News Archive

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MA TESOL graduate Julie Peters Akey volunteers at Gentille Hirondelle Elementary School in Tabarre, Haiti.

Julie participated in a month-long volunteer trip to Haiti where she taught English

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HPU Spanish Students Win Award at Latin American Research Symposium

The six students of SPAN3320 Culture and Literature of Mexico and Central America received an "Best Overall Contribution" from a panel of faculty judges for their group presentation, entitled "Border Blues," at the Third Annual Latin American and Iberian Studies  (LAIS) Undergraduate Research Symposium at UH Manoa on Thursday, April 21, 2011.  The group presentation was given by Rachel Ballard (Senior, Video Production), Kayla Dunn (Senior, International Studies), Justin Garcia (Junior, Psychology), Aja Harbert (International Relations), Therese Orliola (Sophomore, Humanities), and Alix Reichert (Junior, International Studies).

By Tess Lane, Asst. Prof. of Spanish (tlane@hpu.edu)  

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Professor Hanh Nguyen publishes her book, Developing Interactional Competence: A Conversation-Analytic Study of Patient Consultations in Pharmacy.

The book outlines the theoretical and methodological approach to study the development of interactional competence, which can be applied to research on the learning of a second language or a professional language, as in the case of pharmacy.
The book includes a Foreword by Cecilia E. Ford, a leading author in conversation analysis, who wrote, "Hanh Nguyen provides us with persuasive evidence that interactional practices can be documented longitudinally, that the rigor of conversation-analytical methods deepens our understanding of communicative practices over time, and that conversation analysis offers an immensely valuable lens from which practitioners in professions where interaction is key can learn."
Other experts in the field commented:
"Nguyen's book is one of the very few original contributions made by applied linguists to the debate over what constitutes learning. She reviews theories of cognitive and behavioral change, of the complementary roles of learners and teachers, and she queries the reluctance by some discourse analysts to even recognize the concept of learning. Out of this mass of conflicting claims and contradictory positions, Nguyen steps forward with a longitudinal analysis of the interactions of two novice pharmacists as they begin to exercise their professional skills in counseling patients. Do they learn? From every theoretical perspective they do. And what they learn is how to effectively counsel their patients: how to sequence their actions, how to manage topics, how to respond to their patients' concerns, how to make their expertise accessible to their patients, and how to share their patients' perspectives. Through her insightful analysis of learning in these interactions, Nguyen makes an important contribution to the learning debate and provides valuable advice for professional trainers." - Richard F. Young, Professor in English Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This significant book applies conversation analysis (CA) uniquely to the consultation process between patients and pharmacists. Although schools of pharmacy have long embraced and taught pharmacy students to provide patient-centered consultation, repeated studies have documented that community pharmacists rarely ask patients open ended questions, tailor their consultations to patients or engage patients effectively to monitor the adverse and efficacious effects of regimens at refill times. Pharmacy schools can learn a great deal from CA's micro-analytic skills as modeled here to identify key elements in the sequence that hinder or facilitate meaningful exchanges between patients and pharmacists. Uniquely the book tracks the growing skills of two novice pharmacists in a way never before presented in Pharmacy. We have much to learn from this careful study's research approach and findings in order to better train our students and evaluate their licensure readiness." - Betty A. Chewning, Ph.D., F. AphA Professor in Social and Administrative Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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TESOL students and faculty at the 2012 Hawaii TESOL annual conference in Honolulu.

HPU’s MA TESOL students and faculty members were an active part of Hawaii TESOL annual conference this year, which took place February 11, 2012 at Tokai International College.
Andre Langevin, Yanping "Melody" Bai, and professor Brian Rugen delivered a presentation on inner speech and ELT materials development. Saeko Tsukimi, Corey Gonzales, Hong Le, Wen-Pei “Beryl” Lin, and Linh Bui presented in a double panel on “Bridging the gap between textbooks and naturally occurring conversations” organized by professor Hanh Nguyen.
Professor Jean Kirschenmann led a mini workshop to close the conference. She told the story of an exciting project undertaken Peace Corps Volunteers and TESOL Ukraine and invited HI TESOL members to participate in a Hawaii-themed response to that project.
HPU’s strong presence at Hawaii TESOL 2012 was also contributed to by 17 MA TESOL students who volunteered at the registration desk and as session chairs. (HPU student volunteers made up more than a third of all the volunteers at HI TESOL this year.) MA TESOL student Sandy Kirkoski served as the volunteer coordinator for the whole conference.
Among the attendees were Professor Ken Cook, Professor Ed Klein, and many TESOL students.
Participating at Hawaii TESOL is an excellent opportunity to extend the learning that takes place in TESOL classes as well as to practice the kind of professional activities that enable TESOL students to be life-long learners.

