Description of Research Expertise

Areas of Expertise

TESOL methodology
TESOL curriculum design
Sociolinguistics

Professional Biography

Dr. Micheau has been teaching courses and supervising practicum students in TESOL methodology, curriculum design, sociolinguistics, and linguistics in Penn GSE’s summer program since 1987. From 1993 to 1995, she taught full time in the Language in Education Division, where she helped coordinate the first Project T.E.A.M. for Philadelphia teachers of second language and content. She began her career in 1973 as a middle- and high-school teacher of German, first in the York Suburban School District in York, Pennsylvania, and then at the Frankfurt International School in Oberursel, Germany, where she taught German as a Second Language to K-12 students from more than 30 countries.

While pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh, she began teaching English as a Second Language to international graduate students in the Intensive English Program. She has taught ESL in the Philadelphia area and abroad to Latino elders in Project L.E.I.F. (Learning English through Intergenerational Friendship); to international social workers and medical professionals; to Slovak business people, Polish English majors, and Hungarian teachers; to intensive English and MBA students; and to middle school students in the Upper Merion Area School District.

From 1990 to 2006, she was associate professor of English/TESOL at West Chester University, where she coordinated the program from 1996 to 2002. She has provided in-service teacher development in many local school districts and intermediate units, and at Penn, Drexel, and West Chester Universities and in two video conferences for ESL teachers broadcast by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has participated in the writing and evaluation of Pennsylvania state standards and ESL assessments and has collaborated with local school districts in the creation and adaptation of ESL curricula. Dr. Micheau has provided workshops for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and, most recently, Chile, where she helped initiate a new master’s in TEFL program at the Universidad de Tarapacá in Arica. She collaborated with the Lauder Institute and Dr. Teresa Pica to design and teach in the Lauder/CIBER Program for Teachers on Teaching Second Language for Business Purposes. She is a member of the English Language Learner Task Force, a statewide organization that seeks to advise and lobby for reform in the education of non-English-speaking students in Pennsylvania public schools.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Micheau is interested in every aspect of the design and implementation of ESL curriculum and standards, especially teachers’ roles in that process. In addition, she and her graduate students have cooperated with teachers in the field by e-mail exchanges, videotaped lessons, and interviews to understand practicing teachers’ perspectives on methodology and best practices. As a former foreign language teacher, Dr. Micheau is also interested in developing cooperative projects in teaching methodology between teachers in the fields of foreign language/EFL and TESOL. Another goal is to investigate international graduate students’ approaches to improving their academic writing through a writing workshop.