Directors
Kevin McManus, Director
Kevin McManus is associate professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Center for Language Acquisition at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests are in second language acquisition and psycholinguistics, especially crosslinguistic influence and morphosyntactic development.
Olesya Kisselev, Co-director
Olesya Kisselev is assistant professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research expertise is in the areas of second and heritage language acquisition, second/heritage language pedagogy, and learner corpus research.
Jialing Wang, Associate Director
Jialing Wang is assistant research professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Assistant Director of the Center for Language Acquisition and Associate Director of CALPER. Jialing holds an Ed.D. from Penn State, an M.Ed. in TESOL from the University of Georgia and an undergraduate degree from Wuhan University (China).
Project Coordinators 2022-2026:
Brody Bluemel is associate professor and chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures at Delaware State University. His research focuses on bilingual education, dual-language immersion, and educational technology.
Becky H. Huang is professor of Multilingual Language Education at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on bilingual/dual-language learners’ language and literacy development and its assessment.
Amanda Huensch is assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examines second language speech development in and outside of the classroom, including the acquisition of L2 phonology and the pronunciation pedagogical practices of language instructors.
Akiko Imamura is assistant professor of Japanese and Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on language use in first and second languages. Her broader interest include pedagogical discourse, Japanese language pedagogy and program direction.
Stephen Looney is teaching professor of Applied Linguistics and the director of the International TA Program in the Department of Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University. His interests include language use, classroom interaction, L2 assessment, and teacher education.
Innhwa Park is associate professor of TESOL in the Department of Languages and Cultures at West Chester University. Her research interest include second language use, educational discourse, online communication, and meeting interaction.
Jayoung Song is an Assistant Professor of Korean and Applied Linguistics at Penn State University. Her research interests include Korean applied linguistics, computer-assisted language learning, intercultural communication, and second language reading. Dr. Song has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Education and Information Technologies, Language Learning & Technology, ReCALL, and The Korean Language in America. She works with projects incorporating virtual and augmented reality, supported by funding from the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2020-R39, AKS-2023-R063) and the U.S. Department of Education (CALPER P229A220016).
Zhongfeng Tian is assistant professor of Bilingual Education at Rutgers University-Newark. His research centers on working with language educators to create equitable and inclusive learning environments for bilingual and multilingual students in dual-language immersion contexts.
External Evaluators
Victoria Hasko is Associate Professor of TESOL & World Language Education, Director of the Russian Flagship Program and the STARTALK Russian Language, Culture and Communities in the Baltics Program at the University of Georgia. Her research expertise centers on language learning of LTCLs (e.g., Russian, Portuguese). As the director of the Russian Flagship program and the director of STARTALK Russian for Global Professionals (federally-funded program for teaching critical languages), Hasko has expertise on administration and implementation of federally-supported programs.
Luke Plonsky is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University, where he teaches courses in L2 acquisition and research methods. His work in these and other areas appears in over 100 articles, book chapters, and books. Plonsky is Senior Associate Editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Managing Editor of Foreign Language Annals, and he serves on the editorial boards of several other journals, including Language Teaching and Research Methods in Applied Linguistics.