Hoa Le
Dr. Hoa Le (Lê T. Vinh Hoa) is an applied linguist, language instructor, and teacher educator. Her research interests include Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), second language acquisition, teacher education, technology-mediated language learning, and heritage language education. Her scholarship has been published in peer-reviewed journals in applied linguistics and language education. She is the founding co-editor of the Harvard Asia Center Journal of Southeast Asian and Diaspora Language Education (HACJ-SEDLE).
As an instructor, she enjoys designing innovative courses and materials that respond to students’ diverse backgrounds, interests, and real-world goals. Her student-centered, task-based approach emphasizes “learning by doing”: students use Vietnamese to communicate, collaborate, solve problems, explore culture and identity, and complete meaningful tasks that extend beyond the classroom. She strives to create a welcoming environment where students at different proficiency levels—including heritage and non-heritage learners—feel comfortable participating, taking risks, and learning from one another.
Her courses also connect language study with students’ academic, professional, and personal interests. Through projects, cultural programming, and experiential learning, students encounter Vietnamese not simply as a language to study, but as a way to engage with people, communities, and perspectives they might not otherwise encounter. She regularly organizes cultural events and interdisciplinary collaborations that give students opportunities to use Vietnamese while exploring contemporary culture, history, art, and the Vietnamese diaspora. In 2026, she received the Anya Bernstein Bassett Award for Excellence in Teaching in Harvard College.
Dr. Le is also a teacher educator and regularly leads workshops and professional development for language instructors on research-informed pedagogy and materials development.
She received her PhD and MA in Second Language Studies, with a focus on Vietnamese language pedagogy, from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She earned her BS in Applied Chemistry, with a minor in English Language and Literature, from Kyungpook National University in South Korea.
Selected Publications
Le, H. T. V. (2026). Effective tasks for novice-level Vietnamese language class: Implementation and evaluation. In T. Phan &A. Sakach (Eds.), Research and teaching Vietnamese as a second language: A global perspective (pp. 163-187). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-6778-2_6
Ha T. T. Nguyen, & Le, H. T. V. (2026). Tổ chức chuỗi hội thoại. [The organization of sequences of talk]. In Nguyen, t-H., Nguyen, T. B. N., Nguyen, T. T. M., Tran, T. P. L., & Nguyen, V. H. (Eds.) Dẫn nhập phân tích hội thoại và áp dụng vào tiếng Việt. [An introduction to Conversation Analysis with applications to Vietnamese] (pp.160-197). Vietnam Education Publishing House.
Le, H. T. V., Kunkel, M., Truong, C., Tran, K.-Q., & Le, H. T. (in press). Collaborative action research on ARC: Insights on teachers’ practices. In K. Englander, M. Arake, J. McGaughey, J. Mason-Goodall, & T. Seburn (Eds.), Academic reading circles: Theory, practice and collaborative pedagogies. Multilingual Matters.
Le, H. T. V., & Ziegler, N. (2025). Online task-based curriculum for teaching Vietnamese: Insights from action research. CALICO Journal, 42(3), 437-471. https://doi.org/10.3138/calico-2025-0025
Le, H. T. V., & Ziegler, N. (2025).Technology-mediated TBLT and language development for beginning learners of Vietnamese. Language Learning & Technology, 29(2), 44–75. https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73611
Le, H. T. V. (2021). Exploring L2 learners’ task-related identities in a reading circle task through conversation analysis. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 159–186. https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2021.31343