Georgia State Ph.D. Student Awarded Prestigious ETS Fellowship

ATLANTA - Georgia State University Ph.D. student Sak Lee has been awarded the prestigious 2026-27 ETS Young Students Graduate Research Fellowship, recognizing his innovative research in language assessment for young learners.

The 12-month fellowship, which begins Oct. 1, provides a $10,000 honorarium to support Lee's groundbreaking research in language assessment. Lee will work remotely with an ETS research scientist for up to eight hours each week, contributing to research connected with the TOEFL Young Students program and language assessment for young learners.

For Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL, the opportunity brings together years of classroom experience with his developing research agenda at Georgia State.

Before beginning his doctoral studies, Lee spent 14 years as an elementary English as a foreign language teacher in Seoul, Republic of Korea. That experience led him to think more deeply about how children communicate and how educators assess their developing language abilities.

"I began questioning whether existing language assessment practices fully capture what young learners can do," Lee said, reflecting on his years of teaching experience in Seoul.

His research at Georgia State now focuses on second-language learning and assessment among young learners of English as a foreign language. He is particularly interested in the ways emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence and digital multimodal tools, are changing how students learn, communicate and demonstrate what they know.

Lee said he hopes the ETS fellowship will help him better understand how large-scale, evidence-based language assessment research is designed and conducted while allowing him to contribute to ongoing research involving young learners.

"Working on a TOEFL Young Students research project will allow me to connect my background in young learner language education with my growing expertise in language assessment," Lee said. "I hope the experience will help me further refine my research agenda, including my dissertation project."

Lee has completed two years of doctoral coursework and passed his comprehensive examination. As he begins his third year this fall, he will prepare his dissertation proposal.

He credits Georgia State faculty and research opportunities with helping him develop the foundation for the next stage of his work. Lee's academic adviser, YouJin Kim, is a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL. Sara Cushing, professor and department chair, and Dylan Burton, assistant professor, supervise the department's Language Testing and Assessment Lab.

Through the lab, Lee said he has gained experience with assessment research, collaborated with faculty and colleagues and developed projects that have expanded his perspective as an applied linguistics researcher.

"I am very proud to represent Georgia State University through this fellowship," Lee said. "Being part of a nationally and internationally recognized applied linguistics program has given me access to exceptional training, mentorship and opportunities for collaboration."

After completing his doctorate, Lee hopes to pursue a faculty career in applied linguistics, teaching English to speakers of other languages and language teacher education. His longer-term research goals include advancing assessment practices that better reflect the ways young learners communicate and develop language in increasingly technology-mediated environments.

For Lee, the ETS fellowship represents another opportunity to connect research with the experiences that first inspired his academic path.

"I see this fellowship as an opportunity to bring what I have learned at Georgia State into the broader language assessment community," he said.

- Story by Tiffany (Orr) Harte, Communications Manager, The Graduate School