpho-syntactic features of language used by English L1 speakers and L2 learners, employing a corpus-based approach. Her research has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as English Studies, Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, and the Australian Journal of Linguistics. She has received research grants from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the Research Affairs/R&DB Foundation of HUFS.
Nari Kim joined the SLS program in 2023 as a Fulbright Graduate Student Program grantee. She holds an M.A. in Foreign, Second, and Multilingual Language Education from the Ohio State University as a recipient of the University Fellowship. Before coming to MSU, she was an elementary school teacher in South Korea with 10 years of experience. During that time, she worked closely with young EFL students, developing her professional expertise in practice-driven language teaching and learning. She continues to expand her areas of interest including: bi/multilingual education focusing on equity and access, identity, language education policy, and teacher education.
Joanne Koh joined the SLS Ph.D. program in the Fall of 2020. She received her BA in English Education and MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Ewha Womans University, Korea. Her current research interests include the role of technology in mediating L2 learning and teaching, cognitive processes in L2 vocabulary acquisition and learning, and the cognitive mechanisms under technology-mediated language learning.
Jared Michael Kubokawa is a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University (MSU). He is a recipient of the MSU distinguished fellowship, a Fulbright-Hays DDRA fellowship, and has experience teaching English in both international and domestic contexts across multiple age groups. His research interests include second language and multilingual writing, multilingual creativity, second literacy, innovation in language teaching and learning, teacher education and sociolinguistic factors in SLA.
Yusuke Kuroki joined the SLS PhD program in the fall of 2024. He received his MA in Foreign Language Education and Research from Kansai University and his BA in Humanities from Miyazaki Municipal University. His research interests include the cognitive processes underlying second language acquisition and the role of multimodal interaction in computer-assisted language learning.
Vashti Lee joined the SLS program in 2021. She completed her BA in Linguistics at Brigham Young University and her MS in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University. She has taught Mandarin, Cantonese, and ESL to adult learners in a variety of contexts, including at the university level. Her research interests include multilingualism, language immersion education, and language identity and ideology. Recently, much of her research has drawn on the experiences of heritage language learners and multilingual transnationals.
Sonja Mecham joined the SLS program in Fall 2024. She received her MA in TESOL and BA in linguistics from Brigham Young University. Before studying at MSU, she taught ESL to adults in both community and academic settings. Her research interests include teacher education, linguistic justice, and language ideology, with a goal of exploring opportunities for critical thinking and inclusion in language classrooms.
Yuko Nakanishi joined the SLS program in 2024. She holds an M.A. in English Linguistics from Doshisha University in Kyoto and another in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College. Yuko has five years of experience teaching English at junior and senior high schools in Japan. Her research interests include instructed SLA, form-focused instruction, and the role of communicative practices. She is particularly focused on how learners develop grammatical knowledge and improve their speaking proficiency in classroom settings.
Monique Yoder earned her MA TESOL at MSU (2008), and her MA in Language Testing from Lancaster University in England (2017). She has developed tests for Educational Testing Service, Second Language Testing, Inc., and MSU; directed the ESL Program at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor, MI; and served as interim director of LCC International University’s MA TESOL program. Monique’s research interests include classroom-based language assessment, language assessment literacy, language test development, task clarity in writing assessments, and rater behavior.
Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Representative
Graduate Students in Applied Linguistics, including those in the SLS and TESOL programs, have a Graduate Student Representative who serves as a conduit of information between the AL students and the AL faculty. The Representative attends and participates in the AL Faculty Meetings, which are held at least once a month during the academic year. The Representative also may attend and participate in specific AL committee meetings, or nominate other AL students to do so.
The 2024-2025 Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Representative is Hyun-Bin Hwang. The annual procedures for electing the Graduate Student Representative are outlined in the Graduate Student Handbook.