Meet the author

Greetings! My name is Teresa, and I'm a second-year graduate student, pursuing my Master's in English. I currently hold a B.A. in Languages (focused on Japanese and Russian), a B.A. in International Studies, and a minor in history. I have also flirted with studying Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Being a student of foreign languages, and having taught English overseas before, I am particularly interested in studying how technology, Internet, and other digital literacies affect language acquisition for English-as-a-second/foreign-language students. I find it absolutely fascinating how a person's understanding of a language (as well as a new culture) can be shaped by their exposure to foreign means of social networking, news outlets, imported goods and anything else that can be obtained through globally-connected digital media.

I relate to my experience in Viet Nam as the first taste to this aspect of ESL. Even though the country's government has regulated the Internet, and imposed purposeful blockages on certain sites like Facebook, that does not prevent its citizens from accessing such sites. Plenty of people I met could bypass the filters, and even their cell phones can easily update their Facebook statuses -- something that I find so deliciously defiant against their government. The prolific usage of cell phones also contributed to language learning, as I communicated with peers and students through texting in English.

When I am not obsessively immersing myself in school and studies, I enjoy baking and cooking, bicycling, running and participating in spoken word poetry. Sometimes, a good night involves pizza, wine, and an enjoyable first person shooter video game. I also have recently taken to watching football, as it is required while being the partner of a football fan during football season..