Hi, my name is Artem Kotov (Артём Котов) and my preferred name is Artie. I was born in Russia to an Armenian Russian family and raised in the United States and consider myself bilingual — speaking Russian and English as my first languages. From an early age, I have been exposed to the English, Russian, and Armenian languages, which has shaped my multilingual and multicultural identity and outlook on life. In middle school, I took French and German, and later Spanish in college. My passion for language learning inspired me to pursue my bachelor’s degree in linguistics and later master’s degree in language teaching studies. I am the first to go to college and graduate school on my father's side, and I am proud to be the cycle breaker. 

My ELT journey started in August 2016 when I joined the American Center, U.S. Embassy Moscow as a youth programming facilitator and camp director. Over the course of five years, I developed and facilitated more than 100 programs, including Children’s Club, English Class for Kids, TED-Ed Club, and an annual two-week-long children’s summer camp, together which were attended by over 25,000 participants. During my time at the American Center in Moscow, I realized that English teaching was my true passion, and thanks to the American Center and U.S. Embassy Moscow I was able to participate in local ELT conferences and seminars in Russia, The TESOL 2021 and 2022 conventions, The International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa, and Camp Fundamentals for Youth Recreation in English (CampFYRE) at the University of Oregon. Since then, I have been teaching EFL/ESL in various settings including tutoring, and the latest one being a community ESL program instructor at Lane Community College. In addition to ESL, I taught German to young and adult learners at the Russian German House in Moscow from 2019 to 2021. I have also recently started tutoring Russian and participating in the LTS program helped me develop skills for teaching this language. Starting Fall 2024, I will also be teaching RUSS 525 Russia: Mythology and Propaganda class at the University of New Hampshire at Durham. 

With the Master of Arts in Language Teaching Studies program at the University of Oregon coming to a close, I am excited to showcase the portfolio that I have developed as part of my LT 611 Terminal Project class. For a year, I shifted my gears to being a full-time student and I was able to reflect on my teaching from a learner’s perspective, develop skills to improve my teaching and learn about the current methodology, standards of language teaching, and education trends. During my time in the program, I worked on my professional and personal development to become a better and more informed language educator. Coming with extensive experience in language teaching, I was able to build more skills and engage in meaningful experiences, including working on various hands-on projects. To highlight these experiences, I developed the portfolio which serves as a visual platform for reflection and achievements while participating in the LTS MA program. It consists of six key areas: (1) Language as Dynamic System, (2) Design, (3) Digitally-Mediated Language Learning, (4) Assessment, (5) Teaching, and (6) Research. The artifacts that I included in the portfolio demonstrate my growth as a graduate student, linguist, and language educator.