Maria: English Language Specialist with the University of Pennsylvania
Educators are sharing the importance of language teaching!
Meet Maria—a bilingual educator who speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
It’s okay if you don’t always know all of the answers!
What first inspired you to become an educator? What motivates you today?
What first inspired me to become an educator was my upbringing. From a young age, I was able to appreciate the power that possessing the knowledge and ability to speak different languages affords us as they unlock different doors of understanding to the products and perspectives of people from different cultures.
Growing up in a bilingual household, I could form connections with my roots through Spanish with my family in Latin America. Meanwhile English allowed me to build relationships with friends in the United States. Access to different opportunities to learn from others and grow is what motivates me today to teach languages to my students.
What is the best or most fulfilling part of teaching for you?
The most fulfilling aspect of teaching languages is when students have epiphanies. These can range from understanding a grammatical point or concept in class to taking risks with the language and applying what they have learned in a real-world context. I want to foment curiosity in my students and to always be curious about their world.
What advice or encouragement would you like to share with aspiring or early-career language educators? What advice would you like to give your younger self?
It’s okay if you don’t always know all of the answers! I used to feel imposter syndrome if I couldn’t answer a question on the spot. Something that works for me now is to just tell the students that you’ll look up their answer together. Doing that, I model what I do when I don't know something, and it gives them an opportunity to hop in if someone in class has a more efficient/better way to find the answer. This way, we are all actively participating in acquiring knowledge.
Complete the thought: "Teaching a language means..."
Teaching a language means that I facilitate meaning-making experiences.
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