Meet Val: TESOL

I feel like I had the unique opportunity when I was younger that I did have another language spoken in my home so it was a thing that I had grown up with. And because of that, I feel like it's just my calling. I definitely feel like English as a Second Language is something that everybody should learn about because it's unique and there's just some people that you might not know who speak another language in their home and they want to share that so I want to share that so that's why I did it. 

I think Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) should be other people's focus area because it's just such a great program with great people and you learn things that you never think you would learn. And I feel like it's information that should kind of be put into general use because even if you might not think you have a student who comes from a different background it's so important to share that with their community and through that and through the TESOL program you can learn how to show that representation in classrooms or in daily life.

My greatest take away was all of the connections that I made. There was definitely people that have changed my thought process on how multilingualism works. And just learning about how the brain works when you're younger and how that affects your learning throughout the years. It was definitely an important experience especially for someone like me who's going to go into teaching in the future. The way that I'm going to teach is so that people who are learning can understand where I'm coming from.

One really impactful proproject that I had was when we were asked to cook food with somebody who is like native to a different area and like have their food and try it. So, my aunt is Hungarian and we made this baked cheese bread called pogacha. It was just such a fun experience because I got to learn about things that I had never would have if I didn't do that project. I just learned about her life and it was so fun and then at the end of it I got to eat like amazing food.

I chose this program at Western was because I know that they have such a good program in teaching in general, and I really wanted to mesh my love for learning languages and teaching. It just kind of felt perfectly in my hands that I got into the TESOL program.

Because I'm going into teaching I feel like these classes are gonna help me immensely. Even if I don't decide to become an ESL teacher I think that like representing those unique experiences for kids who are learning another language or have another language in their home is really important. It's something unique that even peers and other students in the classrooms will learn about. So it's definitely something that I want to represent and replicate. 

I would recommend this program because people in this program are amazing firstly and secondly you just learn things that you never think you would learn about like especially in the first two classes of the program. I learned so much about the growth of the brain and I feel like that's information that should just be in general usage. I learned some crucial information that I don't think other people might have learned if they didn't take this program 

During my TESOL classes I had the opportunity to talk with Selena Protacio and even outside of the classroom she was such a help with navigating what I wanted to do with my future. She's so easygoing and she just builds me up even when I have second thoughts about everything and I feel like without those classes I wouldn't have had those unique experiences. 

I'm so excited that I'm going to Spain in the fall and travel thanks to the study abroad program through WMU's Department of Spanish and I will get to have those unique experiences that I'm striving towards.