Course Developers

Prior to entering semi-retirement and advising this project, Dr. Clifford Hill was the Arthur I. Gates Professor of Language and Education at Teachers College. He also previously directed Columbia’s program in African Languages. His international work has included serving as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik in Nijmegen. Most recently, Dr. Hill directed a project to develop a digitally based assessment program for the Pacesetter Program of the College Board in the United States. Dr. Hill has written many books and articles, many of which focus on language and literacy testing and assessment. In addition to being a primary advisor to the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program, he co-authored one of the units, Testing and Assessment.

Dr. Kleifgen served as the coordinator of the programs in International Education Development and in Comparative and International Education at Teachers College. She was also an Academic Associate at the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University. Professor Kleifgen has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University in the United States; at Northeast Normal University in Jilin, China; and at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China. Dr. Kleifgen was also the academic advisor and a professor of Wade O. Nichols, TEFL-C Senior Director, during his graduate studies at Teachers College. In addition to reviewing the general organization and structure of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children certificate program, she personally reviewed the units written by Mr. Nichols.

Mr. Nichols received his B.A. in Education from the University of Northern Colorado and his M.A. in International Education Development from Teachers College, Columbia University. He has taught, consulted, managed schools, and trained teachers of English in four Asian countries over a period of twenty years. He is a contributing author to twelve children’s English courses and is the primary author of a preschool course based on Multiple Intelligences Theory. In addition to coordinating the entire Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program, Mr. Nichols wrote a number of the units including Multiple Intelligences Theory, The Aural-Oral Approach, Managing Materials, Teaching Through Stories, and Flash Card Activities.

Mrs. Procter received her B.A. in International Studies from Western Carolina University and her M.Ed. in TESOL at George Mason University, both in the U.S. She is a contributing author to more than 80 titles in the field of English language teaching (ELT) and is a primary author of three children’s ELT courses, Gogo Loves English, English Time, and World Kids. She specializes in teaching English through music and drama as well as integrating themes such as service-learning, sustainable development, and multicultural education. Mrs. Procter has presented workshops to more than 120,000 primary school English teachers in over 30 countries around the world. In additional to reviewing all of the units of this program, she has authored or co-authored the units on The Direct Approach, Teaching Through Songs and Chants, Planning Lessons, and others.

Mr. Procter has studied in the Teaching and Learning with Technology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Previously, he has done doctoral coursework at Ohio State University, received an M.Ed. in TESOL from George Mason University, and a B.A. from Western Carolina University, all in the U.S. Mr. Procter served for a seven-year period as visiting professor at Seoul National University of Education in Seoul, Korea. He has written courses for several Ministries of Education (Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam), Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, and several Korean and regional publishing houses. Mr. Procter reviewed the entire Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program and authored or co-authored the Teaching with Technology, Direct Approach, Planning Lessons, and Whiteboard Activities units.

Mr. Van Opdorp is currently teaching ESL in an American high school. Previous to that, he was teaching TESOL methodology at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea. He received his M.A. in TESOL Curriculum and Instruction from George Mason University and a B.A. in International Politics from Georgetown University, both in the U.S. Mr. Van Opdorp conducted field research related to Multiple Intelligences Theory teaching techniques in multilingual classes and presented extensively on this topic in Argentina. He has also taught and administered EFL programs in Korea, Indonesia, and Peru. In addition to MI Theory, Mr. Van Opdorp specializes in content-based instruction, literacy, and instructional technology. In addition to reviewing many of the units in the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program, he wrote or co-wrote the units on Experiential Learning Theory, The Natural Approach and Managing the Classroom.

Ms. Ho is a doctoral candidate in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University where she researched the cognitive development of young learners. She also holds an M.A. in TESOL and a B.A. in Teacher Education. She has taught for nine years in Taiwan, including two years in universities, two years in elementary school, and five years in private language schools. She also completed a research project integrating multimedia technology into English as a foreign language classes for children. In addition to participating in the development of the Curricular English lessons included in the online pronunciation tutorial offered as part of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program, she is the author of the unit on Early Childhood Development Theory.

