USC.edu

Peyman Nojoumian

Professor (Teaching) of Persian
Peyman Nojoumian
Email nojoumia@usc.edu Office THH 256J Office Phone (213) 740-2310

Research & Practice Areas

Teaching Persian Language and Culture, Corpus Linguistics, Iranian Studies, Classic and Modern Persian Literature

Video

Biography

Peyman Nojoumian is currently Professor (Teaching) of Persian in the Department of Middle East Studies at University of Southern California. He got his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Ottawa, Canada and two masters; one in Speech & Language Technology from K.U.Leuven, Belgium and one in Teaching Persian as a Foreign Language from Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran. He is experienced in developing instructional materials and instructional technology for world languages. He has published Persian Learner set (4 volumes). Dr. Nojoumian has recently developed a free smartphone App called Persian Learner’s Dictionary for elementary Persian learners. The online dictionary features more than 9000 basic vocabulary items with corresponding pictures, phonetic transcriptions, pronunciations, part of speech tags, and authentic examples in written and spoken Persian. Dr. Nojoumian is a certified ACTFL OPI and ILR tester, mentor and workshop trainer (both in English and Persian).

Education

  • Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Ottawa, 7/2011
  • M.S. Speech and Language Technology, KULeuven, 2002
  • M.A. Teaching Persian as a Foreign Language, Allameh Tabatabai, 1997

  • Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Persian, University of Southern California, 2011-2017
    • Associate Professor (Teaching) of Persian, USC, 2018-04-

    Visiting and Temporary Appointments

    • Persian Lecturer & Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008 – 2011
    • Persian Lecturer, University of Maryland, 2006 – 2008

    Other Employment

    • Associate Director, Summer Institute for the Languages of the Muslim World (SILMW), Spring 2011

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    My research interest covers two broader areas of language pedagogy and linguistics. In the former, it
    focuses on the development of instructional materials for foreign or second language. I employ a
    communicative task-based language teaching approach in developing instructional materials and utilize
    e-learning technology for its implementation. I also develop Language for Specific Purposes (LSP)
    content-based materials to teach Persian modern and classic literature, Iranian economy, politics,
    international relations, religions, media and cinema. In the latter, I study the processing of language
    orthography especially morphological analysis and automatic diacritization of languages with ambiguous
    scripts (discovering and inserting absent vowels in orthography). In my Ph.D. thesis, I developed an
    automatic diacritizer for the Persian orthography. This application was able to diacritize and tag a Persian
    text corpus to be used for developing reading and spelling apps for Persian language learners. I am also
    interested and capable of developing research in the area of Persian Studies & Iranian Studies.

    Research Keywords

    Persian, Persian Literature, Computational Linguistics, Teaching Persian as a Foreign Language, Task-based Language Teaching, Heritage and Non-heritage Language Learning, Iranian Studies

    Research Specialties

    Teaching Persian Language and Culture, Corpus Linguistics, Iranian Studies, Classic and Modern Persian Literature

  • Contracts and Grants Awarded

    • Business Persian for Intermediate Learners, (CIBER), Peyman Nojoumian, $2,500, Spring 2011
    • CSAMES on-line Persian, (CSAMES), Peyman Nojoumian, $5,000, Fall 2010

    USC Funding

    • Faculty Development Grant. Instructional Materials Development, Conferences: Instructional Materials Development based on Task-based Language Teaching principles.Presenting papers at several conferences., $6000, 2014 – 2020
    • Center for Scholary Technology. Multimedia Course Development: Developed multimedia resources and assignments for a CST project., $5000, 2013-2014

  • Conference Presentations

    • Instructional Technology, Creative Strategies , 12 Biennial Iranian StudiesTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies, 2018-2019
    • Developing Online Narration & Role-Play Tasks Based on TBLT: A Hands-on Example from Persian , American Association of Teachers of Persian, MESA ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Washington DC, Fall 2014
    • Instructional Materials Development based on Task-based Language Teaching Principles for Persian , 10th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, International Society for Iranian StudiesTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Montreal, Canada, Fall 2014
    • Business Language Course Development based on Task-based Language Teaching Principles for Less Commonly Taught Languages , CIBER Business Language ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, CIBER, Invited, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Spring 2013
    • Instructional Material Development based on Principles of TBLT Keynote Lecture, Invited, Ghazvin International University, Fall 2011
    • Morphological Priming of Multi-morphemic Persian Words in Mental Lexicon , Workshop on Computer and Persian LanguageTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Tehran University, Spring 2006
    • Modeling Persian Language Syntax and Morphology in LingBench IDE , The 4th European Speech and Language Technology ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Catalonia Polytechnic University, Spring 2003

