Dr. Nurmala Elmin Simbolon is an associate professor of TEFL at Politeknik Negeri Pontianak.

She is researching teaching English as a foreign language at the University of Virginia. Her research project is “English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Learning Material Design: Adopting Indonesian Local Wisdom for an International Course Syllabus.” In addition to the research program, she intends to seek experiences working and seeking collaboration with US higher education institutions for its well-established curriculum and learning approach.

Dr. Nurmala earned her bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Universitas Sumatera Utara, a master’s in education (TESOL) from the University of South Australia, and a PhD in education with a concentration on Applied Linguistics at Curtin University, Australia.