Statement of Purpose: The Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening Interest Section (SPLIS) focuses on all aspects of oral/aural skills in English language teaching. We work to increase educators’ awareness of the importance of oral/aural skills for English learners of all ages, from early childhood through adult. We help educators recognize the role of spoken English in second language development, social well-being, and academic success. We support educators in all settings to help learners improve their pronunciation and listening skills. We encourage research and scholarship, disseminate information, develop teaching materials, and advance teaching tools and methods.

Leadership Team

Meet the Members:

Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer

Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer received her PhD in Applied Linguistics and Technology, Iowa State University in 2017. She is the editorial assistant of the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, the co-developer of pronunciationforteachers.com, and the chair of the Speech Pronunciation and Listening Interest Section of TESOL International Association. Her research interests include pronunciation teaching, materials evaluation and development, and computer-assisted language learning. She has published her work in TESOL Quarterly, CATESOL Journal, and The Routledge Handbook of English Pronunciation.

Catherine Showalter

Catherine E. Showalter holds a PhD in Linguistics with a specialization in second language phonology from the University of Utah. She is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University where she oversees the program’s undergraduate listening and speaking course, among others. She serves as one of the book review editors for TESL-EJ and on various university-level and field-level committees, promoting awareness of programs for and research on non-native English speakers, presenting at conferences, and publishing research. Her interests primarily include second language phono-lexical acquisition and pronunciation and the bridging of gaps between experimental research and classroom practices as related to phonology.

Susan Spezzini

Susan Spezzini, PhD, is Professor of English Language Learner Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she teaches Applied Phonology for the master’s degree in ESL, Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Instruction for the Educational Specialist degree in TESOL, and Engaging Glocal Communities for the PhD in Educational Studies Diverse Populations. At UAB, she directs the ESL Teacher Education program and federal grants from the Office of English Language Education. Through her research, she examines issues related to L2 pronunciation and to the preparation of K-12 educators for effectively teaching English learners. In addition to having chaired SPLIS, she has served in multiple leadership roles for Alabama-Mississippi TESOL and has chaired affiliate and regional conferences. Prior to arriving at UAB in 2003, she worked in Paraguay for 26 years, initially as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later as an English language educator.

Matthias Maunsell

Matthias Maunsell is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Studies in Diverse Populations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a research assistant in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His professional background is in Applied Linguistics and English Language Education including teaching, assessment, program development, and management. Before coming to the U.S., Mr. Maunsell worked extensively with culturally and linguistically diverse students in Ireland, Spain, Mexico, and Qatar at the university, community college, and language institute level. His principal research interests relate to English Language Education, Multilingualism & Multiculturalism, Global Education, and Disability Studies.

Shannon McCrocklin

Shannon McCrocklin is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL in the Department of Linguistics at Southern Illinois University. She earned her PhD in Applied Linguistics & Technology from Iowa State University in 2014. Her primary area of interest is the acquisition of second language phonology, which includes methods for teaching pronunciation. Within this area, she is particularly interested in the intersection of second language pronunciation (accent) and identity in language learning. Her secondary research area is computer-assisted language learning. Within this, she has explored Automatic Speech Recognition for pronunciation practice and Virtual Reality for language learning. Her final area of interest is teacher education. Within this, she has examined the effect of various experiential learning approaches on pre-service teacher beliefs as part of teacher education. She has published in venues such as System, the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, the Canadian Modern Language Review, and TESOL Journal.

Pelin Irgin

Pelin Irginis an assistant professor of English Language Education at TED University in Turkey. She received her PhD in English Language Teaching at Hacettepe University, Turkey, and completed her doctorate thesis research at University of Reading, UK. Her research interests are language learning and cognition, EFL listening comprehension and Language learner strategies, listening strategies intervention to young learners, and awareness-raising activity design for listening strategies in EFL context. She teaches undergraduate courses in linguistics, language acquisition in L1/L2, listening and reading skills. She has published in various refereed journals and presented papers at conferences. She is currently serving on the editorial boards of international publications. She is also the community manager of the SPLIS Steering Committee of 2020-2021.

Sezgi Acar

Sezgi Acar is a graduate student in applied linguistics at the University of Alabama and a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of English where she currently teaches first-year composition. She has taught English as a second and foreign language for over 8 years in Turkey and in the U.S. She also taught Turkish as a foreign language as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Richmond. She holds an MA in TESOL from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Nancy Elliott

Nancy Elliott has a PhD in linguistics from Indiana University, specializing in phonology and sociolinguistics. Her research areas are in L2 comprehensibility and intelligibility; English dialectology; and sociophonetics. She has 37 years of experience teaching university-level ESL at the University of Kansas, Universität Heidelberg, Indiana University, ELS Berlitz at Southern Oregon University, and the University of Oregon. For the past ten years she has been teaching primarily listening, speaking, and pronunciation courses in the American English Institute at the University of Oregon. Here, she developed the pronunciation teaching tool known as the Vowel Elevator.