Running head: LANGUAGE TEACHER HISTORY REFLECTION 1

Language Teacher History Reflection

Molly E. Young

University of Southern Mississippi

Author Note

Masters in the Art of Teaching Languages (MATL), University of Southern Mississippi.

This assignment was completed for the final portfolio project.

mollyyoung18@arkansasteachercorps.org
LANGUAGE TEACHER HISTORY REFLECTION 2

Language Teacher History Reflection

When I sat down to complete this reflection, I had not read my “Language Teacher

History” since I wrote it in 2017. 4 years later, I was hit by an odd affection for my younger self.

I know it was not that long ago, but it feels like I have grown and aged much more than 4 years

since writing the paper. While much of what I wrote holds true, I can see now how much further

I had to go on my language and teaching journey even then. The me of 2017 had the same

ambition and goals, but the me of today is much better equipped to achieve those goals.

I began the reflection with a breakdown of my Spanish-learning experiences. Reflecting

now, I can see my experiences fell into 3 categories: lacking challenge with context, challenging

without context, and challenging with context. Mostly in high school I experienced what

instruction without cognitive challenge could be like. My teacher did share a lot about her life

growing up and provided many cultural lessons that engaged me. I enjoyed the class and my

teacher but did not learn very much. Now I know this is because the challenge of the content did

not fall into my Zone of Proximal Development and was unable to push me towards growth. In

college, I had 2 professors - Dr. Smith and Dr. Menendez. Dr. Smith provided challenges

without context, grammar drills, and vocabulary lists which expanded my knowledge but did

very little to help me communicate fluently. Dr. Menendez, however, provided cognitive

challenge with engaging discussions and cultural lessons to provide the necessary context to

make learning meaningful to my life and the global context. My learning from this reflection is

still supported today; a language learning classroom must have the appropriate amount of

challenge and meaningful context to fully engage learners.

LANGUAGE TEACHER HISTORY REFLECTION 3

The next half of my reflection was an exploration of my experiences as a teacher and how

I had evolved through different learning events. I began with what I was most familiar with,

textbook learning, but as I received feedback from parents, students, and coworkers, I evolved. I

attended an iFLT conference which hastened my transition from a challenging teacher who did

not provide context to something a little closer to the ideal teaching situation. I am proud of how

much I grew in those 4 years of teaching and can still feel the relief and joy that that transition

provided. Now I see how I still had a way to go to improve my lesson’s rigor and context.

Since I wrote this reflection, I have learned a lot more about what context and challenge

look like. I have learned how thoughtful questioning and real-world problem solving can

challenge students to apply content in deeper ways. I have learned how to combine personal

context with social motivations and cultural contexts to create even more engaging and relevant

context, so that students learn more about themselves and the target culture through our content.

Additionally, I have improved my use of authentic texts to strategically increase both the

challenge and context of our lessons. I continue to grow in this way, just as I was 4 years ago,

refining my lessons to better engage students in these 2 areas.

I called my reflection “Making Connections” because my greatest learning I had taken

from my experience was the purpose of language was to connect people. While that is still the

most beautiful thing about language for me today, I think I better understand how integral and

complex connection can be. I don’t just want to connect my students to Spanish-speakers. I

want to connect with my students, connect students with one another, and connect students with

a better understanding of their own world. Through these connections, I will continue to grow

and continue to challenge my students to explore the world around them through language.