Riana Helen Agnesia (Helen) teaches listening/speaking courses in ELI. Prior to coming to Hawaii, she taught English and Indonesian as foreign languages at college level as well as for diplomats and business people working in Indonesia for approximately 6 years. She has been doing interpretation jobs for international events as well.

She enjoys singing, dancing, swimming, travelling and cooking (a hobby that she discovered after she arrived in Hawaii). She also loves to try new, challenging and fun activities.

Her passion is to help the underprivileged and marginalized people to feel loved and be able to improve their life. One of her dreams is to have a community place that can accommodate homeless or orphans and provide them with self-development programs that enable them to be independent and be able to function socially in the future.

Her motto is: “Smile … and share it to the world”  

Riana Helen Agnesia
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies (Language Teaching), University of Hawai`i

KyungHee Choi (Kay) joined the ELI in the spring of 2009. She is an MA candidate in the Second Language Studies department and is currently teaching reading in the ELI. She grew up in Seoul, Korea and completed her BA in English Education. She spent about six months in Canada, and one year in Hilo as an exchange student. She has taught English to a variety of age groups (from children to university students) and cultural groups in differing contexts (such as Korea, Thailand and Peru). Before she moved to Hawaii, she taught English as a foreign language in public schools in Korea. She has also taught first-year English writing to university students in Thailand. Her academic interests include conversation analysis, classroom interaction, and second language socialization.

In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, listening to music, chatting with friends and traveling. She has traveled to Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia.

KyungHee Choi
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Gavin Furukawa is a PhD student in the Second Language Studies department at UH Manoa. He has taught both writing and reading classes in the ELI and was a supervisor for the Writing and Learning Center at UH West O‘ahu. Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Gavin has spent the last several years working in retail management and as a private English instructor/tutor specializing in writing, listening/speaking, and pronunciation.

Gavin’s research interests include Hawai‘i Creole and Japanese sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis. In his free time Gavin enjoys reading mystery novels and watching Japanese variety shows.

Gavin K. Furukawa
PhD Student, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
BA, Literature, University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu

Picture coming soon!

Amy Goodman-Bide currently teaches writing in the ELI.   She also works as a tutor at the Writing Center.  Amy grew up in Washington State and completed a BA in French Language and Literature at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA.  For the past ten years, she has been traveling and learning about the world.  She spent about two years in France, between finishing her undergraduate degree and then teaching English in the public schools.  Since returning to the U.S., Amy has lived in 7 different states, teaching English and French in a variety of settings and to a variety of people.  Last year, she lived on the Big Island and worked in a public high school.  Her research interests include sociolinguistics, teacher education, radical pedagogy and discourse analysis.  She loves reading and writing in all forms and writes poetry and short fiction.  She also loves to sing, go for walks before the sun comes up and hang out with her husband and two cats. 

Amy Goodman-Bide
MA candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii, Manoa
BA French Language and Literature, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington

Curt Hutchison is an MA candidate in the Second Language Studies department at UH. He joined the ELI at the beginning of 2008 and is currently teaching ELI 83. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Curt lived in South Korea for ten years before coming to Hawaii.  In Korea, he worked primarily as an instructor at a university in Seoul.

Curt’s scholarly interests include materials development, program development, syntax and pragmatics.

In his free time, Curt enjoys cycling, swimming, reading, collecting music, and exploring O’ahu with his wife.

Curt Hutchison
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i
BA, English Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz

Hanbyul Jung (Hannah) teaches listening/speaking courses and writing courses in the ELI. Having lived the first half of her school life in Stellenbosch, South Africa, her interest in language and bilingualism started early. While completing her MA at Seoul National University, she taught second language writing to college students and also found her interest in language acquisition in an EFL context while teaching diverse Korean students at the university.  She is currently a PhD candidate in Second Language Acquisition and has special interests in Conversation Analysis, bilingualism and interlanguage pragmatics.

Aside from studying and teaching, Hanbyul has a long time hobby of reading and traveling and recently she has picked up a new hobby of cooking and photography.

Hanbyul Jung
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai’i
MA, English Language & Literature (Linguistics), Seoul National University
BA, English Language & Literature, Seoul National University

Originally born in Virginia, Josephine Lee spent almost equal halves of her life in the states and South Korea and completed her BA in English education at Ewha Womans University in Korea. She has taught students of diverse age groups and backgrounds, from elementary students in private institutes and public schools to adults. She has also organized English camps in Korea and worked as a graduate assistant in Ewha Womans University's English writing clinic. Her academic interests include classroom language, language learner identities, and language ideologies.

Besides her academic life, she enjoys jogging, playing and listening to music, cooking new recipes, dancing, and watching movies during her free time. She has also traveled throughout Russia, Japan, Mongolia, Cambodia, and Australia.

