Teachers as Researchers: Publication Workshop
Where: Harvard University; Virtual via Zoom
When: April 12, 2026 (in person); April 17 -18, 2026 (virtual)
What: The goal of this workshop is to support Southeast Asian language instructors who are interested in research but with limited experience in conducting studies or publishing academic work. During the workshop, participants were introduced to the foundations of teacher research and the major components of classroom-based inquiry. Through a combination of presentations, discussions, and hands-on activities, participants practiced data collection, data organization, and data analysis techniques, examined examples of published research, and learned practical strategies for designing and reporting small-scale studies. Participants also analyzed a sample research paper, discussed initial research ideas, received peer and mentor feedback, and began planning their own classroom-based research projects.
Following the workshop, participants entered an extended mentorship phase (May–December 2026), during which they worked closely with experienced researchers to refine and implement their studies. The program aims to help participants produce a 1,000–2,000-word research report and move toward publication by providing individualized guidance on research design, data analysis, academic writing, and manuscript preparation. Through this initiative, the workshop seeks to strengthen research capacity among Southeast Asian language educators and increase scholarly contributions to the field of Southeast Asian language education.
The instructors for the workshop were Hoa Le and Jayson Parba. The mentors for the workshop were Michelle Kunkel, Priscila Leal, Anna Mendoza, Trang Phan, Huy Phung, and An Sakach.
Hoa Thi Vinh Le is Director of the Vietnamese Language Program and Senior Preceptor in Vietnamese at Harvard University. Her research focuses on task-based language teaching, technology-mediated pedagogy, instructed second language acquisition, heritage language learning, and teacher education. Her current project examines teacher agency and innovative language pedagogy through transnational teacher–researcher mentorship. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, including Language Learning & Technology and CALICO Journal, as well as chapters in edited volumes. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA.
Jayson Parba earned his PhD in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages & Literatures at UHM where he also serves as the Coordinator of the Philippine Language and Literature Program. He is a multilingual educator and scholar whose research interests include critical language pedagogy, heritage language education, language ideologies, multilingualism, and translanguaging.
Michelle Kunkel, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Global Studies at Pusan National University in South Korea. She holds a PhD in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Her main research interest is language teacher professional development, encompassing the broader topics of teacher research for reflective practice and the intersections between teacher agency and identity. Her scholarly work has been published in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics and the Journal of English for Academic Purposes.
Priscila Leal, PhD, is a teacher educator within the College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Grounded in critical language pedagogy, her scholarship focuses on fostering conscientização (critical consciousness) and collaborative practices that challenge societal structures, promoting and sustaining cultural and linguistic equity through transformative teacher development.
Anna Mendoza, PhD, is a Filipino-Canadian Assistant Professor whose work bridges sociolinguistics, TESOL, and multilingual education. She earned her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, she worked as an ESL/EAP instructor in Canada, where she developed a strong interest in language teaching. She completed her MA in TESL and later earned her PhD at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2016–2020), focusing on sociolinguistics and multilingualism. Following her PhD, she served as Assistant Professor of Education at University of Hong Kong before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines bi/multilingual communication and English as a lingua franca in diverse classrooms, with implications for pedagogy, equity, and critical language education. Her work appears in journals such as TESOL Quarterly and Journal of Language, Identity, & Education.
She coordinates the MA TESOL practicum with a refugee center and conducts research on adult second language literacy (LESLLA) and dual language education. She is a recipient of the UIUC LEAP Scholar Award (2024–26) and maintains a widely read blog on multilingualism in education.
Trang Phan, PhD, (https://orcid.org/0000-
Huy Phung, PhD, has been teaching Vietnamese in the US since 2020, offering both online and in-person instruction to heritage and non-heritage learners at various proficiency levels. Before joining the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, he taught Vietnamese as a second/heritage language at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and UC San Diego. He is also an experienced teacher educator specializing in task-based language teaching (TBLT), and instructed second language acquisition. Inspired by key research in how languages are learned, he led the development of a task-based open textbook for intermediate learners of Vietnamese. This contribution exemplifies his commitment to student-centered, active learning, OER-enabled pedagogy. Huy Phung currently serves as a board member of the Group of Universities for Advancement of Vietnamese in America (GUAVA).
An Sakach is a Assistant Teaching Professor at the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University. As an applied linguist, her focus is on curriculum design and learning material development. Her work centers around less-commonly-taught heritage and indigenous languages and communities to advocate for language maintenance and language revitalization. Her research appears in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, including the CALICO Journal and Advancing Critical CALL Across Institutions and Borders(Equinox). She co-edited Researching and Teaching Vietnamese as a Second Language: A Global Perspective (Springer Nature) and co-authored Intermediate Vietnamese: A Task-Based Journey, an open educational resource. Her community-engaged scholarship includes language documentation and learning material development with the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. She also publishes in Vietnamese and has contributed short fiction to national literary collections in Vietnam.