TESOL Program Faculty

Jie Zhang, Associate Professor of Chinese Pedagogy and Applied Linguistics at OU, received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University in 2011. Her research areas are second language acquisition, foreign language pedagogy, and Chinese as a second language. Specifically, she is interested in applying sociocultural theory to teaching foreign languages. She has published widely on dynamic assessment, concept-based instruction, and learner corpus analysis. She has also done research on ESL writing.

At OU, she teaches intermediate and advanced Chinese language courses, along with Principles and Techniques of Teaching a Foreign Language. Prior to OU, she taught ESL Writing at the Pennsylvania State University for two years. Before that, she taught a wide range of EFL courses (intermediate, advanced, English Listening and Speaking, English Writing, Business English, Translation) at Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China.

For the MA in TESOL program, Dr. Zhang teaches "SLA for ESL" (TESL 5123) and serves as the chair of the program's Steering Committee.

Derick D. Deweber, PhD, CCC-SLP, received his Master's of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Baylor University in 2003, and his PhD in Psycholinguistics from the University of Oklahoma in 2015.  His research interests have been related the bilingual aspects of second language acquisition in children and adults.  Apart from his scholarly activities Dr. Deweber has 14 years of clinical experience as a bilingual speech-language pathologist.  He has worked in a variety of health and education settings including acute care, inpatient rehab, skilled nursing, home health, and he has owned his own outpatient clinic.   

Dr. Deweber teaches "Phonetics for ESL" (TESL 5113) in the MA in TESOL program whenever possible.

Dylan Herrick, Associate Professor of Linguistics, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003 and joined OU's Linguistics faculty in 2006. His research specializations are theoretical phonology and the phonetics-phonology interface, and he has done extensive work on Catalan dialects.

Currently, his research focuses on Native American languages. He has done work on the Comanche vowel system and tone and vowel length in Cherokee. He is also doing preliminary work on the phonology of Osage.

Prior to OU, he spent three years teaching English at the middle school and high school level in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He also spent two years teaching English and Linguistics at Mie University (Mie Prefecture, Japan), and he spent one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Pomona College.

Currently, Dr. Herrick teaches TESL 5113 "Phonetics for ESL" for the MA in TESOL Program. He also serves on the program Steering Committee. The course provides a graduate-level introduction to the study of human speech sounds with an emphasis on how this relates to teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Tom Hoyt teaches the "ESL Testing and Assessment" course (TESL 5443) for the MA in TESOL program.

He has taught ESL / EFL for 16 years, including six years in Japan. He has also taught as an adjunct instructor of History for the College of Professional and Continuing Studies and the Center for Independent and Distance Learning. He has earned an M.A. in English with TESL emphasis; an M.A. in Regional Studies - East Asia Emphasis; and an M.A. in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.

Ryan Kasak is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics who received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2019. Dr. Kasak specializes in documentation of indigenous languages of the Americas. He also has over 15 years of experience as a K12 teacher in ESL, Special Education, and World Language (Spanish and Russian) classrooms and as a school administrator. He has taught in high school and college classrooms in Illinois, Iowa, Connecticut, North Dakota, and Montana before coming to OU. As part of his work with indigenous languages of the Americas, he has participated in the creation of pedagogical materials on different languages of the northern Great Plains.

Dr. Kasak currently serves on the M.A. TESOL Steering Committee and teaches TESL 5553 (Teaching ESL Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking) for the program.

Sarah Moore currently teaches “ESL Curriculum" (TESL 5433) in the MA in TESOL Program. She also develops Integrated English Training courses as the IELCE Coordinator in the Oklahoma City Community College Adult Education program.

Sarah earned her MA in TESOL from Azusa Pacific University while teaching in China. She has more than 20 years of experience teaching ESL to adults and international students in various cities across the country including Muskogee, Kansas City, and Ames, Iowa where she taught a variety of English classes for the Intensive English and Orientation Program at Iowa State University for twelve years. 

Hilary Kirk instructs the “Structure of the English Language” (TESL 5143) course for the MA in TESOL program. 

Hilary has taught English as a Second Language in a variety of countries for 25 years, during which time she has instructed all language proficiency levels and age groups. She speaks several languages and has taught Italian at OU. Hilary currently teaches ESL at OU’s Center for English as a Second Language and serves as the curriculum coordinator for all the CESL courses. 

Hilary received a BA in Italian and German from the University of Manchester (U.K.), a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (specializing in German and French) from the University of Exeter (U.K.), a Certificate and Diploma of English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA and DELTA) from International House, London (U.K.), and a master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Jessica Reynolds is the Director of the New GTA Orientation and English Training and Certification Services for the OU Graduate College. The ETCS program,  in particular, trains, certifies, and supports international graduate scholars who instruct courses at the University of Oklahoma. Jessica applies research in language attitudes, World Englishes, comprehensibility metrics, and language testing, and seeks to internationalize OU's campuses through team-driven initiatives.

From studying abroad and learning languages other than English, to then living and teaching abroad, and obtaining her graduate degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Queensland in Australia, Jessica has experienced issues that international students face personally, linguistically, and academically. She spent 6+ years working as a core instructor at OU’s Center for English as a Second Language, where she created academic English courses and collaborative programs to bridge CESL-OU students into their degree coursework. She has presented at national TESOL, OKTESOL, and NAFSA conferences and published in the ITA newsletter for the national TESOL organization.

Jessica serves on the program Steering Committee and instructs the "Internship in TESOL" (TESL 5945) course and "ESL Methods and Techniques" (TESL 5233) course for the MA in TESOL degree. 

Racquel-María Sapién is an Associate Professor of Linguistic Anthropology with a specialization in documentation, description, and revitalization of endangered Indigenous languages. 

Dr. Sapien's prior ESL experience includes time spent as an ESL instructor at the high school and college levels. She has also taught in the TESOL program at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea, training future ESL teachers.

For the MA in TESOL program, Dr. Sapien teaches the "Understanding Cultures for ESL" (TESL 5333)  course as well as the "General Linguistics for ESL" (TESOL 5133) course.  She also serves on the program's Steering Committee.