Josephine Lee
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Becky Plas was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio until she moved to Kentucky to pursue her B.A. in Spanish and linguistics. She learned Spanish as an an exchange student in Chile, and spent a year teaching English in France and learning French. Back in Kentucky, she spent a year as an Americorps*VISTA member running a tutoring program for a wonderful literacy center in Lexington. She loves the language-learning process, and is happy to be working towards her master's in the department of Second Language Studies here at UH. Becky is excited to be tutoring at the Writing Center as well as teaching at the ELI.

When not teaching or learning language, Becky can be found curled up with a good book, sprawled on the beach with a good book, enjoying delicious Thai food and chatting with friends.

Becky Plas
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Bal Krishna Sharma was born and grew up in Nepal. He joined the ELI in Spring 2009, and he teaches ELI 83. He is pursuing his MA degree in Second Language Studies, and is concurrently doing Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution. He received his M. Ed. Degree in English Education from Nepal.  He also spent a year in Japan as an exchange student and learned Japanese. Before he moved to Hawaii, he was a university teacher at Tribhuvan University (Nepal), where he taught English language and linguistics courses to undergraduate and graduate students. He is interested in sociolinguistics and critical pedagogy.

In his free time, Bal Krishna enjoys swimming with his wife and playing volleyball on Sundays. He is interested in learning new languages, and can speak four languages: Nepali, English, Japanese, and Hindi.

Bal Krishna Sharma
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii
Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution, University of Hawaii
MEd, English Education, Tribhuvan University (Nepal)
Exchange Student, Saitama University (Japan)
BEd, English Education, Tribhuvan University (Nepal)

Bonnie Sylwester is a PhD candidate in Second Language Studies. She teaches writing at the ELI. Originally from Washington DC, she has spent over a third of her life living abroad. She loves studying languages because it provides an opportunity to learn about different people, places and cultures. She loves teaching English for the same reason. Before coming to Hawaii she taught English in Namibia, Korea, Bolivia, Spain and San Francisco.

In her free time Bonnie enjoys reading, jogging, going for long walks or hikes and most water sports. Her newest hobby is sailing. Her academic interests include program evaluation and development.  

Bonnie Sylwester
PhD Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii
MA, Instructional Systems Development/TESOL, University of Maryland Baltimore Country
BA, International Studies and German, Miami University of Ohio.

Aya Watanabe was born and raised bilingually in Japan. She has studied one year in New Jersey as an exchange student in her high school days and pursued her studies in English education in her BA. Prior to coming to Hawaii, Aya has also studied in a TESOL program in Ohio and had tutored ESL students at a local elementary school. She has taught English as a foreign language in Japan to elementary students and junior/senior high students. Before joining the ELI, she was an instructor at HELP (Hawaii English Language Program) and enjoyed teaching English to adult ESL learners. She joined the ELI at the beginning of 2009 and is currently teaching intermediate writing. Her academic interests are discourse analysis, classroom interaction and language learning.

In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, practicing yoga, playing ukulele, going to the beach and watching movies. She has lived in and visited various parts of US, and traveled to South Korea and India.

Aya Watanabe
MA candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai'i
BA, English, Sophia University

Susannah Welch is a MA candidate in the Second Language Studies Department. She is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in International Cultural Studies. She teaches reading in the ELI and is interested in the use of technology in language teaching and on-line course development. Other academic interests include sociolinguistics and critical pedagogy.

Susannah grew up in Tennessee and attended college in southern California. She spent a semester studying in Costa Rica where she assisted with a lower school English class and discovered a passion for teaching English. After college, she spent a year in Andorra, teaching English as a foreign language in a local high school.

In her free time, Susannah enjoys hiking, camping, horseback riding, and anything that involves a beach.

Susannah Welch
MA candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai'i

Tsui-Ping Cheng (Ping) teaches listening/speaking courses in the ELI and serves as the lead teacher in this curriuculum area. Before coming to Hawaii, she taught English at the college level in Taiwan for two years. This experience solidified her interest in language education and further motivated her to pursue an MA degree in SLS. Currently, she is studying towards a PhD degree in SLA at UH.

Besides teaching, Ping enjoys dancing, swimming, and everything that involves music, wine and great food. Bitten by the travel bug at the age of 16, she has been seized by a desire to travel. In order to learn more about tango, her next dream vacation is to meet the dancing feet in Argentina.

Tsui-Ping Cheng, Listening/Speaking Area Lead Teacher
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Munhong Choe joined the ELI in Fall 2006, and has been teaching ELI 82 (Advanced Reading), both in class and online. He is now serving as the lead teacher in the online area.

Before joining the ELI, he worked as a high school English teacher in Korea for 3 years. He is interested in theories of linguistics, especially on syntax-semantics interface, and applications of those theories to foreign language teaching and learning. 

He loves traveling, swimming, watching movies, and talking with people from various cultures.

Munhong Choe, Online Area Lead Teacher
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, English Education, Seoul National University
BA, English Education, Chonnam National University

Kyae-Sung Park joined the ELI in Fall 2006 and has taught in both the writing and reading areas. She is now the lead teacher in the Reading area. She had taught English language and literature at the college and university level in Korea for about eight years before coming to the USA in Fall 2003. While in her MA program in TESOL at Southern Illinois University, she taught LING 101, which is similar to ELI 73 at UHM, and also worked as a writing tutor at the Writing Center.

