Michael Witten
Assistant Professor of Instruction, The Writing Program
Contact
- GSR 1.110K
- michael.witten@utsa.edu
Bio
I have spent much of my career teaching university students in an international setting, and what I continue to enjoy most about teaching is working directly with students as they develop confidence and discover what they are capable of doing. I believe good teaching means creating the conditions that give students the best possible chance to succeed, while still challenging them to become more independent thinkers, writers, and learners.
Before joining UT San Antonio, I spent nearly 30 years living and working in Mexico. That experience has shaped the way I think about language, culture, education, and the different experiences students bring with them into a classroom. I especially enjoy classes where students feel comfortable asking questions, exchanging ideas, experimenting, and occasionally getting things wrong on the way to getting them right.
Outside the classroom, I enjoy playing guitar, writing songs with my son, playing golf, building LEGO, traveling, and staying fit. I am always happy to talk with students about writing, language, education, technology, or whatever interesting problem they happen to bring through my door.
For faculty syllabi and current course schedules, please visit Simple Syllabus.
Teaching
Office Hours
- MON 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- WED 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Research Interests
- Multimodal discourse and meaning-making
- Pragmatics and digital communication
- Academic writing and literacy
- Applied linguistics and language education
- Generative AI and emerging technologies in writing and education
Degrees
- PhD in Applied Linguistics, Macquarie University, Australia
- A. in Applied Linguistics & ELT, King’s College, University of London, England
- A. in English, University of Missouri–Kansas City, USA
Presentations
A critical examination of the imperialist discourse “English as a necessity for success” and its (re)production in the Mexican context. CCERBAL, Ottawa, Canada.
Pragmatic functions of multimodal resources in WhatsApp interactions. American Association of Pragmatics, Albany, New York.
Resisting and resistance: The case of linguistic imperialism. Keynote presentation, University of Guanajuato, Mexico.
Grants, Patents and Clinical Trials
Approximately MXN $1 million in funding through PRODEP, Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), Mexico, for a multi-institutional higher-education initiative focused on curriculum innovation, faculty development, and teaching and learning reform.
Publications
SFL textual metafunction perspectives on the BUAP Code of Conduct and Ethics. Language, Context and Text, 7(2), 328–355. https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00090.jua
Illocutionary context and management allocation of emoji and other graphicons in Mexican parent-school WhatsApp communities. Journal of Pragmatics, 210, 24–35.
Textbook-whiteboard: Examining the intertextual, multimodal relations within the EFL classroom. Lenguas en Contexto, 6(1).
A comparative study of Mexican and Irish compliment responses. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 21(1).
