Ben McMurry

President Elect

Ben McMurry is the Administrative Coordinate of the Intensive English Program at Brigham Young University.  He has taught and administered in Intensive English programs at various institutions over the past two decades. As the Administrative Coordinator at the English Language Center he overseas curriculum, assessment, evaluation, teacher training, and institutional research. He has an affinity for materials development and working with teams to create meaningful learning experiences for students. His research interests include materials development, the psychology of language learning, and program administration. He is currently working with graduate students pursuing theses that involve the psychology of language learning, including positive Psychology.

Sarah Mercer

Past President, Founding JPLL Editor, Conference Officer

"Sarah Mercer is the Head of the ELT Research and Methodology unit at the University of Graz. She is interested in all aspects of language learning psychology, in particular self-related constructs, motivation, affect, agency, attributions, mindsets and belief systems. In her research, she prefers to employ qualitatively-oriented approaches.

Currently, she is engaged in considering aspects of language learner psychology through a complexity lens and exploring a diverse range of methodological approaches for this purpose. Furthermore, she is currently working on projects in the areas of language teacher psychology, socio-emotional intelligences, and mindests.

Some of Sarah’s recent publications in the field of Langugage Learning Psychology include Exploring Psychology in Language Learning and Teaching (co-authored with Marion Williams and Stephen Ryan),  Positive Psychology in SLA (co-edited with Peter MacIntyre and Tammy Gregersen), and Multiple Perspectives of the Self in SLA (co-edited with Marion Williams), and Language Teacher Psychology (co-edited with Achilleas Kostoulas). Sarah is also a series editor of Multilingual Matter’s Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching series alongside Stephen Ryan.

Peter MacIntyre

Past President, Scholarships and Awards Committee, Bylaws

Peter D. MacIntyre is a professor of psychology at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.  Peter received his undergraduate degree from that institution before attending the University of Western Ontario (Ph.D., 1992) under the supervision of R. C. Gardner.  From 1992-1994 he held a position as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Ottawa, working with Richard Clément and Kimberly Noels.  Peter has published almost 100 journal articles and chapters primarily in the area of psychological processes in second language learning and communication, including studies of anxiety, motivation, and willingness to communicate.  He is co-author or co-editor of several books related to the psychology of language learning. 

Jean-Marc Dewaele

Past President

Jean-Marc Dewaele is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London. He is particularly interested in the psychological and emotional aspects of foreign language learning and teaching. He has published over 350 papers and chapters. He has also (co-)edited and (co-)authored ten books and five special issues. He is the author of a monograph Emotions in Multiple Languages in 2010 (2nd ed. in 2013). He co-authored Questionnaires in Second Language Research (3rdedition in 2023) with Zoltan Dörnyei. 

He is President of the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning (IAPLL) (2022-). Previously, he was President of the International Association of Multilingualism and of the European Second Language Association. He is currently editor of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. He won the Equality and Diversity Research Award (2013) from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the Robert C. Gardner Award for Outstanding Research in Bilingualism (2016) from the International Association of Language and Social Psychology and he recently received the Distinguished Scholar Award (2022) from the European Second Language Association.

Additional information about Jean-Marc’s research and publications can be found in his homepage https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/8005186/jean-marc-dewaele or https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Marc-Dewaele

Meagan Driver

Treasurer

Bio

Christine Muir

Secretary

Christine Muir (Ph.D. University of Nottingham, 2016) is an Assistant Professor in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her Ph.D. thesis won the American Association for Applied Linguistics/AAAL’s Dissertation Award in 2018, and her research since has continued to be rooted in the broad field of language learning psychology. Christine has specific interests in language learner motivation and teacher wellbeing and is active in collaborations with international partners across varied projects in both these areas. Christine is a member of the Editorial Board for The Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning.

Dino Dumančić

Co-Secretary

Dino Dumančić is Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies, University of Zadar, Croatia. He has taught English at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. His research focuses on the psychology of language teaching, particularly the interplay between language teacher motivation, emotions, and emotion regulation. His work has examined L2 teachers’ emotional experiences, boredom, well-being, coping, and emotional literacy, with a broader interest in the affective and motivational dimensions of teachers’ professional lives. His doctoral research, completed at the University of Zagreb in 2021, explored the role of emotions and emotion regulation in second language teacher motivation.

Elouise Botes

Newsletter Editor

Elouise Botes is a post-doctoral researcher in Psychology at the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Previously, she was employed as a post-doc at the University of Vienna, Austria from 2021-2023. She has lectured in the Master’s of Educational Psychology programmes at the University of Vienna and in Psychology programmes at the University of Luxembourg. She graduated with my PhD in Psychology from the University of Luxembourg in June 2021. She is an inter-disciplinary researcher examining the role of individual differences in language learning, using concepts from both psychology and applied linguistics in her work. She was recently awarded with the Early Career Researcher Award from the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning and is currently on the editorial board for the Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development.

Pia Resnik

Newsletter Editor

Pia Resnik is Professor of ELT Research and Methodology at the University College of Teacher Education, Vienna|Lower Austria and teaches courses in educational linguistics at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include all aspects surrounding multi-competent LX users of English, with a particular focus on emotions in multilingual contexts and the psychology of language learning and teaching. She has written and co-authored several publications in these areas, including the book Multilinguals’ verbalisation and perception of emotions published by Multilingual Matters. 

