Visiting Scholars

CELC Visiting Scholars Programme

The aim of the CELC Visiting Scholars Programme is to create opportunities for CELC academic staff members to work with various scholars on research areas where the Centre hopes to develop or create a niche. In addition, the presence and interaction with Visiting Scholars will further enhance the experience of CELC colleagues and enrich the intellectual life of the Centre.

There are two schemes under the Visiting Scholars Programme. They are (a) the Visiting Scholar scheme and (b) the Visiting Fellow sch eme.


Visiting Scholar Scheme

The objective of this scheme is to engage established and distinguished scholars to provide consultative service to the Centre or to engage in collaborative research with academic staff members.

Visiting Scholars are engaged by invitation only. They should have a faculty appointment at their respective home institutions. Additionally, they should be established scholars with internationally recognized expertise in specific area(s) related to English Language Teaching.

The number of campus visits within a year varies from one to three and may include structured or scheduled online consultation sessions with CELC academic staff members. The duration of each visit ranges from 5 days to 12 days.

Visiting Scholars are provided with the following financial assistance:

  • Return airfare via the most direct and economical route (for each visit)
  • Accommodation at the NUS Visitors’ Lodge or a 4-star hotel
  • Daily stipend or honorarium (to be proposed on a case-by-case basis)

Visiting Fellow scheme

The objective of this scheme is to provide opportunities for young scholars who are at the beginning of their academic career to be attached to the Centre for either one semester or an academic year. Visiting Fellows must have demonstrated potential for research in a specific interest area or direction that aligns with one of the key research areas of the Centre.

Visiting Fellows must be attached to one or two CELC academic staff members who share the similar interest. They must assist the CELC academic staff members in a research project approved by the Centre. Specific outcomes of the research (such as publications, presentations, grant applications) may be negotiated and established between Visiting Fellows and the respective CELC staff members.

Visiting Fellows may also teach one module per semester if they wish to develop their teaching portfolio. Visiting Fellows are provided with a monthly allowance of S$2,500 to S$3,000.

Interested applicants must submit the following documents to the Director:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • List of publications and conference presentations
  • A proposal on research work to be undertaken with CELC academic staff members
  • Expected research outcomes and potential contributions to CELC

Please forward the application to
The Director
Centre for English Language Communication
National University of Singapore
10 Architecture Drive
117511 Singapore
Email: elcbox1@nus.edu.sg

CELC Visiting Scholar AY11/12


Professor George Engelhard, Jr. Ph.D.

Emory University

Dr. George Engelhard, Jr. is a professor of educational measurement and policy, as well as Director of Graduates Studies in the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University (1985 to present). Professor Engelhard received his Ph.D. from The University of Chicago in measurement evaluation and statistical analysis where he studied with Professors Benjamin Bloom and Benjamin Wright.

His research has focused on a variety of topics including the role of assessment in improving educational processes, Rasch measurement theory from the perspective of invariant measurement, rater-mediated assessments, history of measurement theory, and the assessment of written composition. Professor Engelhard is co-editor of four books, and the author or co-author of over 125 journal articles, book chapters, and monographs. He serves on several national technical advisory committees in the United States on educational measurement and policy including Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington. He is a past President of the Georgia Educational Research Association (1992-93).

He has received numerous awards and fellowships including a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Fellowship Award, a Lilly Post-Doctoral Teaching Award, and a Writing Across the Curriculum Project Award. He is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, and an associate editor of Applied Measurement in Education. Currently, he is completing a book entitled: Invariant measurement: Using Rasch models in the social, behavioral, and health sciences (New York: Routledge).


Dr. Priyanvada Abeywickrama

Email: abeywick@sfsu.edu

Dr Priyanvada (Priya) Abeywickrama visited CELC from 9 Jan to 13 Jan 2012. Dr Priya had been consulting with the oral communicative competency test committee on the design of the test, descriptors, analyses of the pilot test results and other areas concerning the test. This was her first face-to-face meeting/discussion with the committee and colleagues who were involved in the pilot test (as raters). Dr Priya was in CELC for three days, from 9 Jan to 11 Jan 2012.

Priyanvada (Priya) Abeywickrama received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics/TESL from Iowa State University and her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

A native of Sri Lanka, Professor Abeywickrama began as an ESL instructor at the University of Colombo, where she was involved in teaching, curriculum development and materials design. She has taught college level writing both in Sri Lanka and in the U.S. In addition, she has taught TESL methods and language assessment in a variety of contexts, including in the MATESOL program at California State University, Los Angeles, and for the U.S. State Department sponsored Uzbek Teacher Training Program.

Professor Abeywickrama’s research combines her interests in language assessment with issues in second language literacy. A secondary area of her research is discourse analysis in codeswitching. She frequently presents her research at the annual conferences of International TESOL, the American Association for Applied Linguistics, and the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC).

Professor Abeywickrama is co-editor of TESOL’s Applied Linguistics Interest Section forum and is co-author with H. D. Brown of Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices (2nd ed.) In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, and traveling.