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Language Teaching History

Amy Blake

University of Mississippi
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I first began my language teaching journey because I had always wanted to learn a

language, and I enjoyed working with teenagers at church. After being out of school for many

years, I decided to start college and learn Spanish! My first semester, I only took twelve hours

because it had been so long since I had been in school that I was not even sure I could manage it.

However, to my surprise, I excelled in college and did very well in all of my studies. I started

my college experience with a plan to get a bachelors degree in Spanish; however, after about a

year, I changed my major to English and minored in Spanish. Even though it was no longer my

emphasis, my heart was still very drawn to the Spanish language.

After I completed college, I started to look for a position teaching English. This was not

an easy task because there are a lot of English majors out there, and many of the positions were

already filled. While I was job hunting, I received a call from one of my college professors. She

told me about a position as an English Language Learner (ELL) Coordinator and suggested that I

apply for the position. I was familiar with ELL and had thought in the past that it sounded like

an amazing job opportunity. I had even wondered how teachers landed these type of positions,

because I thought they sounded so interesting. Little did I know that interviewing for the ELL

Coordinator position would lead me to so many different and exciting things in my journey as an

educator.

I still remember the day of my interview when I was told I had the position and would be

responsible for 100 ELL students at three different schools! I went through all kinds of emotions

ranging from happy to fearful and anxious. I had no idea how to teach a non-native speaker

English, and did not think I would ever remember 100 Spanish names. Since I had no training, I

was told that I would have to become ELL certified, and I was given a deadline to complete this.

The problem, however, was that school would begin before my ELL certification, so I had to be
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prepared for these classes ready or not. I began researching everything I could on teaching ELL.

I spent countless hours searching the Internet, looking at lessons online, and talking with other

ELL teachers. Not only did I have to learn about teaching methods, I had to learn about

assessing ELLs and keeping language plans for each student.

When school finally started that August, I felt more prepared, but I still had very little

confidence. My first year was a disaster! Not because of the students, but because I doubted

myself daily, going between three schools was difficult, there was little support from other staff,

and I did not have an office or a classroom at the elementary school. There was plenty of space

at the other two schools, but at the elementary school I was forced to teach students from a

supply closet. I vowed to leave the position after the first year! However, things gradually

improved and my love for the students kept me in the position for five years. My reason for

leaving the position was simply because I was doing more than was manageable for one person.

However, working with mainly Spanish speaking students and their families had done something

for me. It had helped me improve my Spanish. This led to another change in my life that was

unexpected.

I was already planning to look for a different position, when a principal called me for an

interview. I thought it was for an English position that I had put in at that school years earlier.

However, during my interview the principal revealed that he wanted me to teach Spanish. Again,

I was faced with the unknown. I had never taught Spanish, and my confidence level was not at

its best. However, the principal assured me that I would be fine at the small school, so I accepted

the position. Again, my first year was difficult. The teacher in the position before me was a

seasoned teacher who was a native Spanish speaker. I felt extremely insufficient to say the least,

but once more, I researched, studied, and talked to other teachers. One of the teachers I talked
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with gave me an abundance of her materials which was a huge help. I even met with her on a

few occasions at a local coffee shop for some tutoring.

After my first year of teaching Spanish, I decided I needed more practice in the language.

I enrolled in a language school for missionaries in Costa Rica, so that I could learn more about

culture and immerse myself in the language. I spent a month living with a family not far from

the capital, San Jose. Each day, I walked to school and spent three hours in classes. Each night,

I had a good deal of homework which took several hours to complete. I absolutely loved it, and

wish I could have stayed longer. It amazed me how much easier the language became while I

was there. Also, I was excited because I could share my pictures and experiences there with my

students. In my teaching journey, I believe this was one of the best decisions I have made

because the impact of studying abroad has really opened my mind to other cultures and has

allowed me to discuss culture with my students in a way I could not have before this experience.