She likes holidays, especially Buddha’s Birthday and Christmas, swimming, noodles, relaxing at a jjimjilbang (Korean sauna), and traveling with her family; she hates cooking, doing laundry, mingling among strangers at a party, pride and prejudice, rudeness, and violence.

Kyae-Sung Park, Reading Area Lead Teacher
PhD Candidate, SLS, University of Hawai`i
MA, TESOL, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
ABD, English Literature, Sogang University

Troy Rubesch joined the ELI in the spring of 2008 as a writing teacher and is now the lead teacher in the writing area. He has taught English as a foreign language in public and private schools for nearly 10 years. His professional interests include the study of motivation in language learning, materials development, and technology in language learning.

Troy gets a strong sense of accomplishment from helping students reach their personal and educational goals through language learning. He speaks English, French and Japanese. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, singing karaoke and working with computers.

Troy Rubesch, Writing Area Lead Teacher
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai'i
BA, Psychology, University of Washington

Soo Jung Youn serves as the ELI's Testing Specialisst and also teaches in the reading area. She is currently a PhD candidate in Second Language Acquisition. Although she majored in computer science during her BS, she has always been interested in learning and teaching second/foreign languages, so she came to Hawaii to pursue her studies in second language acquisition. Especially her own second/foreign language learning experience has greatly helped her understand students’ language learning in many ways. Besides experience of teaching computer technology in high school, she has been an ESL and EFL teacher in Korea, Vietnam, and Hawaii. Soo Jung’s academic interests include technology-assisted language assessment, interaction-involved speaking assessment, and teaching pragmatics. Also, she loves anything involving a process, such as movies, crafting, traveling and cooking.

Soo Jung Youn, Testing Specialist
PhD candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Dr. Graham Crookes (pictured above with his wife, Hildre and their son Ikaika) has been associated with the Dept. of SLS since 1982, as he did his MA here (and also taught in the ELI at that time). After completing his PhD, he came on board as a faculty member in 1988 (and again taught in the ELI on occasion). Graham has always been interested in teaching (he began his career as a high school teacher) and in improving teaching. After some years in which his research was in mainstream SLA areas, and even theory construction, his practical concerns with teaching have manifested in a recent book on teaching practice, a long-term interest in teacher research (a.k.a action research), and alternative pedagogies, particularly those associated with a concern for social justice (critical and feminist pedagogy). More recently, as ELI Director he has naturally become more interested in program administration and teacher development.

In his "spare" time, Graham is a newly minted and quite busy parent (and husband).

Homepage url http://www2.hawaii.edu/~crookes/

Dr. Graham Crookes, Executive Director of ESL Programs, Associate Professor, Department of Second Language Studies

PhD, Educational Psychology, University of Hawai`i
MA, English as a Second Language, University of Hawai`i
CALTE (Certificate in Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of English), University of Essex
PGCE (PostGraduate Certificate in Education), University of London
B.Sc., Economics, University of London

Priscilla Chen Faucette (pictured with her husband Long and son Kaipo) has been working as an English language teacher and coordinator for more than ten years. After studying French in college, she moved to Japan where she taught English to college students and worked as an in-house business English teacher/trainer and program coordinator. As a graduate student at U.H., and as an instructor, she has taught almost every ELI course offered. Her professional interests include program administration, curriculum and teacher development, and, most recently, conflict resolution and human resource management.

Originally from Georgia, Priscilla loves Hawai'i and also enjoys travelling and learning about new languages and cultures. In her "free time", she enjoys playing with her toddler Kaipo.

Priscilla Chen Faucette, Coordinator of Curriculum and Teacher Development

Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution, University of Hawai`i (in progress)
MA, ESL, University of Hawai`i
Cambridge Certificate for English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), Toronto, Canada
BA, French Language and Literature, Davidson College
Exchange Student, University of Montpellier, France

Kenton Harsch (Kenny) has worked in English education since 1987, and has been a program administrator since 1991. He began his career in English education in Kobe, Japan, then moved to Hawai`i with his family in 1996, and he has been serving first as Assistant Director and now as Director of the ELI. His professional interests include the roles of inquiry and reflection in learning, program administration, and materials development. Recently he has become interested in exploring the issue of plagiarism and how it connects to students' learning how to write academically. Kenny also has been involved in a few outside ESL projects, such as textbook writing, consulting, or teacher-training workshops.

Outside the world of work, Kenny gets a lot of enjoyment from involvement in his daughter's activities (currently these include school band, Wu Shu and piano). He also spends time on things like reading, music, walks to Kailua Beach, and all kinds of family time. He is originally from Washington state, and spent a number of years in Seattle (and he's still a diehard fan of the Seattle Mariners).

Homepage url http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kenton

Kenton Harsch, Director
MEd., Teaching ESL, Temple University
BA, Marketing, University of Puget Sound