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MA TESOL students collaborate with professor in the department's biweekly “AL Talks” seminar series.

On Oct. 21, 2011, the TESOL program held its biweekly “AL Talks” seminar featuring a faculty and student panel presentation called “Developing Learners’ Second Language Inner Speech.” Dr. Brian Rugen presented a theoretical overview of inner speech, that little voice we use when we talk to ourselves. Then, four of his graduate students showed how they would cultivate inner speech in language learners using materials they developed in his course on materials development. The featured students were Mary Brinkman, Andre Langevin, Yanping(Melody) Bai, and Lajlim Yang.

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MA TESOL Alumnus finds an array of stimulating professional experiences in Okinawa, Japan.

Louis K. Wai graduated from the MA TESOL program in 2008, semi-retired from his life-long career as an attorney, and headed to Okinawa, Japan, to start a new journey as a teacher of English as a foreign language. From Okinawa, he wrote to us about his new experiences. Below is his letter of July, 2011.

“After my first six months in Okinawa, where I was teaching two different private groups on Monday and Wednesday nights, I got my work visa to teach American Law at the University of the Ryukyus. I have eight students and they are wonderful. It is not an English class but it is taught in English.  Five of the students have a TOEIC score of about 900 (i.e., advanced).
 
Last summer, at a JALT (Japanese Association for Language Teachers) presentation that I gave, I did not know but I was scouted by two organizers of a language center. My presentation was on using card tricks to teach English. My former professors in the TESOL programs might have seen me do the trick because I did this for the visiting teachers from Korea at HPU.

Well, I guess the organizers liked what they saw and asked me to teach at their Language Center. Now at the Language Center, I

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 MA TESOL Alumnus joins tsunami rescue effort in Japan.

After graduating from the MA TESOL program, Marshall Yamaga packed his suitcases and headed to Japan with a one-way ticket. He was determined to continue his career as an English language teacher in the land of his ancestry while reaching out to youths through his church based in Honolulu. Soon after Marshal’s arrival, Japan was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Marshall immediately wanted to help. He joined the Global Mission Church in Iwaki, Japan, which is the gathering center where many church volunteers meet before being sent out as volunteers.

The following is an email he wrote to us in April, 2011:
"This weekend I went to a base camp church on the outer edge of Fukushima prefecture. We were about 27 miles from the nuclear plant. The wind was at our backs and the firefighters we were with had personal dosimeters so we were monitoring the radiation. They said that the level here was the same as in Tokyo.

The church has turned into a transfer point for donations from various churches. On this day, there were Christian volunteers from Korea, the US, Norway, Brazil, and Taiwan. I went there with four of my church members. One older couple in our group donated their mini-van to help transport the goods to the places they need to go. The place was like a beehive of activity. Every half hour or so a truck would come in and drop off donations, and every 15 minutes someone would come in a car to pick up stuff to go drop off.

Many of the residents have left the area, but those who are remaining schedule a time, then they come to their house and let the volunteers in. There is heavy work like clearing debris and there is also lighter work. There is something for everyone.
Well, that was my Saturday. I hope everyone is still praying for me!"

Marshall said that although for the moment, his effort in the tsunami rescue is not directly related to TESOL, he believes that what he is doing now is in line with his goal to bring peace and encouragement to people. When the rescue effort is no longer needed, he will return to TESOL to continue his goal.

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TESOL students win prizes at HPU’s 2011 Intercultural Day.

TESOL students shone at this year’s Intercultural Day. Several students helped win the First Prize in Booth Display for the Taiwanese Club. They were Debbi Wang, (Taiwanese Club vice-president), Bella Lee, Jas Chuang, and Beryl Lin (Taiwanese Club members). Their booth featured Taiwanese traditional costumes, mask painting, and ethnic dolls, among others.

Another international group, the Vietnamese TESOL students, won Third Prize in Performance with their dance “Beauty of the Highland.” They were Ai-Ly Dinh, Phuong-Thanh Nguyen, Hanh Dinh, and Hong Le. The Vietnamese booth showcased Vietnamese traditional bamboo tools, musical instruments, dresses, and images of Vietnam.

