Elena, thanks for agreeing to be featured in this issue. Can we start with just a brief bio?

Elena: Sure. I come from a small country in Eastern Europe―Moldova, which used to be one of the republics of the former Soviet Union―and my native language is Romanian although Russian is like my second native. I was born and went to school in Drochia, a little town in the north of the country. I was always passionate about languages, so after high school, I applied to Moldova State University, Department of Foreign Languages. I majored in English language and literature and graduated in 1995. Since then I have taught a variety of courses ranging from English language skills to linguistics courses, first at Moldova State and then at Iowa State (ISU). In 2001, I was granted the U.S. Department of State Junior Faculty Fellowship and came to ISU for professional development. The courses I observed and the faculty I worked with motivated me to continue studying, so I decided to do an MA in philology upon my return home and then to pursue a doctoral degree in applied linguistics and technology at ISU. The year before I graduated, I was employed by the Graduate College here as a program coordinator for the SPEAK/TEACH ITA Program. I am still holding this position and I really enjoy the work I’m doing―I get to teach oral communication courses for ITAs, work on language assessment, and lead development and research projects meant to benefit both international and domestic graduate students. Along the way, I’ve also been involved in other professional activities such as teacher-training for Pearson Education and the Iowa Department of Education, oral proficiency interview rating for the Peace Corps, I/CALL materials development for Lidget Green and ISU, and translation and interpreting for the United Nations Development Program.

How did you get your start in the TESOL field?

Elena: Well, my mother was a teacher, and I wanted to be a teacher too. I was fond of languages, so it was only natural to me that I become a language teacher. But what language? Now, this is going to turn into quite a story. I always wanted to learn English. I was a fan of the Beatles, and I used to sing their songs without understanding a single word. Anyway, as much as I liked English and would have loved to study it, I couldn’t. Soviet politics back then determined the language policies, beginning with changing a nation’s alphabet from Latin to Cyrillic (as it was in the case of Romanian in Moldova) and ending with deciding what foreign language a nation could or couldn’t learn. We had Moldovan and Russian schools; kids in Moldovan schools were taught French or Spanish, and English was taught only in Russian schools. But, fortunately, things started changing at the beginning of the 1990s, and at the university I could actually choose English for my major. It was such a big deal for me―never before could a Moldovan student do that! With seven other students, I was placed in an experimental group and soon proved that Moldovans are very much capable of studying English, too. Anyway, long story short―I ended up teaching the language I loved, and over the years I taught 5-year-olds, K-12 students, international grads and undergrads, and even future language teachers.

You have an interest in CALL and have done some interesting research on the subject. Would you give us a quick overview of your interests?

Elena: Yes, I am very much interested in I/CALL and CALT but also in genre analysis, learner corpora, and corpus-based pedagogy. In my work I integrate insights from all these areas, but overall, what I mostly focus on is empirical evaluation of technology for language learning and assessment. Currently, I am working on the development and evaluation of a new intelligent research writing tutoring program, the design of which is rooted in interactionist SLA and combines genre analysis, automated writing evaluation, formative assessment, and a few other interdisciplinary perspectives.

What technologies have you been experimenting with lately in your own teaching?

Elena: I’ll tell you about some technologies that may appeal to our interest group. The most recent implementation-evaluation in our ITA courses is that of WebSwami, a video-based platform that offers a number of possibilities for pronunciation instruction. With two of my students, I presented a recent study on the learning potential of this tool at AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics) 2011 last month, and I’ll present on theory-based CALL task design in WebSwami at CALICO (Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) 2011. I have also experimented with the web-based applications of the Wimba Collaboration Suite (Voice Authoring, Voice Board, Voice Podcaster, Voice Presenter, and Voice Email) and reviewed it for the Language Learning and Technology Journal. And I’ve certainly used different types of activities available in Moodle, including integrating YouTube videos as well as video files of student presentations uploaded as FLV (flash video) for instructor and peer feedback. What else? With funding from the ISU Computation Advisory Committee, I purchased several types of software (for example, Pronunciation in English, American Speechsounds, Accent Master) for our SPEAK/TEACH lab, which our ITAs are using outside of class for additional pronunciation practice.

Do you have a favorite ITA-related story from your research or teaching experiences?

Elena: In fact, I do have quite a few, but my favorite ones are those that our ITAs tell me about their paths to success and how challenging, but rewarding, it is to get there. And I am so proud to see them honored with the Teaching Excellence Award for their outstanding achievements in teaching, which is given to the top 10 percent of teaching assistants at ISU. I also love to hear from them after they’ve graduated. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a former student of mine in Textile and Clothing. Among other things she shared with me, she said that taking my course basically paved her way toward successful academic employment and that she still uses the tips she learned in class with the TAs she is now mentoring.

Was there something from the TESOL convention in New Orleans that you'd like to share, that you thought was particularly valuable?

Elena: TESOL is always a great place to find valuable information and see excellent research and practice-oriented presentations. This year, however, it had an added value for me. Being new to the ITA interest section, it was all about getting to know my new colleagues, networking, learning about ITA practices at peer universities, and sharing experiences. I had a wonderful time and I want to thank everybody for being so welcoming. I feel really fortunate to be part of such a dedicated and fun group!

Is there anything you’d like readers to know about you that I haven’t asked yet?

Elena: I guess I could say that being an ITA myself not so long ago and knowing what it’s like has continually motivated me to seek ways to more effectively address our ITAs’ needs. I know the ITAIS group is very experienced, and I’m looking forward to learning from you all and collaborating with you on different levels!