Connections

A Journal for Foreign Language Educators 

Volume 12 – Fall 2024

ISSN Online: 1945-0478 

ISSN Print: 1945-046X

Contributors

Dr. Olivia Amzallag is an Assistant Professor of French at the University of Delaware specializing in French Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy. Her dissertation was entitled The Effects of Increasing Object Pronoun Input Frequency on the Oral Comprehension of 3rd Person Object Pronouns among Second Semester Classroom Learners of French (2017). She continuously publishes and presents on topics related to textbook evaluation & practical classroom linguistic tools, teaches various French courses, and has served several educational institutions as a board member, on selection committees, as an advisor, coordinator & supervisor. She is also an avid member of the Chautauqua Institution community.

Clarissa Eagle (MA, Cornell University, Romance Studies; MA, Middlebury Institute, Teaching Foreign Languages) is Associate Professor and Curriculum Specialist at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in Monterey, CA. Before joining the DLIFLC, she taught content-based French language and intercultural competence classes at the Middlebury Institute, where she also coordinated the French Summer Intensive Language Program. She has published in the fields of second language acquisition, language and intercultural studies, and language teaching methodology and materials.

Margaret Keneman is an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Affiliate Faculty in Linguistic Studies, and Coordinator for the Beginning and Intermediate French Program at the College of Charleston. An applied linguist, her research broadly explores second language teaching and learning and focuses on issues such as literacy, symbolic competence, and translanguaging. Her primary research projects examine these issues in educational contexts where students are learning French and, comparatively, for learners of English in France. Additionally, she conducts research on linguistic diversity and linguistic justice, particularly in Francophone regions of the world such as Haiti, the Ivory Coast, and historically French-speaking communities in the US.

Irina Kostina is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Iowa. She received her doctoral degree in Pedagogy in 1984 at Pushkin Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russia.  Researcher, and author, with the competencies of developing assessments and interactive face-to-face courses, curriculums for Russian language, intensive Russian for professionals, and heritage learners’ courses. Dr. Kostina’s research interests are in the methods of teaching Russian language, and theories of creating communicative textbooks. She participated in nine grants and received The President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence, The University of Iowa.

Wei-Yi Lee is a PhD Candidate in Language and Literacy at the University of Georgia (UGA). He serves as an instructor of record to teach Chinese at all levels and Asian American Literature at UGA. He conducts research on the interconnections between language use, language ideology, and ethnic identity for Chinese heritage language learners of Taiwanese ethnicity. He draws on these interconnections to highlight the cultural and ethnic significance of non-mainstream Chinese and non-Chinese language varieties in Chinese-speaking communities. His research interests include Chinese language education, heritage language education, language ideology, Chinese diaspora, Taiwan studies, and equity and social justice.  

Taoues Hadour Myers is an Assistant Professor of French Linguistics at the University of Central Florida. She is a native of Paris, France and she earned her B.A in English from the University of Paris X. In 2011, Dr. Hadour Myers arrived in the United States as part of a graduate teaching exchange program and completed her M.A. in Language teaching and then her Ph.D. in French Linguistics at the University of Missouri. She has been teaching for more than twelve years and her research interests are in French sociolinguistics, digital humanities, computer-mediated communication, and teaching pedagogy.

Noemi Rodriguez-Grimshaw (Ed.M. in Language Education from Rutgers University) is a dedicated educator specializing in language learning and technology integration. She has served in various leadership roles in New Jersey schools and currently focuses on preparing educators for AI in the classroom. Noemi shares her expertise both nationally and internationally and writes often on her blog Team lo logramos.com and on @team_lologramos.

Hiromi Tobaru is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at California State University, Fullerton. She earned her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures from The Ohio State University, specializing in Japanese language pedagogy. Her research interests include pedagogical materials development, study abroad students’ social network construction, intercultural communicative competence, and Japanese style shifting among foreign language learners.

Book reviews

Hugo Alberto López Chavolla is Co-Director of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program and Professor of Chicano, Latino, and Ethnic studies at Clovis Community College. He specializes in Transnational Americas Studies, focusing on the cultural production of authors of Arab descent in Latin America. In his research he employs an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from cultural, sociological, literary, postcolonial, and affect theories to analyze literature, film, and visual arts. His research interests encompass Latin American literature and cultures, Chicanx studies, Mexican literature and culture, as well as Critical Race and Ethnic studies.

Hanan Khaled (Ed.D., University of South Carolina) is an Associate Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. She has written and presented about teacher development, curriculum development, language assessment, reflective teaching, equitable teaching, and strategic teaching. She currently serves as executive board member of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California, and a reviewer of MEXTESOL and Dialogue on Language Instruction Journals.

Gaye Walton-Price is an expert university professor, with experience teaching Arabic and ESL, philosophy and humanities, and administrating. Walton-Price earned PhD in Arabic language and linguistics at Georgetown University; and is now Arabic instructor at University of San Francisco. Since the pandemic, she has experience teaching Arabic online, including private tutoring. She has resided in Tunis, Tunisia, and in Cairo, Egypt, for extended periods, and has led tours for students to Egypt. After 20+ years’ college and university teaching experience, she shows her passion for Arabic language, in teaching, doing research, conversing in Arabic, and exploring Arab cultures. Walton-Price is a member of the FLANC board since 2015 and is co-treasurer, acting recording secretary and co-editor of Connections.

Jie Lu is a Professor of Chinese Studies & Film Studies at the University of the Pacific; the author of Dismantling Time: Chinese Literature in the Age of Globalization (2005); co-editor of Transpacific Literary and Cultural Connections: Latin American Influence in Asia (2020) and China and New Left Vision: Political and Cultural Interventions (2012); editor of China’s Literature and Cultural Scenes at the Turn of the 21st Century (2008); guest-editor of the special issues in Journal of Contemporary China (03, 08); and articles in various academic journals.

Connections. A journal for Foreign Language Educators

is a publication by the Foreign Language Association of Northern California

Please, send papers to or contact us at

connections@flanc.pw