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TESOL Graduate Daniela Wagner-Loera creates ESL "Study by APP".

Daniela Wagner-Loera, a 2008 MA TESOL graduate who came to us originally from Germany and is now living in Maryland, is the name behind the ESL app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, released January 2011. According to the app's webpage, "The goal of this application is to help increase skills in using the English language and prepare learners for academic and business life in English. The application is designed to help improve: Reading, Writing, Pronunciation, and Spelling Skills." We asked Daniela to share with us her success story and here it is:

"As a newcomer in the TESOL field, I have been waiting for my chance to come up with something unique and relatively new. Since the last TESOL convention in Boston, I have been very motivated to share my knowledge and be more active in the field. However, it has proven difficult to simply "publish" a research article. While you need to know the "right" people, you also need to be at the right place at the right time.  This is tiring and time consuming, and since I already work more than full-time, I started to look around for other projects.

While investigating some possibilities, I came across a "call" for speakers of German by a certain app company. I have to confess that I did not even own a smart phone at that point, and my knowledge about apps and their use was close to zero. However, I still figured that I should look into it.
First, I googled the name of the company "Study by App. LLC," expecting to find a lot of spam-like information--- but it didn't happen.  So, I replied to their call. A few days later, I received a response from the company and was asked for my resumé. Within a week, the company and I had set up an agreement for developing an ESL app—instead of a German app—because of my MATESOL degree and teaching experience in the field. Also, the company figured that ESL would have a broader world market than a German app-exam market. So, Apple approved of the ESL idea and I got started.

First, I had to pass a trial phase.  I was allowed two weeks to develop a certain number of samples. At that point, they reviewed it and approved the work. Then, Study by App gave me three months to develop the materials. They provided the software and training tutorials, and I worked from my home. They were very nice and helpful along the way; however, they were strict as well. The interesting part is that Study by App, LLC. handled the technology, and I, as the teacher, filled in the knowledge. It was a strong relationship with both parties cooperating closely.

In the beginning, I expected that it would be a lot of work—I  called it "my project." However, I had not considered spending as many as 10-20 hours a week on it. But if you want the materials to be good, you need to work really hard. Note that nothing can be taken from an existing source. Every sentence and every paragraph must be original work. It was hard, but rewarding.  I really enjoyed this project because it helped my skills in test developing, in materials developing,  as well as in effective writing. The software and the iPhone screen do not give the user much room; therefore, everything must be kept short, accurate, and precise.

The coolest part of my new app is that it is truly serious academic learning material for only $3.99. This app literally offers as much  (if not more) material as a typical semester of ESL work for less than a coffee from Starbucks. In addition, the app keeps track of your progress and automatically tells you about your weaknesses. It evaluates you at every turn and provides instant feedback. In a classroom of 15+ students, such steady response is rarely given.

The app right now has moved into its advertising stage, and I have been taking some time to spread the word. Overall, I want to make a difference in my students' life and maybe look a little more into developing even more materials and assessing their effectiveness.  Truthfully, I believe that ESL students spend way too much time on their phones and computers, so for some of this time on their favorite device, why not encourage them to check out "ESLReview" for their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad?"

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TESOL students and faculty at the 2011 Hawaii TESOL annual conference in Honolulu.

Faculty and students (both graduate and undergraduate) from Hawai‘i Pacific University’s TESOL programs gave presentations at the recent HI TESOL conference, which was held at Brigham Young University, Hawai‘i in Lâ‘ie on Saturday, February 19.
 
Presenting were students Jay Ahn, Decky Baimadeji, Karisma Gonzales, Wen-Pei (Beryl) Lin, Dung (Win) Nguyen, Sachiko Sawamura (in absentia), Sue Lynn Shinsato, Hoa Tran, Liang (Diana) Wang, and Lajlim Yang, and faculty members Jean Kirschenmann, Ed Klein, and Candis Lee.
 
Also, Nicole Otero, a graduate of HPU’s MA TESOL program, who now teaches at Kauai Community College, received a travel grant from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to attend the conference.
 
HPU was well-represented at the conference: out of 47 presenters, 13 (27.7%) were from HPU. Besides those who presented, approximately 15 additional HPU TESOL students and faculty members were in attendance as well.
 
Photos from the conference can be seen at http://www.hawaiitesol.org/Conf11/index.html