Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows

Dr. Shelley Wong is an Associate Professor at George Mason University in Multicultural/ESL/Bilingual Education. Before coming to George Mason, Shelley was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland College Park, and an associate professor in the Foreign/Second Language Education with a Specialization in Language, Literacy and Culture at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
 
She received her B.A. in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz (U.C.S.C.), her California teaching credentials, TESL certificate and M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from UCLA, and her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia Teachers College. 
 
Shelley began her teaching career in teaching English at a girl’s middle school in Hong Kong where she went as a Chinese American to study Cantonese and learn about her cultural roots. Over the years, she has taught English as a Second language in adult school, high school, community college, university intensive English programs, and teacher education programs in California, Ohio, New York, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She has also taught ESL/Bilingual classes for community organizations, churches, and trade unions.
 
Shelley served on the Board of TESOL from 1996-1999, was Chair of the Teacher Education Interest Section and on the Sociopolitical Concerns Committee of TESOL 2002- 2005. She was the 2003 recipient of the TESOL Heinle and Heinle Excellence in Teaching Award, presented at the TESOL Annual Convention, Baltimore, Maryland. She has been involved in collaborative literacy research projects with Reading Recovery, elementary and ESOL teachers in elementary schools in Arlington, Prince George County, and Fairfax, Virginia. She has published in the TESOL Quarterly, the TESOL Journal, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Multicultural Perspectives.