Sonja Haakonsen
Graduate Language Specialist
232 Sparks Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802
Biography:
Sonja Haakonsen is a third-year PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics. With an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Boston, she has spent the past 8 years working in various roles in education. Most relevant to her work in EPPIC is her time spent teaching English and academic writing at the postsecondary level, both in a U.S. community college in Buffalo, New York and at Veliko Tarnovo University in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria as a Fulbright grantee, where she taught classes on English academic writing, morphology, lexicology, and English oral communication for professional contexts.
Research Interests:
Her research interests include EAP and language assessment, English for specific purposes (ESP), and language socialization. Drawing from her experiences working in medical education at a pharmacy school, Sonja researches the intersection between language socialization and change, medical education, and simulation as a mechanism of instruction. An avid language learner, she speaks English, Bulgarian, some Norwegian and French, and is currently studying Russian. She looks forward to working with the talented scholars and professionals that make up Penn State’s international community and providing support for scholars to confidently communicate their research with a diverse audience.