Carlos Murillo

Communications and Social Media Officer, Student Representative, Associate Editor

Carlos Murillo-Miranda is currently a PhD student at the ELT Research and Methodology section at the University of Graz and is working on his dissertation entitled "An ecological perspective on Costa Rican EFL teachers' identities and wellbeing". His research interests include all aspects of the psychology of language learning and teaching, particularly language learners' and teachers' well-being and emotions.

Lorena Gadella Kamstra

Communications and Social Media Officer

Lorena S. Gadella Kamstra is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK, where she has been based since 2023. Her research addresses language teacher psychology, focusing particularly on teacher motivation and (de)motivation, and how pre-service teacher education prepares teachers for in-service practice. She has a growing research interest in understanding how student teachers perceive and engage with generative AI tools in language teaching pedagogy. Her methodological work on reflexive and participatory approaches to qualitative inquiry has been published in Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching and the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. She holds a PhD in English Language Teaching from the University of Essex (2020) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018). Her research has been supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Council (English Language Teaching Research Award), and YERUN Research Mobility Awards.

Sachiko Nakamura

SIG Coordinator, Bylaws, JPLL Editor-in-Chief

Sachiko Nakamura is Assistant Professor at the Center for English as a Lingua Franca at Tamagawa University, Tokyo, Japan. She received her Doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics from King Mongkut’s University in Thailand in 2021. Her research primarily focuses on language learner emotions and engagement, which has been published in journals such as Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching and Studies in Second Language Acquisition. She has been invited to co-edit a book, Innovation in language teaching: The case of Japan, published by Palgrave Macmillan, and to contribute chapters for edited books, including the Routledge handbook of the psychology of language learning and teaching and Student engagement in the language classroom by Multilingual Matters. Apart from her own work, she volunteers as a proofreader, reviewer, and content editor for international refereed journals.

Merilyn Meristo

PLL7 Conference Chair

Merilyn Meristo is an Associate Professor of French Studies at Tallinn University and the Head of the Foreign Language Teacher Master's Programme. Her doctoral research focused on teachers' motivation, sense of school climate, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction, primarily framed by Self-Determination Theory. Over the past 10 years, she has expanded her research to include language learners' and language teachers' contexts, as well as foreign and second language acquisition. Her recently completed research grant explored the history of foreign language teaching in Estonia before, during, and after the Soviet occupation. As a teacher educator, she has supported language teachers' professional development and taught research seminars for university students in Sri Lanka for years.

Polina Kordik

Student Representative

Bio

Eduardo Castro

Student Representative

Eduardo Castro is a doctoral researcher in Applied Linguistics at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research interests include the psychology of language learning and teaching, particularly emotions, emotional labour, emotional literacy, critical emotional reflexivity, qualitative research methods, and ethics. He has international experience as a language teacher, teacher educator, and learning advisor in Brazil, Japan, and Finland. His work has been published in journals such as System, AILA Review, and Language Teaching Research, and he served as an associate editor of the Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal (2024–2025).

Fruzsina Szabó

Awards and Scholarship Coordinator

Bio

Sara Jaaksola

Regional Events Coordinator

Sara Jaaksola is a doctoral researcher in Educational Sciences at the University of Turku and a predoctoral researcher on a FWF (Austrian Science Fund) funded project at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Graz. Her research interests incude all aspects of the psychology of language learning and teaching, with a special interest in motivation, self-concepts and wellbeing, as well as qualitative longitudinal research. Sara also taught Mandarin Chinese in China for over 10 years.

Giulia Sulis

JPLL Editor-in-Chief

Giulia Sulis is an independent researcher and Co-Editor-in-Chief of JPLL. She recently led a large-scale project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), serving as Principal Investigator and as Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Graz, Austria.

Previously, she has also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher on another FWF-funded project on language teacher wellbeing, led by Prof. Sarah Mercer. She has taught a range of teacher training and undergraduate courses at the University of Graz, Austria and Lancaster University, UK, where she also earned her PhD in Linguistics. Before that, she completed a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and worked as an English language tutor in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, France.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of psychology and language education, with a particular focus on language learning engagement, multilingualism, and wellbeing in language education. She has authored several publications in these areas, including a monograph on language teacher wellbeing co-authored with her colleagues at the University of Graz.

Julia Goetze

Editor-in-Chief

Julia Goetze is an Assistant Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. She holds a PhD from Georgetown University, and her empirical research focuses on language teacher psychologies, with a special focus on emotions, beliefs, and well-being. Conceptually and methodologically, Julia is interested in the construct of situation-specificity, including its theoretical definition and operationalization in applied research. She has published in the Modern Language Journal, the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, and Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, among others. Her work has been awarded a Research Priorities Grant by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

María Matilde Olivero

Editor-in-Chief

María Matilde Olivero is an Assistant Professor of TESOL at the Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Argentina. She holds a PhD in Second Language Acquisition from the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on affective factors, teacher wellbeing, and peace education in language teaching. She has co-edited Peacebuilding in Language Education: Innovations in Theory and Practice and is currently co-editing English Language Teacher Wellbeing: Voices from Latin America, both for Multilingual Matters. Her awards include a Fulbright Scholarship for doctoral studies in the United States and a Coimbra Group Scholarship for research at the University of Graz in Austria.

Nicholas Marx

Associate Editor

Nicholas Marx is a Lecturer in the Department of Global Englishes at Kanazawa Seiryo University in Kanazawa, Japan. Additionally, he is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Leicester, U.K. He has over a decade of experience in language education in Japan, mostly at the tertiary level, and currently is an instructor of undergraduate SLA and EAP courses. His current research interests center on learner emotions during group interactions in the language classroom.