Denis Samburskiy

Denis Samburskiy is an Associate Teaching Professor in the English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program at Syracuse University, within the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. He specializes in teaching ESL/EFL and holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from SUNY Albany (2015), an M.S. in TESOL (2009), and a B.S. in Linguistics from Tomsk State University (2004). His research focuses on second language writing, figurative language comprehension, and corpus linguistics, with recent work exploring dual-coding techniques for idiom interpretation and teaching assistants’ roles in simulated academic settings. He received the 2021 Teaching Innovation Award for his contributions to language education.

Education:

• Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, SUNY Albany (2015)
• M.S., TESOL, SUNY Albany (2009)
• B.S., Linguistics (English) & Cross-Cultural Communication, Tomsk State University (2004)

Research Highlights: Combines corpus linguistic methods with ESL pedagogy to enhance second language learners’ proficiency in academic writing and figurative language use. Recent publications address practical instructional techniques for improving idiom comprehension and collaborative learning strategies in university settings.

Teaching & Service:

• Teaches courses like ENL 211 (Composition for Non-native Speakers), ENL 615 (Presentation Skills), and IST 678 (Communication for Information Professionals)
• Serves as Convener of the Language Instruction Committee (2024–2025) and member of Promotion Committees

Future Work: Expanding research on speech recognition technology for pronunciation improvement and integrating AI tools into language pedagogy.