Tsui-Ping Cheng (Ping) teaches listening/speaking courses in the ELI. 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
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i

Mathew Espinosa joined the ELI in Spring 2007. He teaches both writing and listening/speaking courses in the ELI. Originally from Sacramento, California, he is particularly interested in working with children and immigrant students, as well as bilingual and writing education. He has taught a diverse group of content areas and learners, mostly at the elementary and middle school levels, in Tennessee, California, Hawaii, and Chile and has trained secondary school English teachers in Hong Kong. He speaks Spanish fluently, has studied French, and is also a trained actor. He enjoys the arts (especially theater and music), learning more about diverse cultures, children’s books, baseball, traveling, and writing poetry, among other things. As a teacher he values the input and interaction of the students and aims to keep students engaged and developing throughout the course. He recently performed in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at UH and keeps himself busy trying to relax with friends and explore his new island home.

Mathew Espinosa
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies (Language Teaching), University of Hawai`i
BS, Elementary Education, Spanish, & Theatre, Vanderbilt University

Gavin Furukawa joined the ELI in Spring 2008 as a writing instructor. He spent several years teaching English privately and tutoring for the ELI at Leeward Community College. Born and raised in central O’ahu, Gavin completed his BA in literature at UH West O’ahu before joining the SLS MA program at Manoa. In addition to teaching at the ELI he can be found working at the Writing and Learning Center at UHWO. He speaks English, Hawaii Creole English, and Japanese. His main areas of academic interest are HCE research and language instruction through pop culture.

Gavin loves introducing people to the mixture of cultures in Hawaii. In his free time he likes to watch Japanese television, read mystery novels, and teach Japanese dance.

Gavin Furukawa
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies (Language Teaching), University of Hawai`i

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

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

Merica McNeil has been teaching in the ELI since Fall 2006. She is currently teaching Academic Reading. Before coming to University of Hawai'i, Merica taught English for a year at several academic institutions in Hawai'i, for two years at a technical university in Switzerland, for a year each at high schools in Austria and France. Additionally, she taught English and studied for a summer at a university in Thailand.

Merica's academic interests include second language acquisition (especially identity and language learning), bilingual education, intercultural communication, and study abroad programs.

Merica is passionate about languages and sports. She speaks German and French fluently and is now studying Spanish. She enjoys sports of all kinds (especially surfing, ultimate Frisbee, swimming, and biking). Merica loves the outdoors, dancing, traveling, and learning new things.

Merica McNeil
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i
Studied abroad in: Vienna, Austria; Freiburg, Germany; Paris, France; Oxford, England
Cambridge Certificate for English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), London, England
BA, German Studies and International Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Troy Rubesch joined the ELI in the spring of 2008 as a writing teacher.  He has taught English as a foreign language in public and private schools for over 7 years and feels very fortunate to have lived in some of the world's most beautiful cities- Seattle, Cape Town, Kobe and now Honolulu.  He speaks English, French and Japanese.  His professional interests include the study of motivation in language learning, strategy-based instruction and materials development.

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

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

Aya Takeda teaches ELI 73 (Intermediate Academic Writing for International Students) and ELI 100 (Expository Writing: A Guided Approach) in Fall 2008. She received her M.A. in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawai'i in 2006. For the past two years she was teaching English at a brand-new high school in Tokyo, where she was involved in curriculum development and syllabus design as well as classroom instruction, and she moved back to Hawai'i to pursue a Ph.D. degree in SLA. Her research interests include sentence processing, second language acquisition, and language teaching.

In her free time Aya enjoys playing tennis, swimming, scuba-diving, hiking, and cooking. Having traveled throughout the US, Canada, China, South Korea, Thailand, France, the UK, she also loves to learn foreign languages and cultures.

Aya Takeda
PhD candidate, SLA, University of Hawai'i
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai'i
BA, Education, Tokyo Gakugei University

Haruna Yamada (Roo) teaches ELI 73 (intermediate writing) and works at the Writing Workshop.  Prior to moving to Hawaii, she taught in public and private elementary schools in Iowa and Nebraska.  She worked with students with diverse backgrounds in general education, special education, and ESL classrooms.  She also served as a tutor for new international students at a college she graduated from.  After moving to Hawaii, she has enjoyed learning new things about different cultures through tutoring ESL high school students.  She is delighted that various groups of students she works with have introduced her to a whole new world.  Roo’s academic interests are: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, minority/immigrant education, multicultural education, and second language writing.

