Experiential Module

1. Language Immersion Studies:

My Experiential Module began with a desire to work on my own language proficiency and intercultural competence. For the past two years in the program, I have been learning so much about language teaching and improving my pedagogy, but since the MAFLT coursework was entirely in English, I hadn’t had much free time to invest in maintaining proficiency in my second language. Therefore, I applied for and was selected by ACTFL as a recipient of a full scholarship for the Tía Tula immersion program for Spanish teachers in Salamanca, Spain. However, since the professional development program only lasted one week, I also did some solo traveling in the north of Spain prior to the start of the program. During this time, I stayed with old friends, met new ones, and even engaged in some ethnographic observation, and my ICC developed through all of this.

2. Materials Design:

My language immersion studies experience in Spain was a time of growth for my own language proficiency, intercultural competence, and identity, but I knew I could use this personal growth in my role as a teacher in order to benefit my students, too. Viewing myself as a language learner-ethnographer led me to the idea of designing intercultural activities which utilize the method of ethnography with my students. So, I designed three intercultural activities in which students are ethnographers investigating public spaces in their own community with the goal of developing students’ ICC through observation, noticing, comparison, interaction, and reflection.

Through this entire EM process, I came to realize that “the 'best' teacher is neither the native nor the non-native speaker, but the person who can help learners see relationships between their own and other cultures, can help them acquire interest in and curiosity about 'otherness', and an awareness of themselves and their own cultures seen from other people's perspectives” (Byram, Gribkova, & Starkey, 2002, p. 10). I am now confident that I can help my learners develop ICC through well-designed, research-based instruction that draws on my own journey as a lifelong language learner and my ever-growing intercultural awareness.

Learn more about my EM by following the links below for each part of the project. Below that you will find my video presentation in which I also explain my EM experience.