Cody

Cody majored in Middle and Secondary Education (French, P-12 Track) and French, with minors in Spanish and Classical Studies (Latin)

Immediately after graduation, Cody plans to be teaching French at a Chicago area high school. While he someday hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in second language acquisition, he is also interested in founding his own community language school in downtown Chicago.

Some Fun Facts About Cody

• Theme Song: Paraluman - Adie
• Favorite Word in Another Language: Quamquam (Latin for "although") or alors... (French for "so...")
• Study Abroad: Paris, France and Liège, Belgium
• Favorite Phrase*: If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. - Nelson Mandela

What are you most excited about when you think of your future classroom?

What excites me most is the ability to test my ideas in my future classroom: eventually, whether at the high school level or my own language school, I would like to integrate an approach to language teaching in which the acquisition of grammar is implicit: like the scientific method, learners will observe how the language works, draw hypotheses regarding structures from texts, "test" these out in conversations or in questions about target-language input through which they receive immediate feedback that either verifies their production and comprehension. My classroom will not only be a space where students take a class, but almost like a laboratory where I can experiment, refine, and reflect pedagogically.

What has most surprised you (thus far) about language teaching?

What has surprised me so far about language teaching is how unique and different it is from other content areas. If we look at the ACTFL World Readiness Standards, it becomes apparent that we aren't teaching dates, facts, formulas, or content to be memorized. Instead of lecturing content, language teaching is more about the art of creating an input-rich, target-language environment in which skill acquisition becomes inevitable and proficient target language users emerge. Sincerely, as language education shifts rapidly from its past towards proficiency-based teaching, it feels like this is a historic moment in the trajectory of language teaching and I am genuinely excited to be a part of this movement. It's the perfect time to be teaching languages.

What makes an amazing language educator?

An amazing language educator is one who knows how to create the aforementioned target-language environment: long gone are the days of arduous grammar and translation, with the exception of a few contexts. A language educator is more like the conductor of an orchestra rather than a lecturer or teacher: they know how to maintain a target-language environment, make spoken and written input comprehensible through scaffolds/visual supports, are skilled at drawing attention to linguistic data slightly above the student level, designing real-world written and spoken output tasks (not only for practice, but also automaticity), and can actively engage students in using the target language with passion. The language teacher also must exhibit qualities of lifelong learning as language is forever-changing and pedagogy advances in a communicative direction: there is never an end to building language proficiency, even for native speakers.

What has been the impact of the Teacher Scholarship Program on your experience becoming a language teacher?

The Teacher Scholarship Program has been instrumental in preparing me to be a language educator: through ACTFL's Language Connects Foundation, I've been blessed with the opportunity to have a significant portion of my university costs covered, the ability to engage with ACTFL and its publications through a membership, and even be connected with language professionals at other organizations like the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT). Through the program, I've become connected within the field and am always surprised to recognize names of professionals whom I know when I hear them being mentioned in the field or read their works.

You’re invited!

• Explore the Teacher Scholarship Program and refer aspiring teachers in your network.
• Hear reflections from Cody and fellow graduates in a short video!
  
• Share your #LanguageDream on social media @LangConnectsFdn.