When language learners become language teachers - Reflections from Leeds Linguists-into-Schools students
'Teaching the language I am studying'
By Roza Szemis - Final year - BA in French
Being a final year student, I am aware of the importance of work/volunteering experience when applying for graduate roles. Even though we are almost fully online this year, there are still possibilities to get involved in fantastic activities. I have been finding the Linguists into Schools module particularly useful in terms of professional development. Moreover, it was a unique opportunity to put my teaching skills into practice. I am going to start the Teach First teaching programme this year and feel like the module has helped me prepare for the role of MFL teacher.
First of all, since the school placements were no longer an option for most of us this year, we had to come up with alternatives. This means that I had flexibility in organizing and running my language placement. After having got in touch with various university bodies such as the Language Zone I have organized a 4-week Beginner French course. My students (mainly international students) were excellent and quickly became able to communicate in basic French. As I have been given pretty much a free hand, I could get as creative with teaching materials. My favourite lesson was focused on food and included a video of Mr. Bean ordering food in a posh French restaurant!
I have also had a chance to eventually be “placed” (online but still) in an actual school. I had a chance to run a 3-week GCSE preparation course for Year 11. Again, I was able to run the course as I wanted, which made me think that teaching can never get boring. I have had endless ideas for the lessons,and I can’t wait till teaching becomes my full-time job!
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'Linguists into Schools - My experience'
By Suny Saccomanno - Second Year - BA in Economics and French
My name is Suny and I am in my second year of university, studying Economics and French. I am originally Italian, so I have grown up surrounded by different languages and cultures. This year, I chose to complete a challenging, yet very exciting module- that of « Linguists into school ». This module introduces you to the world of language teaching, not only to see if a career in teaching is for you, but also to develop transferrable skills relevant to an array of graduate jobs. Personally, I have never really wanted to have a career in teaching, or at least I have never thought about it. So, why did I choose this module? Well, firstly the placement hours in schools I was required to complete really motivated me to take it as not only I was looking for work experience, but I have always enjoyed giving back to the local community. Additionally, through my experience with language learning, I have realised that learning by teaching others is extremely effectively and in fact I found that my language skills have massively improved throughout this module. Lastly, as a language student, I know how language learning is not valued sufficiently nowadays by some students, so being able to transmit my passion and motivate students on continuing their language learning journey is certainly one of my goals.
Through this module, we have been introduced to all sorts of teaching material and ways in which we can adapt to students’ needs and abilities, but also how to be quick-thinking for different situations. One of the biggest challenges this year was actually being able to get the most out of this module, despite the COVID19 pandemic, which has forced many schools and colleges to close. We were required to do at least 25 hours of placements into schools, but unfortunately, given the situation, it seemed very unlikely. It is however thanks to this, that we had to be extremely flexible as well as take our own initiative to find ways we could still gain some experience and tick all the criteria.
As University of Leeds offers many opportunities for language exchange and learning, I delved myself into the « Language Zone » and volunteered for various opportunities to mentor or teach languages to groups and/or individual students. I held some « speaking sessions » in the Language Zone for both French and Italian students helping them to practice and gain more confidence in speaking, while discussing about some cultural aspects. I also volunteered to lead Language groups in Italian, delivering full sessions to students wanting to strengthen or practice their language skills. In my second semester, I was also given the opportunities to deliver online extra-curricular French sessions to a group of year 12 students, as well as mentoring another student in French grammar and speaking.
I have truly enjoyed volunteering and giving up my time to these students, because in the end I noticed that I did make a difference and being able to see that spark and that pride in students’ eyes was very rewarding. For me, speaking different languages is a passion, a goal, an opportunity and I was able to transmit this to other students through teaching. Through this module, I have learnt a lot about teaching: how being able to respond to the needs of different students can really motivate them, but above all, how important it is for those students to have the extra push from someone that can understand them and reassure them that it is possible to reach their final goal. Growing up surrounded by languages, I have always felt like I was not good enough to reach my end goal: being able to communicate and express my ideas in the same way a native speaker would. However, given my advanced competency in multiple languages today, I have proved myself and all the people that believed otherwise, that it is possible to achieve your end goal, but only if you believe in yourself and accept that there will be challenges on the way. By teaching languages in this module, I have realised how much students lack the confidence in their learning which demotivates them from putting the hard work and effort that is needed. When I was planning my lessons and activities, I always asked myself: what are the structures, activities and approaches that would make a student excited and confident about this journey? What learning process would have helped me to boost my confidence in the past, when I believed that I would never make it? Involving students in the learning process, encouraging them to reflect themselves, and being creative, responsive and curious about what they learn are only some of the approaches I learnt to apply through this module.
In the end, even if I might decide not to embark on a career in language teaching in the future, this module has certainly helped me to develop multiple skills, including how to adapt to different situations and being very flexible when things do not go as planned. Most importantly, I have learnt a lot about myself and my personal goal in life: that to transmit the excitement and importance of opening up to different perspectives, languages and cultures, while also being an example that is possible to achieve the end goal if you put your mind and hard work to it. Through this module, I have learnt what fuels my passion: being able to be the person I needed the most when I was younger.