Areas of Professional Study and Interest
Dr. Nancy Tarawhiti is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. She is currently the Director of the English as an International Language (EIL) Program which is part of the Education and Social Work Faculty. She teaches courses in EIL and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the areas of second language (L2) writing, L2 reading, L2 skills integration, TESOL Methods and Principles, and Peace Linguistics. Additionally, Dr. Tarawhiti previously served as the editor for the TESL Reporter, a publication that has been in place for over 50 years, disseminated by BYUH.
Dr. Tarawhiti was born and raised in New Zealand. She attended BYU–Hawaii and received an undergraduate degree in the field of Business Administration. After several years of using her degree in various corporations in New Zealand, she made a career change to the field of TESOL. She went on to earn an MA in TESOL at BYU Provo and her MA was in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) field for Certified Nursing Assistants. At the completion of this degree, she worked at BYU Provo’s English Language Center serving on their Executive Council. She then earned a Ph.D. in Second Language (L2) Instruction with an emphasis in L2 Writing at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. Her doctoral research looked at the effect of an explicit strategy instructional approach that targeted frequently occurring writing difficulties of L2 learners in a higher academic context.
Her professional interests have included L2 Writing, the Benefits of Metacognition in L2 Writing, and Peace Linguistics. She currently manages the English Language Admissions Tests (ELAT) which is an English Language Proficiency Assessment specifically developed for BYUH international applicants.
