Professor
Thor Sawin (Professor, TFL/TESOL programs) is a linguist, applied linguist, and teacher of English and German as a foreign language, with over seventeen years of teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Lithuania, Korea, China and the US, as well as shorter secondary-level programs in Korea, Taiwan and Albania. Thor is passionate about language learning as hospitality, balancing the cognitive and social aspects of language learning, and helping people identify and acquire the “ways of speaking” they will need to be effective cross-cultural collaborators.
At MIIS, he primarily teaches courses on linguistics (language acquisition, linguistic analysis, language and social policy, and applying technology to language learning) and on intercultural communication, and has also taught German at the Middlebury Language Schools, Middlebury College, and UC Santa Cruz.
Thor has presented research at over 50 refereed international and several regional conferences on topics within language teaching, multilingualism, and international development. His fieldwork in Eurasia focuses on language acquisition practices and policies for personnel within international organizations, and he co-organizes the International Congress on Language Learning for field learning policy makers and practitioners. Additionally, he leads workshops on applying second language acquisition, mobile technologies for language learning, field-based language learning, and creating task-based language learning materials for government organizations (such as the US Air Force and the US State Department), teaching organizations (such as Princeton University, the American Council of Hebrew Teachers), and several international development organizations.
EAPP 8394
Editing WritingCourse Description
Editing Writing is a course in structural, stylistic, and copy-editing which will help you develop the necessary tools to revise and edit your own writing. We will use short papers from this class and longer papers from your other classes to sharpen your editing skills.
Terms Taught
ICCO 8575
Peacebld/ReconciliatnInBalkansCourse Description
Terms Taught
LING 8500
Language AnalysisCourse Description
Serves as an introduction to linguistic analysis. Includes projects based on fieldwork in phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and pragmatics. Discusses importance of language awareness. Includes pedagogical strategies for consciousness-raising.
Terms Taught
LING 8530
Structure of EnglishCourse Description
Examines the syntax and discourse of modern English for ESL and EFL teaching. Spotlights practical applications for the classroom. Prerequisite: Language Analysis
Terms Taught
LING 8531
Pedagogical Grammar in FLTCourse Description
This course is designed to provide teachers of different languages with opportunities to investigate and practice pedagogical subject matter knowledge and grammar teaching strategies in the language that they teach. There will be a number of different languages represented in the class, which will afford multiple opportunities to explore, investigate, and share a variety of pedagogical perspectives and linguistic experiences.
The course will combine a focus on recent theoretical approaches to grammar (cognitive grammar, construction grammar, systemic – functional grammar) with innovative and practical approaches to teaching and learning in an authentic, action-based and interaction-rich setting.
Terms Taught
LING 8598
Directed StudyCourse Description
Terms Taught
My approach to the study of human language centers on hospitality and wonder. Language learning is the ultimate form of respect you can show a culture, and speaking to someone in their own words can be a powerful gift. I am passionate about training learners to notice, be fascinated by, and grow competence in the complex multilingual practices around them, and increasingly in the ways that technology helps learners to do so. Learning and using others’ ways of speaking is essential to any cross-cultural social engagement, and I want to help organizations support language learning more effectively with language acquisition policies and practices.
Professor Sawin has been teaching at the Institute since 2013.
| by Sierra Abukins
The language educators led workshops in the Balkans lifting up how language educators advance peacebuilding in their classrooms with support from a grant from Projects for Peace.
| by Sierra Abukins
Our TESOL and TFL graduates are working and studying all over the world. Read what our alumni and faculty have been up to lately.
| by Jessa Zerpoli
When Claire Eagle completed her degree in teaching foreign language, her dream was to teach at a school like the Middlebury Institute. Now she’s redesigning curriculum at one of the biggest language schools in the world.
