Su Yin Khor

I spend a lot of time painting, cooking, baking, reading cozy mysteries, gardening, and doing some form of physical activity, such as hiking, walking, and running. I also picked up knitting again! During my final years at Penn State, I took pottery classes, which were incredibly fun and something I hope to continue here in Bar Harbor. I also started making my own watercolor paint for fun, so if you ever want to chat about painting, food, cozy mysteries, and gardening, you can find me in the Writing Center, at TAB, or the red bricks with a cup of tea reading a book or doing some work in the sun. 

Before COA

My academic journey is non-traditional. In high school and as an undergrad, I worked as a chef for several years in Sweden where I grew up. The restaurant business was fast paced and physically and mentally demanding. I loved it but I knew after a while that I couldn’t do it for the rest of my life.

I grew up in a working class immigrant community, and I wanted to understand more about multilingualism and second language learning, so I returned to grad school to study TESOL and Applied Linguistics at ISU. That’s where I learned more about second language writing, writing studies, and rhetoric and composition. I pursued my doctorate at Penn State where I studied Applied Linguistics and primarily taught academic writing and literacy courses to multilingual and international students.

Course Areas

Writing/literacy education, applied linguistics, TESOL, second language learning and teaching, qualitative research methods, discourse studies, interactional analysis, multilingualism, migration

More Information about my Courses

My courses are activity and discussion based. They focus on develop practices. I create space for students to pursue what they are interested in, while critically examining various topics. A core aspect of my courses is that we examine current social issues through the lens of language and discourse. For instance, how do pervasive ideas and beliefs about “correct” English overlook the variations within the language? How do the complexities of a language shape the writing we do? These are the types of questions that are addressed in my writing/literacy courses to learn about the links between language, writing, literacy, culture, and society.

• B.A., History, Uppsala University, Sweden
• M.Ed., English and History Education, Uppsala University, Sweden
• M.A., English Studies, specialization in TESOL/Applied Linguistics, Illinois State University, USA
• Ph.D., Applied Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University, USA

My research lies in the intersection of writing, literacy, discourse studies, and multilingual/second language studies. I’m primarily trained as an applied linguist and a social scientist.  Applied linguistics is shaped by research in many other fields that deal with language and discourse, such as education, linguistic anthropology, psychology, adult literacy, migration studies, and so on. 

People tend to think that I teach creative writing, but this is not the expertise I have. Instead, my expertise lies in understanding writing education and literacy development. The types of questions that guide my work include: how do people learn how to write? What do people’s literacy practices look like and how might these evolve and shift as they learn another language? In what ways does someone’s life experiences shape their language and literacy learning? What social, cultural, political, and historical factors shape how we use language (and writing)? 

As a social scientist, I’m specifically trained as a qualitative researcher. I analyze written, spoken, and multimodal discourse. I have primarily used interviews and observations to collect data when conducting research, but I have explored other methods, such as autoethnography. My most recent research project examined how (im)migrant women learned how to write and develop their literacy in a community-based English literacy program. Other projects I’ve worked on address multimodality and classroom discourse. I have also done work in Conversation Analysis (CA) and specifically examined the organization of talk in classroom discourse. 

In my work, language, writing, and literacy are oriented to as a social practice and social action. This means that language is not merely a tool for communication, i.e., sharing information, but to accomplish actions. For instance, when having dinner, asking someone if they “can pass the salt?” doesn’t typically ask for their ability to do it, rather, it asks them to bring the salt to you so you can use it. That’s an action. Briefly put, then, my work focuses on the role of language and literacy and what we do with them in various everyday, academic, and professional contexts, as well as how people learn and teach language and literacy.

I was recently joined the Academic Advisory Board for Hancock County Technical Center (HCTC). As a member, I provide resources and support for the writing and literacy components of the academic program. I’ve been a member since September 2025. 

Special Issues
Sánchez-Martín, C, & Khor, S.Y. (2024). Surviving, thriving, and resisting: Reimagining the ordinary lives of TESOLers. TESOL Journal (15)S1, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.853

Journal articles, peer-reviewed
Khor, S. Y. (In preparation). Developing rhetorically savvy writers: (Im)migrant women’s literacy learning through genre-based instruction in a community-based English program. 

Wang, T., He, Y., Liu, S., Wang, Y., Hall, J.K., & Khor, S.Y. (2025). Building affiliation in the L2 classroom: The role of side sequences. Classroom Discourse.

Khor, S. Y., & Canagarajah, S. (2024). (Im)migrant women’s translingual literacy practices as problem-solving and learning resources: Perspectives from a community-based English literacy program. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.235270

Hall, J. K., Wang, T., & Khor, S. Y. (2020). The links between the linguistic designs of L2 teacher questions and the student responses they engender. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 8(3), 25-40.

Books
Hall, J. K., He, Y., & Khor, S.Y. (2023). The practical nature of L2 teaching: A conversation analytic perspective. Routledge.

Book chapters
Khor, S. Y., & Sánchez-Martín, C. (2024). Redefining leadership in TESOL through multimodal collaborative autoethnographic inquiry: Perspectives from transnational women. In D. Rashed & D. Suarez. Female leadership identity in English language teaching: Autoethnographies of global perspectives. Brill.

Khor, S. Y., Sánchez-Martín, C., Seloni, L., Rahman, M., & Yigitbilek, D. (2024). Multilingual writing teacher identities and institutional ecologies: A collaborative narrative inquiry. In M. Tseptsura & T. Ruecker (Eds.), Nonnative English speaking teachers of U.S. College Composition: Exploring identities and negotiating difference. The WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado.

Khor, S. Y., & Sánchez-Martín, C. (2021). Multimodality and writing for international multilingual students: Connecting theory and practice. In S. B. Pandey & S. Khadka (Eds.), Multimodal composition: Faculty development programs and institutional change. Routledge.

Other, non-reviewed articles
Khor, S.Y. (In preparation). Pineapple tarts.