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(Marjorie) Wilma ParkerEmail: mparke20@gmu.edu Phone: +1 701 993 4501 Campus: Fairfax |
(Marjorie) Wilma Parker, Ph.D., is a sociolinguist who has taught ESL for 40 years. She has served as a professor at NOVA for the past 22 years, and as an adjunct instructor at GMU since 2015- with a few earlier teaching assignments at GMU dating back to 2004.
Wilma taught English in China for 7 years, in Korea for a short stint, and also served as the Sociolinguistic Coordinator for Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) across Asia from 2009-2012. Her tenure with SIL included work in Malaysia, Thailand, and across eastern Asia. She has also served as a linguistic consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), and conducted extensive teacher training in China during her years of service there.
She has presented papers at over 20 national and international conferences including TESOL, AAAL, IPrA, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators Conference, SCoP: Sociolinguistic Community of Practice, ILAC: International Language Assessment Conference, and has served as colloquium organizer and chair at several of these conferences.
She wrote several successful grant proposals for NOVA during her time as associate dean, including a Fulbright English Teaching Associates’ Pre-Departure Orientation grant that brought 100 Fulbright Scholars to NOVA for training, a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence grant that provided the college with a Chinese S-I-R, and an International ESL Teaching Fellows’ grant that brought NOVA two Indonesian scholars.
Wilma holds a Georgetown University M.A.T. in linguistics, and Ph.D. in linguistics (specialization sociolinguistics). She also took graduate courses in Chinese, and East Asian History for fun while enrolled in those GU programs. Currently, she is taking graduate courses in English to earn certification to teach English. She dreams of being able to study Chinese again one day. However, her greatest source of joy and accomplishment comes from being Stephanie’s mom.