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Dr. Karen Braxley

Dr. Braxley received her Ph.D. in TESOL from the University of Georgia and her master’s in English and American Literature from California State Polytechnic University. As a native of Great Britain, she did her undergraduate degrees at the University of East Anglia and Thames Valley University.  Her research interests include sociocultural theory, qualitative research, and academic writing in a second language. She has had the very great pleasure of teaching grammar, writing, and teaching skills to international students at UGA for more than 20 years.

Ms. Susan Kinnaird

Susan Kinnaird received her M.Ed. degree in Language Education with a focus on TESOL from the University of Georgia.  She has also completed Ph.D. coursework in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.  Her research interests include second language reading and writing, English grammar, sociolinguistics, and gender issues in language learning. She has more than 15 years’ experience teaching ESL at the college level.

Ms. Sun Kwon

Sun Kwon received her Master’s degree in TESOL from the University of Southern California. Her interests include Multiliteracy studies, Virtual Learning environments, English grammar, and writing. Prior to teaching at the University of Georgia, she taught classes for refugees and mentored immigrant youths. She has been volunteering as a violin player and as a tutor in her free time in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where she grew up.

Mr. John Shipley

John has taught English to speakers of other languages for over 15 years.  He taught at the International School of Choueifat in Beirut, Lebanon and spent ten years teaching English in Madrid, Spain. He earned his M.Ed. in TESOL and World Language Education before beginning his  Ph.D. studies in UGA’s department of Language and Literacy Education.  Much of John’s pedagogical approach in the classroom is informed by sociocultural theory and its interpretation of the learning process and systemic functional linguistics.  He is also interested in discourse analysis, the interactional hypothesis theory in SLA, and an art-based approach to second language education.