Catherine Sajna started teaching English during her time in the Peace Corps in Botswana in Southern Africa. She then moved to the exact opposite end of the earth to do her MA in ESL at the University of Hawaii. Catherine received her MA in 1990 after already getting a job at HPU. She taught for a short time in the Marshall Islands and was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in eastern Indonesia. She served as the Assistant Dean of the EFP from 1994-1996, and chair of the CELP faculty assembly from 2001-2005.
At HPU, Catherine regularly teaches courses in Introduction to MATESL, Psycholinguistics, Materials Development and writing and research. She is the author of Business research tasks for graduate students, published in 2003 by Robert Boom. She has been very involved in developing new content-based ESL courses and introductory courses in applied linguistics, TESL and global leadership. She has also been involved in teacher training for international groups.
Catherine’s interests in the field focus around semantics, vocabulary acquisition, metaphoric language and input processing. She is also interested in creating a more ecological classroom. Currently she is focusing on redesigning syllabi and classroom tasks to empower learners, and considering how assessment can best be used in measuring the nonlinear system which is learning. She has also been involved in service to the university working in leadership roles in the faculty assembly and the program review process.
Catherine’s outside interests include hiking, camping, and swimming. She has always loved reading and just rediscovered knitting and guitar. She came late to motherhood and now finds that to be absorbing. It is also stimulating her to take interest in politics and email activism to try to make the world a better place for her daughters.