Throughout all of these changes, I stayed in touch with, and still stay in contact with,

many of my former ELL students from my first teaching experience. I have been so fortunate to

build a lasting bond with these students, and a group of them even took me out for pizza as a

send-off before I left for Costa Rica! I have attend their quinceaeras, graduations, and even a

baptism. The study and teaching of language has not only helped me grow in my teaching skills

and my own education, it has opened my heart to life-long friendships with students and their

families. I received a call recently from a former student who told me that he will be attending

college this fall and will be the kicker for the football team. One student recognized me at a

robing ceremony for graduates where she read an article she wrote about what I taught her in

ELL class. And, I was greatly humbled and honored by a former Chinese student who named me

her Star Teacher when she received the Star Student Award for having the highest ACT score for
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her school. These things have helped me see that I did make a difference even when I felt like

everything was going drastically wrong.

These students caused me to miss many aspects of teaching ELL, but I still continued in

my position as Spanish teacher at the small school. I was content in this position and had even

convinced the school to allow me to form an archery team which I coached for one year. At the

end of my second year of teaching at this school, I received a call asking me to interview for a

position at another nearby school. Keeping my options open, I went for the interview. Although

I had not planned to leave where I was, I was unable to turn down this position because it offered

many positive things. I am currently teaching Spanish at this school.

When I taught ELL, I had decided to begin working toward my masters degree. I took

six hours at the University of MS, but when I left that position to teach Spanish, I stopped

pursuing my studies. However, I enjoy learning, and it was not long before I decided to return to

my studies once again. My Internet research led me to the MATL program at the University of

Southern MS (USM). Being able to do all of my classes online was a big factor for me since I

work full-time, and USM offered this option. After reading more about the program, I decided to

enroll and began my new language studies journey.

In the summer of 2015, I took my first class in the MATL program which was

Sociolinguistic Perspectives in Second Language Acquisition. Not only was this my first class,

this has been one of my favorite classes of the MATL program. One of the reasons I enjoyed this

class so much was because it allowed me to view a lot of videos about different types of cultures

and to see how others communicate within different societies. I also enjoyed writing my cultural

shock paper which required me to participate in an activity outside of my comfort zone in order

to simulate cultural shock. For me, studying the diversity of people is very interesting. In this
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class, we not only discussed the culture of others, we learned about hybrid identities,

immigration, dialects, and even rap. This class opened my mind to many unique modes of

communication and the social attitudes of others.

In the fall of the same year, I took a vocabulary teaching class. In this class, I was

required to create lessons in order to teach vocabulary to students. While my emphasis in the

MATL program is TESOL, the instructor in this class allowed me to use Spanish vocabulary for

my assignment. I was glad I was able to use Spanish since that is what I am currently teaching.

This assignment helped me learn how to teach vocabulary in various ways to make it interesting

for the students. When my principal came to my class for my formal observation that year, I

used one of the assignments from my vocabulary class in my lesson plan. This particular activity

that I created was well received by the students, and it appealed to kinesthetic learners as well.

Fortunately, the teaching strategies I have learned in the MATL program can be adapted for both

English language learners and foreign language learners.

Two of the most difficult classes that I have taken in the MATL program are Options in

Teaching Grammar and the TESOL Seminar which focused on Pragmatics. These classes were

difficult for me but achievable. In the grammar class, I learned about focus on form and grammar

based teaching. In this class, I was also required to create activities which challenged me to

teach grammar in an unconventional way. I learned about teaching modals and things as simple

as articles in a way that is beneficial for ESL learners. I also learned about teaching methods,

such as textual enhancement and dictogloss which again I have been able to adapt for the foreign

language learning environment. In the class on pragmatics, I also created a lesson to teach

learners how to use pragmatics correctly in the form of refusals. I found the learning and
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teaching of pragmatics to be difficult because it is teaching learners to distinguish utterances as

they are meant within a social context.

Next, I took Language Acquisition. I really enjoyed this class because not only did it

focus on the acquisition of others, I was asked to reflect on my own language learning as well.

