Education

• PhD, Linguistics, University of Alberta

Biography

Dr. Derwing taught in the TESL area in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta from 1990-2014.  Her research grew out of teaching experiences with adult Vietnamese students learning English.  Although many had a strong grasp of grammar and vocabulary, most struggled with intelligibility.  She started teaching a stand-alone pronunciation course, and simultaneously developed a lifelong interest on issues of L2 pronunciation – intelligibility, comprehensibility, accent, and fluency.  Dr. Derwing met another another teacher at the same institution - Murray Munro - who became a colleague, a friend, a co-investigator, and a co-author.  They continue to work together and are currently writing a book entitled Pronunciation Fundamentals: Evidence-based Perspectives for L2 Teaching and Research.