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Biography
Dr. Natalie Mullen Leisher is the director of the Institute for Cross-Cultural Training where she works with Christian non-profits and their workers who are learning and teaching languages all around the world. She was an ESL teacher to adults in university settings for over 10 years, specializing in listening, speaking, and pronunciation, and has lived and served in China and Spain. Her doctorate is in Education Policy and her research interests include language policy, multilingual populations, language justice and inclusion, internationalization of higher education, and second language acquisition.
Courses Taught
- Intro to Linguistics
- Second Language Acquisition in Intercultural Contexts
- Cross-cultural Qualitative Research
Education
Ph.D. in Education Policy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A. in Political Science and Spanish, Illinois State University
Research
- Language policy
- Internationalization of higher education
- Multilingual populations
- Multilingual international students in the U.S.
- Language justice and inclusion
- Second language acquisition
- Language policy in non-profit religious organizations
Papers and Publications
Dissertation
Internationalizing Illinois: English language policy at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - View the dissertation.
Book chapter (September, 2020)
"Language and cultural competence: Embracing Multilingual Ideologies and Language Policies" in Cultural Competence in Higher Education edited by Puckett and Lind, published by Emerald - View the chapter.