Kenneth Ong
Assistant Professor
Director, Centre for Professional Communication
Dr. Kenneth Ong is Director of the Centre for Professional Communication and Assistant Professor. He received his Ph.D. degree in Education (Applied Linguistics) from The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer and Assistant Chair of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. He has published articles in System (Elsevier), Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (Springer), Discourse Studies (Sage), Language and Education (Routledge), English Today (Cambridge University Press), RELC Journal (Sage) and World Englishes (Wiley), as well as edited books and book chapters published by Routledge, Springer, John Benjamins, Multilingual Matters and CRC Press, Taylor and Francis. His recent coauthored book titled “Guide to Research Projects for Engineering Students: Planning, Writing and Presenting” is published by CRC Press, Taylor and Francis. His main research interests centre around technical communication, STEM communication, English for specific purposes, and computer-mediated communication.
Christopher Bedwell
Deputy Director, Centre for Professional Communication
Christopher Bedwell is the Deputy Director, Centre for Professional Communication at Singapore Institute of Technology and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He received his bachelor's degree in Physics from King's College London, and later a master's degree in English Language Teaching from Essex University. He spent the early part of his career in finance, before specialising in the Teaching of English to the Speakers of Other Languages. He has also taught general English in Japan, as well as technical English in the Middle East. His research interests are centred on materials development and the use of self-driven learning activities that can be employed inside or out of the classroom.
Lee Chien Ching
Associate Professor
ChienChing LEE is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Professional Communication. She is a life-long believer in experiential learning that involves inculcating a curious, open, and critical mindset in viewing situations from multiple perspectives, based on evidence. Her areas of interests are in technical communication, professional communication, career and professional development, technology-enhanced teaching and learning, development of micro-modules, coaching and mentoring, and strategy and self-regulation instruction. She has worked in interdisciplinary faculty project teams to deliver solutions in teaching and learning involving IT.
Chien Ching has a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. She is also an NICF-PMI Agile Certified Practitioner, and Myer-Briggs Type Certified Trainer. Chien Ching also conducts corporate training.
Radhika Jaidev
Associate Professor
Radhika Jaidev is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Professional Communication, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). She teaches academic and technical writing, as well as presentation skills to undergraduate students. She has approximately 40 years of experience in teaching English language and communication in higher education. Her previous employers include the National University of Singapore, UniSIM (now SUSS), Nanyang Polytechnic and RELC.
Her research interests include writing transfer, content and language-integrated learning through embedding and professional communication. She was part of an international team of writing researchers, investigating Writing Transfer in Work-Integrated Learning or WIL in the Writing Beyond the University writing research seminar from 2019-2021, organised by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching in North Carolina. The team has since published their findings in several platforms.
Behnam Soltani
Assistant Professor
Dr. Behnam Soltani is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Center for Professional Communication, Singapore Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Behnam taught in Iran from 1997-2010 and from 2010-2023 in New Zealand. Prior to joining Singapore Institute of Technology, Behnam taught in Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University, Otago Polytechnic, Eastern Institute of Technology, Manukau Institute of Technology, and Waikato Institute of Technology. He has published articles in TESOL Quarterly (Wiley), Linguistics and Education (Elsevier), Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (John Benjamins), Educational Linguistics (De Gruyter Mouton), Personality and Individual Differences (Elsevier), Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, and Scope. His co-authored book, Enhancing Student Education Transitions and Employability: From Theory to Practice, was published by Routledge.
He has also contributed a book chapter that was published by Springer Nature. His book reviews have appeared in Language in Society (Cambridge University Press), Discourse & Society (Sage), and Discourse Studies (Sage). Behnam has been a Senior Research Fellow at Otago Polytechnic and a Research Officer at Massey University, New Zealand. His research interests lie in areas of graduate employability, work integrated learning, language socialization, identities, the production of space, communities of practice, and assessment for learning. He uses qualitative methodologies, including ethnography and narrative inquiry, in his work. He has been a journal reviewer for TESOL Quarterly and other journals in Education and Applied Linguistics. Behnam is passionate about writing, and as a service, he has run several hundred nightly writing sessions on Clubhouse and X (formerly known as Twitter).
Lee Hwee Hoon
Assistant Professor
Hwee Hoon LEE is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Professional Communication at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Trained in Applied Linguistics, she teaches the use of language for communication, both written and oral. She has taught undergraduates and adult learners technical and professional communication, career skills, interpersonal communication, critical thinking, and presentation skills. At SIT, she also teaches foundational morphology, semantics and grammar in the Speech and Language Therapy programme.
Hwee Hoon has a doctorate in education from University of Leicester and a master in English Language teaching from University of Lancaster. Her research interests are in teaching and learning issues in higher education. She has co-written a book chapter on significant learning in a multi-modal learning environment, and published in education journals on stakeholder perspectives on teaching and teacher feedback. She is also an editor for the Arab World English Journal.
Muhammad Rahimi
Assistant Professor
Muhammad Rahimi, PhD, is currently Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Professional Communication at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). He earned his PhD in Education (Applied Linguistics & TESOL) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has two decades of experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in Iran, New Zealand, and China. His publications on language education have appeared in international journals, such as Language Teaching Research (SSCI-indexed), System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics (SSCI-indexed), Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal (SSCI-indexed), Discourse Processes (SSCI-indexed), and Reading and Writing Quarterly (SSCI-indexed).