Ms. Park received her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul. She also holds a M.A. in English Language Teaching from the University of Manchester, England. Ms. Park has been teaching for more than ten years. She has taught in a number of TESOL training programs in Canada. She has also taught teacher-training courses at Sookmyung Women’s University’s TESOL program in Seoul and has conducted numerous workshops on teaching very young learners in Korea. She continues to conduct workshops on storytelling and reading aloud to preschool-aged children. Presently, she is teaching a TESOL certification course at Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, Canada. Her areas of interests are young learners, assessment, and reading. Ms. Park wrote the Physical Movement Activities unit for the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program.

Ms. Chou holds a B.A. in TEFL and an M.A., also in TEFL, at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. She has more than 15 years of experience teaching English to young Chinese children. Ms. Chou has also given numerous teacher-training presentations on a variety of topics to Chinese preschool and kindergarten teachers as well as to international audiences. Her specialties include practical early childhood teaching methodology, task-based English teaching, and teaching English through drama and dramatic play techniques. She has also published several English-teaching plays for young learners. Ms. Chou is the co-author of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program unit on Teaching Through Drama and is a frequent program presenter on this and other topics.

Ms. Caban teaches second language acquisition and methodology in the TESOL program at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul. She received her M.A. in TESOL from the University of Hawai’i and a B.A. in English Literature and Russian Language and Literature from the College of the Holy Cross, both in the U.S. Ms. Caban specializes in the area of language assessment as well as content-based and task-based teaching. She designed and implemented several content-based courses during her time at the University of Hawai’i’s English language program. Ms. Caban has more than ten years of teaching experience. Her first Asian teaching experience was in a Korean public middle school, and she has been attracted to the region ever since. Ms. Caban is the co-author of the Communicative Approach unit of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program.

Qian Lu was a teacher of English as a foreign language at Suzhou University in Suzhou, China. She received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics and B.A. in English Education from the School of Foreign Languages, Suzhou University. Her research interests include applied linguistics and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). She has also taught Internet for English Learning and Extensive Reading courses to junior English majors. She also once worked as a part-time English teacher at local kindergartens. Qian Lu helped develop the Chinese language support for the written units and Chinese translations of other materials for the certificate course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children. She was also the manager of the Suzhou University office of the Institute for Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

Elsa Chen holds a B.S. from Cornell University and was a doctoral candidate in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She studied the language development of recent immigrant students in the schools of New York City’s Chinatown. Ms. Chen spent a year and a half teaching English in Taiwan and studying Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University. She also worked in curriculum development and did recording work for English educational materials for elementary and middle school students. For the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program, Ms. Chen conducted research in New York area classrooms from which she developed the 20 Classroom English lessons for the program’s online pronunciation tutorial.

Jennifer R. Fennema-Bloom was a doctoral candidate in the International and Transcultural Studies program at Teachers College, Columbia University where her concentration was in Language, Literacy, and Technology. She also received her M.A. and her Ed.M. in the Curriculum and Teaching program at Teachers College. Mrs. Fennema-Bloom has more than ten years’ experience working in the field of English language education in Taiwan. Most recently, she developed the English language arts program at the prestigious Wego private school in Taipei. Both she and her husband are multilingual including English and Mandarin and are raising their daughter in a bilingual setting. Mrs. Fennema-Bloom led the team of graduate students at Columbia University who developed the Curricular English lessons included in the Teaching English as a Foreign Langauge to Children program’s online pronunciation tutorial.

Sarah McLean graduated with cum laude honors from Yale University with distinction in history and international studies. She also holds a M.A. in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She studied Mandarin Chinese and taught in preschools in Taipei for two years and is currently teaching classes in the bilingual program at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong. She is quadri-lingual in English, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. Ms. McLean was a member of the team of graduate students at Teachers College who developed the Curricular English lessons included in the on-line pronunciation tutorial offered as part of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children program.