Jacob Rieker

Jacob Rieker is an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania State University within the College of Liberal Arts, Department of Applied Linguistics. His work centers on language teacher education, second language pedagogy, and English-Medium Instruction (EMI) faculty development, grounded in Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory.

• Education:
• B.A. in Linguistics and East Asian Languages (Chinese) from the University of Florida
• M.A. in TESOL from the University of Central Florida
• Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Pennsylvania State University

He has taught English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in diverse multilingual contexts, including EMI faculty development, international teaching assistant training, and hospitality English, while delivering graduate courses in qualitative research methods, ESL pedagogy, and teacher education theory. His research advocates for pedagogical practices that prioritize teacher agency and contextual responsiveness, with a focus on reconceptualizing microteaching and reflective practices through sociocultural frameworks.

Recent publications explore dialogic restorying as a professional development tool, transformative-Vygotskian praxis in health education, and the role of embodiment and imitation in teacher identity formation. These works appear in journals such as TESL-EJ, Advances in Health Sciences Education, and Language and Sociocultural Theory.