Besides teaching, Roo is passionate about exploring new things, making a difference in various contexts, eating food from different countries, playing the acoustic guitar, singing, traveling, dancing (Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Hula), snowboarding, skateboarding, hiking, camping, baking, language learning, reading, and being a life-long learner!

Haruna Yamada
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i
BS, Educational Studies (Elementary Education), Morningside College, Iowa

Soo Jung Youn teaches ELI 82 (Advanced Reading) in Fall 2008. 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
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

Nicolas Chudeau grew up in Western France, where he enjoyed the tranquil lifestyle of the Loire Valley and the Atlantic coast. After studying abroad and traveling extensively, he discovered a passion for teaching languages and worked for the European Union as a French and English language assistant in Northern Sweden. His passion for Polynesia and surfing brought him to Hawai’i, where he pursues his MA in Second Language Studies. He teaches in the listening/speaking area of the ELI, and is now the lead teacher in this area. Some of Nicolas’ academic interests are sociolinguistics in French Polynesia and variation in World Frenches.

In Hawai’i, Nicolas spends most of his free time surfing and exploring the island for new surf spots. He loves any activity that involves water, from swimming to scuba diving and sailing. Always on the go, he seizes any chance to travel, discover, and explore unfamiliar places.

Nicolas Chudeau, Listening/Speaking Area Lead Teacher
MA Candidate, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i
BA, English Civilization/German/Spanish/French as a Foreign Language, Catholic University of Western France, Angers, France
Exchange Student, University of Linköping, Sweden
Exchange Student, University of North Carolina at Asheville

Hungtzu Huang was a college English teacher in Taiwan before she came to Hawaii. She is currently studying towards a PhD degree in SLA in the SLS Department here at UH Manoa, and her areas of interest are corpus linguistics and academic writing. In the ELI program, she has taught all the different courses in the writing area, and is the ELI's lead teacher for writing.

In her free time, Hungtzu likes to play tennis and go mountain-hiking. She also enjoys writing calligraphy, traveling, and seeing new places.

Hung-Tzu Huang, Writing Area Lead Teacher
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

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

Larry Davis joined the ELI in Fall of 2007 and has taught ELI 73 and 83, including in online format. He is also serving as one of the ELI's testing specialists. He was originally trained as a fisheries biologist, but after 6 years of working as a research biologist he and his wife traveled to China where he discovered a love of teaching.  He spent a total of 6 years in China, teaching English for 3 years and then working for a multinational company for 3 years.  He recently completed an MA in ESL at the University of Minnesota where he taught academic writing as well as serving as T.A. for several teacher-training courses. 

Larry’s professional interests include the assessment of speaking, computer-assisted language learning, English for academic purposes, and English as an international language.  His personal interests include music (he played the saxophone for many years), woodworking, photography, and video.  Larry grew up in the Napa Valley and so enjoys wine, but is no expert (unfortunately, he moved away before reaching drinking age).  

Larry Davis, Testing Specialist
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
M.A., ESL, University of Minnesota
M.S., Fisheries Biology, Oregon State University
B.S., Animal Science (emphasis in aquaculture), University of California, Davis

Munehiko (Mune) Miyata joined the ELI in Spring 2007, and he has been serving as the ELI testing specialist. He is currently studying towards a PhD degree in Second Language Acquisition in the SLS Department here at UH Manoa, and his areas of interest are psychometrics and cognitive approaches to second/foreign language learning.

Before coming to Hawai`i, Mune had a variety of jobs that had nothing to do with language research or teaching. He worked as a research assistant in an advertising agency in Tokyo. He also worked as a part-time jazz musician and occasionally played the trumpet at various restaurants and nightclubs in Tokyo and Kanagawa area. In his free time, Mune spends time on cooking, reading, and playing musical instruments. He is also a father of two children and quite a busy parent (and also husband).He is originally from Tokyo, and spent a number of years in Mito and Yokohama cities.

Munehiko Miyata, Testing Specialist
PhD Candidate, SLA, University of Hawai`i
MA, Second Language Studies, University of Hawai`i
BA, English, University of Hawai`i
BA, French, Meiji Unversity

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

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

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