СӘЛЕМ!
БҰЛ СЕРІКБОЛСЫН

I am a PhD candidate in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of British Columbia. I hold a BEd in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Auezov University and an MA in Multilingual Education from Nazarbayev University.

As a critical applied linguist and TESOL educator, I intertwine my research, teaching, and service to identify, question, and transform deficit-based perspectives in education to foster intersectionally diverse EAL learners' academic and socioemotional development. 

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This commitment to socially just scholarship is shaped by my intersectional experiences as a racialized, translingual, neurodiverse EAL learner and educator with over 12 years of teaching experience in Qazaqstan and Canada.
In Qazaqstan, I taught English for general, academic, and professional purposes in English-medium universities and private language education settings. In Canada, I have been involved in teaching courses on academic English, applied linguistics, TESOL, and literacy assessment in bridge, study abroad, TESL certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs at the University of British Columbia.

Across these contexts I call home, I engage in situated, praxis-oriented projects, both individually and collaboratively. These projects explore the intersections of translanguaging among other critical multilingual pedagogies with critical pedagogy, pedagogy of discomfort and empathy, drawing on poststructuralist, antiracist, and decolonial perspectives on transsemiotic meaning-making and language education. Adopting a social, discursive constructionist lens, I use the following methodologies to design research and analyze data: case study, design-based research, collaborative inquiry, narrative inquiry, duoethnography, discourse analysis, and reflexive thematic analysis.

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My doctoral research is a multiple case study of how English language teachers develop translanguaging stance, an equitable belief system that informs their practices for supporting multilingual students in drawing on their full range of communicative resources. In particular, I explore how their belief systems are mediated by language ideologies, intersecting identities, and emotions in their learning and teaching contexts. Findings may contribute to teachers' development of asset-based beliefs and practices for better supporting all EAL learners, especially those who experience multiplied marginalization.

Some of my projects have been published in TESOL Quarterly, the Journal of Second Language Writing, and the Canadian Modern Language Review.

For professional inquiries, please contact me at serikbolsyn@duck.com