He is a frequent reviewer to the leading international journals, including Language Teaching Research (SSCI-indexed), TESOL Quarterly (the flagship journal of TESOL, Inc., Alexandria, VA; SSCI-indexed), System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics (Elsevier Science, Oxford, UK; SSCI-indexed), and Assessing Writing (SSCI-indexed). His areas of research and teaching interests are dynamic and evolving, and span across language education, critical thinking, communication skills, assessment, and research methods.
Padma Rao
Assistant Professor
Dr. Padma Rao is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Professional Communication, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Chair of the Centre’s Communication Helpdesk. Since joining the Centre in 2016, Padma has developed and coordinated multiple modules across a number of academic clusters, including Engineering, Business, Communication and Design, and Food, Chemical and Biotechnology. These modules cover a variety of skills for SIT students, such as critical thinking and communicating, academic and technical writing, workplace and interpersonal communication, oral presentation, and career skills. Padma is also a Specialist Adult Educator (Curriculum Development) certified by the Institute of Adult Learning, Singapore. She has conducted several workshops for adult learners, both in Singapore and overseas, on teaching practices, active learning, and designing authentic assessments for the workplace.
Rosmawati
Assistant Professor
Rosmawati is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Professional Communication. As an applied linguist and educator, she is interested in and passionate about the teaching/learning, as well as the development of language and communication skills. She has more than 10 years of experience teaching in the higher education settings in several countries, including Indonesia and Australia. Her research areas align with her teaching passions and focus on the development of syntactic complexity in academic writing from the perspective of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), which she has published several journal articles and book chapters on.
Rosmawati has a PhD in education from the University of Sydney and an MA in applied linguistics from the South China University of Technology. She is a member of the American Association of Applied Linguistics and of the Australian Applied Linguistics Association. She is also a reviewer for several journals in applied linguistics.
Victor Matthew Cole
Assistant Professor
Dr. Victor Cole is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Professional Communication at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). He is an ethicist and communications educator with more than 20 years' experience in innovative curriculum development and programme leadership at the tertiary level. Throughout his career, he has sought meaningful opportunities to develop stakeholders' critical thinking and communication skills around ethical issues in a variety of professional domains (e.g., medicine, nursing, allied health, engineering and hospitality). He is committed to researching moral challenges arising from boundary-pushing technological endeavours (e.g., human enhancement and spaceflight) and is experienced in ethical board review and research ethics training. Victor is also a seasoned moderator of C-level panel discussions on innovation and entrepreneurship and of public forums on bioethics.
Brad Blackstone
Senior Lecturer
Brad Blackstone is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Professional Communication. Brad started his teaching career as a Russian language instructor while a graduate student at Ohio State University (OSU). His language focus changed when he moved to Lisbon in 1980 and began tutoring engineers for General Motors (GM) Portugal in business English. After making a pitch to the senior management, he set up a comprehensive communication program for GM. Eventually, he returned to graduate school at OSU where, armed with explicit curriculum development experience, he completed an MA in education (TESOL) while also teaching English composition. Since moving to Asia in 1985, Brad has been a founding member of English communication departments at Indiana University/MUCIA-Mara Technical Institute (Malaysia), Minnesota State University in Akita (Japan), as well as at Akita International University, and now at SIT. Brad also did an eight-year stint at the Centre for English Language Communication at the National University of Singapore. While there, he directed a professional communication module and was the chief editor of the Centre’s journal.
Brad’s research interests and publications have focused on curriculum and materials development, content and language-integrated learning and social media-based learning. Brad has also led and/or participated in numerous grant-led projects, including developing teacher training programs and mentoring educators in Japan, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand.
At CPC, Brad has been instrumental in developing and teaching the critical thinking and communicating module for a number of engineering programmes, he led SIT’s Mapletree Challenge for two years, he facilitates CAC and CET workshops in managing workplace relationships, and he oversees the CCS student ambassadors.
Erick Tan
Senior Lecturer
Erick is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Professional Communication at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Upon completing his Masters in Speech Pathology (MSpPath) from La Trobe University (Australia), Erick practiced as a Speech-Language Therapist before transitioning into education, working with patients presenting with speech, articulation, voice, and cognitive-linguistic disorders. His practice focused on neurorehabilitation, assisting patients with neurolinguistic deficits following stroke and other neurological disorders to regain their ability to communicate.
A passionate award-winning educator, Erick has been teaching at various institutes for higher learning since 2008. He currently teaches courses relating to critical thinking and communicating, and in the area of phonetics and phonology at SIT. As a part-time radio broadcaster, Erick continues to apply industry knowledge into his classroom teaching. Erick currently coordinates the Communicating Across Curriculum embedded workshops across the university’s 40 programmes.
Nazerene Ibrahim
Senior Lecturer
Nazerene Ibrahim is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Professional Communication at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Following the completion of her Masters degree in Political Science, Nazerene joined the Singapore Foreign Service as a senior officer in the diplomatic line. Her keen interest in communication skills was born during this time. The years spent there honed her communication skills and gave her insight into professional communication and behaviours. Since obtaining a CELTA certification, Nazerene has taught several tertiary-level courses in communication, critical thinking and communication, as well as academic research and writing.
An award-winning educator, Nazerene is driven to help her students gain valuable knowledge in academia, while moulding themselves as responsible and compassionate contributors to society. She continues to explore strategies that can be employed in the tertiary classroom to motivate students to excel in their studies to the best of their abilities, while developing their own character and identity. Nazerene continues to also study and note changing trends in the workplace behaviours and communication in the Asian (specifically Singaporean) workplace.