    Other Presentations

    • Teaching Persian in the 21st Century, Two-day Workshop for Persian Teachers, Los Angeles, 2015-2016
    • Rapid Online Assignment Development (ROAD), USC Center for Teaching Excellence, Los Angeles, 2014-2015
    • Teaching Persian to Third Generation of Iranian Heritage Speakers & Retaining Persian in First Generation of Iranians in Diaspora, Academy of Persian Physicians Cultural Event, Los Angeles, 2013-2014
    • Creative Classroom Strategies, Tools from Language Instruction, Center for Scholarly Technologies, Los Angeles, 2012-2013
    • The Evolution of the Persian Language, Iranian Cultural Talk, USC – TTC 450, 2011-2012
    • Developing standards to identify level-appropriate reading materials
    • Developed language corpora of language learners writing samples

  • Book

    • Nojoumian, P. (2018). Persian Learner Part Four, Advanced Persian for College Students. (Vol. 4) California: UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies. Amazon
    • Nojoumian, P. (2017). Persian Learner Part Three: Intermediate Persian for College Students. (Vol. 3) California: UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies. Amazon
    • Nojoumian, P. (2017). Persian Learner Part One: Elementary Persian for College Students. (Vol. 1) California: UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies. Amazon
    • Nojoumian, P. (2017). Persian Learner Part Two: Elementary Persian for College Students. (Vol. 2) California: UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies. Amazon

    Book Chapters

    • Nojoumian, P. (2020). “Using technology to develop instructional materials for Persian based on task-based language teaching.” The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy of Persian, edited by Shabani-Jadidi, P. pp. 370-387. London. Routledge

    Research Report

    • Nojoumian, P.Processing Phonological and Semantic Ambiguity, Disambiguation of Heterophonic & Homophonic Homographs in Persian Using Semantic Priming. Linguistics Department.

    Proceedings

    • Nojoumian, P., Shabani Jadidi, P., Tangestanifar, A. (2006). Morphological Priming of Multi-morphemic Persian Words in Mental Lexicon. pp. 28-38. Tehran University Press. Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Computer and Persian Language.
    • Business Persian, Department of Middle East Studies, 2019-2020
    • WebApp, Persian Learner’s Dictionary is a free online WebApp photo dictionary designed for Persian Learners., 2012 – 2020
    • Onlien assignemnts and tests developed using Blackboard and Hot Potatoes technology, 2016 – 2020
    • Developed online projects for students using PIXTON technology, 2013 – 2020
    • Houtan Foundation Award, 2001-2002

  • Committees

    • Member, Dornsife Appointments & Promotions Committee RTPC, 2016 – 2017
    • Member, Dornsife Faculty Committe, Spring 2015
    • Member, USC Iranian Studies Initiative Conference Committee, Spring 2015
    • Member, MESP Chair Search Committee, Fall 2013
    • Member, Arabic Faculty Search Committee, 2012-2013
    • Member, Iranian Studies Faculty Search Committee, Spring 2012
    • Member, Faculty Performance Evaluation, USC Dornsife, Fall 2011

    Review Panels

    • USC Dornsife, Faculty Promotion, 2019-2020

  • Professional Memberships

    • American Association of Teachers of Persian, 2014 –
    • International Society for Iranian Studies, 2013 –
    • Association of Professors & Scholars of Iranian Heritage, 2012 –
    • ACTFL: Certified Persian OPI & WPT Tester, Certified ACTFL Trainer (English & Persian), 2013 – 2021

    Reviewer for Publications

    • International Journal of Iranian Studies, Routledge, Reviewer, 2014 –
    • International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Applications, Elsevier, Paper reviewer for Vol 1, No. 1-2, 2010-2011
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