This was an interesting class which investigated how people actually acquire language. In this

class, I learned about the critical age for learning, and I studied Noam Chomskys ideas of

language being natural or nurtured. I was asked to watch several very interesting videos and

write reflections for each one. These videos were very enlightening. In a final synthesis activity,

I learned the importance of task-based instruction, acculturation, and gestures. This class

covered so many issues in language learning and everything that encompasses acquiring

language.

In linguistics class I studied pronunciation which can aide learners in becoming more

native-like in their pronunciation. This is another class that I found to be more difficult, but it

was interesting. I learned about aspiration, voiced and voiceless sounds, and tongue placement

in order to make sounds correctly. Techniques from this class can benefit both ESL and foreign

language learners. I also created lesson activities for this class as part of my final Paper Project.

Creating lessons has helped me see how to actually put these new skills into practice in the

classroom.

During the course of my time in the MATL program, I had planned to take certain classes

as electives. However, due to scheduling conflicts, I ended up taking two courses that I had not

planned to take. In the spring of 2017, I took Introduction to Educational Administration and a

class for teaching elementary vocabulary. While these classes were not on my intended list for

coursework, they turned out to be more beneficial than I had anticipated. The educational
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administration course was very challenging! For one of my assignments, I chose to do my

presentation and PowerPoint on discourse theories. This assignment worked well for me because

I was able to research and discuss language issues in discourse, such as pragmatics and

sociolinguistics. I also learned to write a press release, parent letters, and I even wrote a

reflection about a board meeting that I attended. Participating in this class gave me new skills

that I can use each day as a teacher because I constantly have to work with other educators and

engage with parents. The class for teaching elementary language was also useful because I

researched teaching vocabulary for ESL students. The assignments given required me to

research many different articles for teaching ESL and ways to use technology in order to teach

various methods.

The classes I am currently taking this summer are Teaching Second Languages and

Technology in Education. My favorite assignments for the teaching languages course have been

completing the two episodes activities for creating lessons and watching the teaching videos. I

believe that I prefer these assignments because I am a kinesthetic learner, and creating the

lessons gives me the opportunity to be more hands-on. The videos that I watched are extremely

beneficial because they allowed me to see real teachers in action. It helps to watch teachers

actually using the strategies I have been studying and see how they incorporate them in class as

they interact with students. The videos also further instilled in me the importance of visuals,

gestures, correct enunciation, and meaningful content when teaching.

In the technology class I am currently taking, I am learning so many ways to incorporate

technology into my lessons. I have always used a lot of videos, music, and PowerPoint slides,

but already I have learned about many more tools that I did not even know were available. I

recently created a podcast which is something that I have never done. I also created a blog, and
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learned about creating survey forms and slides in googledocs. This class is a little difficult for

me but very appealing! I am already excited about the ways I can use this new information in

my lesson planning. I feel that technology is extremely important in todays classroom because

students are so tech savvy that they become easily bored with traditional lessons. I am always

excited to find new ways to teach and make it more appealing for students.

My learning experience at USM has been a positive one! I feel that I have learned and

developed many new teaching strategies and skills, as well as gained an abundance of new

knowledge. I plan on doing my practicum this fall and graduating in December! I have enjoyed

learning and growing in the field of education. I look forward to putting these new skills into

practice in the future. I do not know if my journey will lead me to teach ESL at a later time, or if

I will continue teaching foreign language. As for now, my plans are to continue teaching

Spanish, but I have had my plans change many times over the years as new and unexpected

opportunities arose. I do plan to continue more study of the Spanish language either formally, on

my own or through another study abroad. Next summer, I will be taking a small group of

students to Costa Rica for nine days to experience all of the wonderful things I was able to do

when I lived there. Additionally, I plan to visit Spain next summer as part of a training session

for the tour company that my group is using to travel to Costa Rica.

I feel that I have been very blessed in all of my educational experiences. Language

learning has taken me on a journey toward meeting people and traveling new places that I had

never anticipated. I enjoy teaching and am thankful that my studies through USM have helped

me become more knowledgeable in the field of language regardless of where my teaching takes

me in the future.