About
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Kristina B. Lewis is an Assistant Professor of TESOL and Applied Linguistics in the English Department at Illinois State University.* An experienced language educator, she has taught English language and literacy classes to diverse student populations in Uganda and the United States. Kristina has also taught numerous courses in the areas of English language, academic writing, educational linguistics, and TESOL methods. Kristina holds an MSEd in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and a PhD in Educational Linguistics, both from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of her academic position, Kristina works as a freelance editor and writing coach, specializing in providing support to multilingual writers in various academic English genres.
*Kristina’s freelance work is done on her own time and is not associated with her position at Illinois State University; her opinions are her own. Please note that I do not provide services to students currently enrolled at Illinois State University.
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND CURRENT PROJECTS
Kristina’s research explores the complex processes involved in language teacher identity development, as well as the ways in which student teachers navigate the practices and processes of second language teacher education. Her dissertation, “Be(com)ing Language (Student) Teachers in a TESOL Practicum,” explored the hybrid experience of “becoming” and “being” teachers that graduate-level TESOL students experienced during a practicum semester. Kristina theorized an ecological model of (language) teacher education in order to examine the interplay between language student teachers’ socialization and identity formation within and across the contexts and timescales of a practicum semester. She examined “images” of language (student) teachers and language (student) teaching to analyze the various ideas, representations, and enactments that circulate and are legitimized across practicum contexts. Drawing on a methodological framework of ethnography-in-education, discourse analysis, and collaborative inquiry, this dissertation project specifically followed the experiences of eight multilingual focal student teacher participants. This study demonstrates the rich potential for inquiry into student teachers’ own experiences and interpretations of the practices of teacher education. Kristina is currently developing new lines of inquiry to further explore these topics with more language teachers.
