CURRICULUM VITAE - University of South Florida

CV—L IONTAS ________________________________________________________________
ACADEMIC PROFILE
John I. Liontas (Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, The University
of Arizona, 1999), Associate Professor of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other
Languages) at the University of South Florida in Lakeland campus, received his B.A. in
Germanistic studies and Education (1985) from the University of Siegen (Siegen,
Germany) and his M.Ed. in Secondary Education/Foreign Languages (1989) from the
University of South Carolina and Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
(1999) from The University of Arizona.
Dr. Liontas joined the faculty of the College of Education in Lakeland in Fall 2010 where he is currently
a tenured Associate Professor of ESOL and SLA Specialist, performing research and development in
second language teaching methodology, figurative competence, curriculum and program design, and
multimedia-based learning. He is the recipient of numerous local, state, regional, national, and
international teaching awards and honors, the most recent of which are the 2011 Superintendent Partnership
Award, the 2008 APAMALL Researcher Award, the 2000 ASU Professor of the Year Finalist, the 1998
University of Arizona Teaching Assistant of the Year Certificate of Achievement, the 1997 University of Arizona
Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award, and the 1997 Pi Lambda Theta International Honor Society and
Professional Association in Education Award. As a recipient of the 1992 Golden Apple Award, he was featured
on WBTW TV-13 Eyewitness News and was also the 1993 North America Global Classroom Teacher Award
Finalist. While teaching German and Spanish for the state of North Carolina (1989-1994), he wrote,
produced, and directed several cable television and radio broadcasts, one of which aired on The Learning
Channel, Channel 27. During that time, he was twice selected as the state award winner in teaching and
technology for the state of North Carolina (1991 & 1992).
Dr. Liontas has previously held several academic faculty positions in higher education, and has taught a
wide range of language and content courses in English, ESL, German, Spanish, Modern Greek, ESL/
SLA theory, methodology, and multimedia technology, as well as graduate seminars in curriculum theory
and development for the SL classroom, cultural literature and cultural norms and practices, foundations of
bilingual education, content area English as a second language, linguistics and psycho-/sociolinguistics, and
second language acquisition. He has also directed, coordinated, and administered language and academic
programs at various US institutions and sits on several local, state, regional, national, and international
academic bodies as managing editor, chair, reviewer, evaluator, or appointed/elected member. He serves
as Managing Editor of The Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal and as Managing Editor of The
APAMALL Journal of Language Learning Technologies, and as Co-Editor of International Applied Linguistics
Journal. He also serves on the editorial boards of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology
and Applied Linguistics, Lingua et Linguistica, CALICO Journal, Perspectives: Journal for Interdisciplinary Work in
the Humanities, Journal of Language and Linguistics, Journal of Language and Learning, Journal of Language and
Literature, and Linguistik online. From 1991-1995 he served as the chief editor and publisher of The Crescent
Newsletter, the state newsletter for the South Carolina Foreign Language Teachers’ Association.
Dr. Liontas has delivered several keynote addresses and conducted over 225 presentations, lectures, and
workshops at local, state, regional, national, and international conferences in the United States and
abroad, and has published textbooks and articles in the area of curriculum design and development, on
writing and reading, on idiomaticity, on technology-based language instruction, and on interactive games
and game approaches. He is an active member of several national and international learned societies and
has participated as PI on several multimillion dollar funded projects. Since 2008 he has served as Vice
President of APAMALL, the Asian-Pacific Association for Multimedia Assisted Language Learning, and
as an International Board Member of the Book Publications Committee for TESOL—Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages, Inc., A Global Education Association, which he now chairs since November
2010.
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