There was a defining moment in my life when I realized how much I enjoyed teaching. After finishing my undergrad at the University of Montana, I worked at my school's English Language Institute (ELI) where I acted as an aid, liaison, and guide for visiting international student groups and scholars. While guiding a group of high-school students in Kumamoto, Japan, explaining the complexities of how context is important in English and instructing how to pronounce difficult English worlds felt incredibly natural and relieving. I always knew that I wanted to do something with languages and communication, having received my undergraduate in Japanese from the University of Montana. I spent most of my college years with the international community on campus: getting to know their culture and languages, helping them feel comfortable around the mountain area, and improving their English speaking and comprehension skills. Because it felt so natural and comforting for me to be involved and teach English, I ended up applying and eventually working for the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program for three years, from 2019 through the spring of 2022. Through the rise and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found a love for working with students and inspiring them to use English as part of their studies, and in fun and collaborative ways, in and out of the school. I enjoyed every minute I was teaching, but I knew in my heart that I wanted to do more after finishing my program. Within my second year in Japan, I discovered the Language Teaching Studies program at the University of Oregon, and I immediately fell in love with the school, the unique courses provided, and the prospect of being able to focus on a true passion for teaching languages, whether it was English or Japanese.

Through the LTS program, I got back into academic shape after a three-year hiatus and used my experiences teaching in Japan to redevelop what I already knew about teaching and what I looked to improve. It has always been a transition when I taught in English: from college students to adult learners, to children, and returning to college students where there was more on the line for them and for myself. Through working with the other LTS cohorts, I was taught teaching methods and strategies that I was unaware of that helped improve the quality of my work. I developed a mindset toward what specific context and curriculum I would like to teach or design for my classroom. I have created lesson plans and activities that provide interactive and engaging communication and allow students to use non-traditional methods and resources to expand on. I have explored professional journals and articles for inquiring research methods and concepts, reviewed the development of how English is taught in different regions of the world and assisted in reporting and evaluating articles and programs focusing on English teaching or communication.

I aim to look towards the future in the desire to become an ESL educator at a university in Japan or in the U.S. With my experience in the program, I would like to research more about the roles that pragmatics plays in English communication for Japanese ESL learners wanting to study or work abroad in an English-speaking country. I would like to continue looking for new modes and genres of multiliteracies and how they would be implemented in the classroom for students to start engaging in new and interactive research materials. The artifacts in my portfolio demonstrate my current abilities as a teacher, along with the knowledge that I had acquired regarding specific concepts, theories, and studies, and how I aim to move further into the world of academia as a future full-time English instructor.