Maureen T. Matarese

Institutional linguistic ethnography examining how “reading” and “literacy” are discursively positioned by professors and students in two community college developmental literacy classrooms. (in IRB proposal stage for Spring/Summer 2011 data collection), Co-investigator on sociolinguistic project Ghanaians in New York City: Language use and resources with Dr. Mabel Asante, examining the use of Ghanaian churches in NYC for bilingual language maintenance., Co-investigator on qualitative project exploring possible benefits of taking a Language & Culture course for students also taking college-level developmental skills courses. (2010-2011, to be presented at AAAL 2011), Dissertation Research:, Institutional linguistic ethnography exploring the one-on-one discourse between six shelter caseworkers and sixteen homeless clients in a New York City shelter over nine months, particularly in light of new NYC policies that consequently shaped practice and the talk used in practice.

Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Institutional talk, Intersection between policy and practice, education, literacy, social work

Maureen Matarese is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University with a doctorate in International Educational Development (Language, Literacy, and Technology), she has focused her work around issues of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and literacy in multicultural, institutional settings. She has taught on the graduate level at Teachers College and at Long Island University, teaching courses in Sociolinguistics, TESOL, and Bilingual Education, and on the undergraduate level she taught Freshman Composition at North Carolina State University, and she teaches Academic Critical Reading and Language & Culture (LIN100/ANT115) at BMCC. She also taught ESL, Literacy, and GED Preparation in a transitional homeless shelter in Washington Heights, where she worked for many years. Professor Matarese's research focuses on sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. She has conducted sociolinguistic research in North Carolina, West Virginia, the Bahamas, and in New York City, and she has conducted qualitative research on teacher response techniques (particularly when students use nonstandard dialect features in their writing). Discourse analysis, and specifically institutional linguistic ethnographies, are her area of expertise. In this vein, she has conducted research on caseworker-client interaction in a New York City shelter. That study speaks to the ways in which institutional hierarchies and their policies are enacted in everyday practice by street-level bureaucrats who negotiate between the needs of the client and the needs of the administration/policy. This research additionally speaks to the ways in which language diversity (Spanish language) were addressed in everyday practice by individual caseworkers. This research has implications for both policy and practice, as well as for street-level bureaucrats of other institutional types (e.g. school teachers). She is currently working on a linguistic ethnography in Academic Critical Reading classrooms. Professor Matarese has published within and outside the field of (socio)linguistics and has presented at many national and international academic conferences where her work has been well received. In all facets of her work, she has worked with linguistic minorities (and/or minoritized languages/dialects), and she continues to be interested in exploring the relationship between institutions, talk, policy, and practice.

Paula Cancro

Mentoring small groups of BBA Internship students studying Project Management, Participant in Flat Project 11-3, Research and Proposal for Assistive Technology in our Learning Center

Project Management, Business, Office Technologies, Writing, ESL

Paula Cancro is an Instructor and writing tutor at The College of Westchester in White Plains, NY.

Stella K. Hadjistassou

Applied Linguistics, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, TESOL, CALL

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the KIOS Research Center working on a project related to Second Life funded by the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus.

Benjamin

I´m an EFL teacher educator and foreign language coordinator at a Mexican university. I have a BS in business administration, a Master's in Education with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction: technology, and am currently pursuing a doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction leadership. My philosophy to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) is to provide every student with a variety of learning opportunities so that each student is motivated enough to practice English to accomplish his or her own individual goals. Language acquisition that focuses on the integration of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills through a conceptualized learning environment relies on both in-class and out-of-class activities with the dual purpose of achieving curriculum and individual goals. By establishing a student-focused learning environment that is based on the interests and needs of the students, the intent is to create a more engaging and effective learning experience for everyone. Technology provides the affordances to create contextual, conceptual, problem-solving, and project-based learning environments that will better prepare the language learner to fulfill social and professional pursuits that extend beyond the classroom. My interests include network learning and assessment in TESOL.

Rachel Payne

“Re-evaluating Our Roots: Contemporary Latin American Women’s Writing and the Bildungsroman”, “Effectively Using YouTube in a Differentiated Foreign Language Classroom”

Contemporary Latin American women’s literature, Trans-Atlantic studies, Multi-media in the L2 classroom, Pedagogical Approaches to Immigration, Service-Learning and Spanish acquisition, Contemporary Hispanic Film

Rachel Payne is a Doctor of Modern Languages candidate at Middlebury College

Dennis P. Maloney

Elizabeth Hanson-Smith

Book: Language Learning Through Technology, with Sarah Rilling (TESOL, Inc.); CALL Environments, 2nd Ed., with Joy Egbert (TESOL, Inc.).

Technology, ESL/EFL, Education

Elizabeth Hanson-Smith is a CALL software designer (Live Action English Interactive and the Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive) and author/co-author of several books on teaching languages through technology, including the classic, CALL Environments.