Dr. Li-Jen Kuo

Dr. Li-Jen Kuo has a master’s degree in Language, Learning, and Policy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Texas A&M University, her research and teaching center on second language acquisition, teacher education, and the integration of STEAM with second language instruction. Her research has been supported by the U.S. National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. The impact of her research is evidenced by an exceptionally high number of citations (more than 3,000) for a scholar of her rank. She serves as a U.S. federal proposal reviewer for the Linguistics program with the National Science Foundation and the International Research Studies Program with the Department of Education.

Dr. Kuo has served as the director for five cohorts of the STARTALK Chinese and Korean Student Program. She successfully planned and implemented the professional development for each of the STARTALK Student Programs and provided professional support for teachers beyond STARTALK.

Dr. Kuo has also established herself as an innovative postsecondary educator and has successfully developed two courses certified by Quality Matters, a national certification program that recognizes high-quality online and blended courses. One of Dr. Kuo’s areas of expertise is the integration of content-area instruction and technology with second language instruction. Her research on this topic has been published in high-impact journals in the field, including the International Journal of Science & Mathematics Education, Computers & Education, and Computer-Assisted Language Learning. The impact of her work is also evidenced by invited talks and panel discussions on this topic by world language communities in the U.S. and in Europe, including “Integrating STEM with K-5 World Language Instruction: A Project-Based and Learner-Centered Approach” and “Unit & Lesson Design: Creating Units for Global Competence.”

You can learn more about Dr. Kuo’s research and outreach projects at her research group website: Cross-Linguistic Literacy & Cognition Research Group.

Haemin Kim

Haemin Kim received her B.A. in English Education from Hanyang University and is a certified public school teacher in South Korea. She is also certified to teach Korean as a Foreign Language by the Ministry of Education of South Korea. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the integration of content-area instruction with second/foreign language teaching. She received the prestigious Ruth Crymes TESOL Fellowship for Graduate Study from the TESOL International Association in 2020 for her research on the integration of STEM with second language instruction.

Ms. Kim has been actively involved in the STARTALK program since her first year of graduate study at Texas A&M University in 2016. She served as a teacher and as the science coordinator in the 2016 program, and she has co-directed the Texas A&M Chinese and Korean Program with Dr. Kuo since 2017. Having completed graduate-level coursework in world language teaching and learning as well as professional development focused on the STARTALK program, Ms. Kim is well-versed in the STARTALK-Endorsed Principles for Effective Teaching and Learning and Teacher Effectiveness in Language Learning Framework. She has extensive teacher education experience in South Korea and in the U.S., where she coordinates and gives professional development workshops for teachers of world languages.