DEBORAH DUBINER
ddubiner@andrew.cmu.edu


EDUCATION

• PhD Candidate, program in Second Language Acquisition, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.  Estimated graduation date: May 2008.
• M.S. in TESOL, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. 1995.
• B.A. in Linguistics and Film & Television. Tel Aviv University. 1990.

    

RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE

• 2004-present. Spanish instructor at Carnegie Mellon University.  
• Summer 2005: Research Assistant. Carnegie Mellon University.
• 1993-2004. ESL instructor.  Oral skills, reading comprehension, and academic writing for  undergraduate and graduate students (University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Bar-Ilan University, Zfat College and Jordan Valley College, Israel).  
• 1999-2002. Coordinator of English Studies.  Zfat College, Israel.
• 1993-1995. Instructor of English through popular songs.  University of Southern California, Los Angeles
• 1992-1994. Instructor of Portuguese for Spanish-Speakers.  Pomona College, Claremont, CA.   
• 1992. Third-semester Hebrew Instructor.  Pomona College, Claremont, CA.
• 1988-1990. Hebrew tutor for Ethiopian-Israeli students, Tel-Aviv University.  
• 1987-1991. Teacher of conversational English for adults in English language schools. Tel-Aviv, Israel.
• 1984. English teacher. Centro de Cultura Anglo-Americano. Brasília, Brazil.  

MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

• 1998-2004. Culturally-sensitive ESL reading comprehension materials and exams suitable for Arab students in Israeli colleges
• 1993-1995. English Through Songs
• 1991-1995.  Portuguese for Spanish-Speakers

 PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH TEAMS AND COMMITTEES

• 2005-present. Spanish as a foreign language program in an elementary school in PA. CMU.
• 2004-5. Cross-national analysis of word knowledge acquisition in English as a Second Language (Israel and China). CMU.
• Selection of Global Education course proposal. CMU.
• 1997-1998.  MA-level EFL course materials evaluation.  Bar-Ilan University.
• Participation in research groups:
• Second Language Reading.  This  study will determine to what extent, and how, knowledge of L1 words’ internal structures promotes development of L2 word knowledge, within and across language groups (Chinese and Hebrew).  
• Program evaluation.  This study evaluates the implementation of a Spanish as foreign language program in an elementary school in Western Pennsylvania.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• ACTFL (American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages), Baltimore, MD, 2005. “Native speakers’ perceptions of fluency acquired by study abroad students and their implications for the classroom at home." With Barbara Freed and Norman Segalowitz.
• SLRF (Second Language Research Forum), New York City, 2005. “Word Knowledge Development in English among High-school EFL Learners in China and Israel.” With Keiko Koda, Yanhui Zhang, and Lois Wilson.
• Second International Conference on Third Language and Trilingualism, The Netherlands, 2001: “The Impact of Schemata on Arab Students’ Acquisition of English as a Third Language.”
• CATESOL, California, 1995.  “The prevention of Attrition through Reading”
• CATESOL, California, 1993. “English Through Songs”

        
PUBLICATIONS

• Accepted.  “Native speakers’ perceptions of fluency acquired by study abroad students and their implications for the classroom at home.” With Barbara Freed and Norman Segalowitz.  AAUSC 2006 volume for language program coordinators.

GRANTS

• 2005: $500 from Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate Student Assembly conference grant for participation in AILA
• 2005: $500 from Carnegie Mellon University’s GuSH small project grant for conducting a project on second language fluency
• 2000: $2000 from the “Partnership 2000” program of the Jewish Agency for research on how to improve Israeli Arab students' achievement in English as a third language in an Israeli college.