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:

Joshua Gordon

Joshua Gordon is Assistant Professor of TESOL and Applied Linguistics at the University of Northern Iowa. He received his Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has taught ESL, EFL, and Spanish as a foreign language. He has trained pre-service and in-service teachers in the United States and in Costa Rica. His research interests include second-language pronunciation teaching and learning, second-language teacher cognition, and nonnative-speaking teachers of English. His research has appeared in the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, TESL Canada Journal, RELC Journal, Language Teaching Research, and edited volumes and conference proceedings.

Meghan Moran

Meghan Moran is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the University Writing Program at Northern Arizona University. She received a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from NAU in 2016. Her professional interests include speech perception, L2 pronunciation and intelligibility, language planning and policy, language education policy, and linguistic discrimination. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development, as well as edited volumes.

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 the Associate Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at North Carolina State University. Previously, she was an Assistant Teaching Professor in the ESL program at Northeastern University and oversaw the undergraduate listening and speaking course. Her interests primarily include second language phono-lexical acquisition, the orthographic-phonological interface, and bridging gaps between experimental research and classroom practices as related to phonology and pronunciation. Her work has been published in Applied Psycholinguistics, Second Language Research, and Studies in Second Language Acquisition, among others.

Mara Haslam

Mara Haslam works as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Language Education at Stockholm University, Sweden. Mara received a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Utah in 2011. Her research interests include second language phonology, including using laboratory methods to identify priorities for pronunciation teaching.

Brandon Cooper

Brandon Cooper is Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University where he oversees Center assessment, leads a major faculty development initiative, and co-leads the English Language Proficiency program. His recent research investigates social-psychological factors related to cross-linguistic interaction and the efficacy of individualized approaches to second language learning. His team has worked to create interventions designed to improve cross-linguistic interaction, digital tools for second language pronunciation, and, most recently, an algorithm designed to effortlessly match hundreds of students for weekly, casual conversation.

Agata Guskaroska

Agata Guskaroska is a Fulbright alumna, currently a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Linguistics and Technology at Iowa State University (ISU). She has taught EFL and composition courses, as well as a Global Online Course and MOOC, Using Technology in the English Language Classroom. She has been working as a research assistant, and a communication consultant at the Center for Communication Excellence at ISU. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning, pronunciation teaching, and technology acceptance.

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 40 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.

Lucy Bunning

Lucy Bunning is an Associate Teaching Professor in NU Global international pathway programs at Northeastern University in Boston, where she designs curricula and teaches listening and speaking, public speaking, first-year experience, and service-learning courses. Her most recent research focuses on language learning beyond the classroom and has been published in Supporting Student Success Through Community Asset Mapping and The Reading Matrix. Lucy earned her PhD in interdisciplinary educational studies at Lesley University and has taught English for multilingual learners in university, community-based, and private language programs in the US, Kenya, and Rwanda.