Professional Bio

Dr. Jacob Rieker is a language teacher educator and researcher. He has taught English for Specific Purposes in a variety of multilingual settings (e.g., English for English-Medium Instruction Faculty, English for International Teaching Assistants, Hospitality English, English for Academic Purposes) as well as graduate courses in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teacher Education (e.g., Qualitative Research Methods, ESL Methods, Theory and Research in Language Teacher Education). Running throughout his work is a commitment to the development and implementation of responsive, context-sensitive pedagogy. Dr. Rieker’s research interests include language teacher education, second language pedagogy, and English for Specific Purposes, with an emphasis on faculty development in English-Medium Instruction contexts. In both his pedagogy and publications, he engages Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory to promote teacher development. His work in these areas has appeared in venues including Second Language Teacher Education, Language and Sociocultural Theory, TESL-EJ, and Advances in Health Sciences Education.

Select Recent Publications

Rieker, J., & Johnson, K. E. (2023). Dialogic restorying: A novel methodology for provoking second language teacher development across the career span. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 27(2). https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.27106s5.

Diaz, B., Rieker, J., & Ng, S. (2023). Teaching critical reflection in health professions education with Transformative-Vygotskian Praxis. Advances in Health Sciences Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-023-10209-y.

Rieker, J. (2022). Escaping the “Mimicking circle” in the teaching practicum: The role of imitation in promoting language teacher identity development. Language and Sociocultural Theory, 9(1), 69–90. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.21966.

Rieker, J. (2022). Making microteaching matter: A playful Vygotskian reconceptualization. Second Language Teacher Education, 1(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1558/slte.20306.

Rieker, J. (2020). Moving toward embodiment in language teacher education: A Vygotskian sociocultural perspective. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 9(2), 173–188.