Eileen W. Glisan is professor emeritus and Distinguished University Professor of Spanish at IUP.
She retired from IUP in 2019 and was awarded Emeritus status. She received the title of Distinguished University Professor of IUP in 2000-2001. She holds a PhD in Spanish Applied Linguistics/Teaching Methodology from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2004-2005, she was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Glisan was elected to serve as president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages for 2010 and co-directed the ACTFL Research Priorities Project designed to develop and promote a national research agenda in foreign language education.
She was certified by ACTFL as an oral proficiency tester of Spanish. She also co-directed the project that created the ACTFL/NCATE Program Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers, which was approved by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education in 2002. Glisan was chair of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in 1997 and president of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association from 1992 to 1994.
Glisan’s areas of research include high-leverage practices, standards-based instruction, proficiency assessment, listening comprehension, and teacher education. She’s published numerous articles in edited books and scholarly journals such as The Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, and The Canadian Modern Language Review. She is co-author of Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction, a leading methodology text published in its fifth edition (2016) and co-author of the 2023 text, The Integrated Performance Assessment: Twenty Years and Counting, recently published in its third edition. She is lead author of volumes I and II of Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High-Leverage Teaching Practices (2017, 2021).
Glisan was the 1996 recipient of the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, given by ACTFL and the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers. She was the recipient of the 2008 Stephen A. Freeman Award given by NECTFL for the best published article on language teaching techniques that appeared in 2006: “The Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA): Connecting Assessment to Instruction and Learning,” Foreign Language Annals (co-authored). She also received the 2008 Nelson H. Brooks Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership to the Profession, given by NECTFL. In 2012, she received the Frank Mulhern Leadership Award for Outstanding Leadership in World Languages and Cultures by the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association.
In her retirement from IUP, Glisan conducts professional development workshops and engages in academic writing. She can be reached at eileenglisan@gmail.com