John M. Norris Department of Second Language Studies University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa 1890 East-West Rd. Honolulu, HI 96822 office: Moore Hall 403 phone: (808) 956-2786 fax: (808) 956-2802 email: jnorris@hawaii.edu

Education

Ph.D., Second Language Acquisition: University Hawai‘i at Manoa

M.A., English as a Second Language: University Hawai‘i at Manoa

B.A., Modern Languages: Texas A&M University

Professional emphases

· Program evaluation

· Educational assessment

· Task-based language teaching (CLICK HERE FOR TBLT 2005 PLENARY PPT)

· Instructed second language acquisition

· Research methods

· Research synthesis and meta-analysis

· Foreign language education

Professional Background

After completing a B.A. in Modern Languages (German emphasis) and spending a year as a Fulbright research scholar in Germany in the early 1990s, I taught English in the northeast of Brazil, then pursued graduate studies, taught ESL and assessment courses, and conducted research in Hawai‘i. In more recent years, I have focused my research on concerns in program evaluation, questions of instructional effectiveness, and the improvement of assessment practices in language education settings, and I have consulted extensively with second and foreign language programs in the U.S. and abroad on related projects. In particular, I spent three years as a visiting researcher at the Georgetown University German Department, investigating and implementing assessments in conjunction with curriculum development efforts there. I also worked as higher education assessment specialist for Northern Arizona University before returning to teaching and research in applied linguistics. I joined the Department of Second Language Studies as an assistant professor in Fall 2004.

My work has appeared in journals such as Foreign Language Annals, Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology, Language Teaching Research, Language Testing, The Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and Die Unterrichtspraxis, as chapters in a number of edited books, and in several books on assessment, validity, and research synthesis. An article based on my collaborative research with Lourdes Ortega, entitled “Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis” was awarded both the ACTFL-MLJ Paul Pimsleur award and the TESOL Distinguished Research award in 2001. In 2008, I was awarded the Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching at UH.

I fill my ‘spare’ time with running, rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, and swimming.

Languages

L1: English L2: German L3: Portuguese L4: Spanish

(Attrited Ls: French, Mandarin)

Related Destinations

UH Department of Second Language Studies Language Teaching Research journal home page Task-Based Language Teaching 2007 Conference

UH NFLRC GUGD Curriculum and Assessment FL Program Evaluation Project