- On 15 July 2020
- By Thomas
My Story!
Maria Sosnovskaya is from the Ukraine and received a Via Lingua Scholarship to study for her TEFL Certificate in Florence in 2016.
When I came to Florence to take a TEFL-course in 2016, I had been teaching English for adesigned for native speakers who want to teach English. I doubted if I belonged there.bout 10 years already. Nevertheless, I had no illusions or self-confidence, nor was I expecting it to be super easy. I must admit it, I was terrified. I was to take part in the course
I remember that feeling when we were introducing ourselves on our first day, and I realized that I was the only non-native speaker in the classroom. The participants were from English-speaking countries, mostly from the USA, as well as our tutors, and I would have died for their pronunciation. There was a guy sitting next to me who looked like Cumberbatch and sounded similarly awesome. He came from the family of a diplomat, I don’t remember why it was brought up, I just remember myself almost fainting and being absolutely petrified. I was not going to survive that.
Looking back at that time and recollecting it, I smile a lot. My peers were incredibly supportive, and being around them became a great language booster for me. We walked around Florence, had lunch together, helped each other with assignments. That was a great discovery, frankly speaking, as I never saw it coming, I did not think that I could be useful for them. But I was, I knew a lot of theory, I spent so many hours talking about it and explaining it to my “classmates”. They say that it is the best way to understand something. It is so true. I cherish those memories of being an English Grammar tutor.
But our real tutors were amazing. After each class when I kept asking if I had made a mistake or sounded clumsy or obscure they patiently calmed me down. There was one thing they told that I will never forget: “Do not worry, your language is fine. Being a non-native speaker is not your disadvantage, it is your superpower, you have achieved a great result, you know the route, you can show it, you can lead your students.” When I feel down in the humps, I recollect these words.
When I came back to Ukraine, it was not perfect all at once. One vice principal who was observing my lessons told me that there was too much fun in my class while studying is supposed to be hard work. I took it as a compliment. Still consider it such. We had fun for a month in Florence, and I had collected so many practical ideas and tricks. That is, actually, a thing about this course, it is practical. Tutors practice what they preach, you know.
These practical tips I had collected there had become the bricks I used to pave my path. In 2018 they started a reform of the educational system in Ukraine and there was a call for future trainers. I was in, of course. I had about 14 groups, or something like that, met more than 300 teachers who were inspired by my story also wanted to know about “wonderful techniques and methods”. Sharing is caring, and I shared generously. I delivered talk and workshops, was a speaker at different EFL conferences.
In 2020 I became a Fulbrighter and spent 6 weeks in California, meeting teachers from other 21 countries and getting acquainted with the US educational system. It was an incredible experience! I even took the floor and made a speech at the international forum entitled Teaching English Abroad. After the speech, there was a question-answer session and I was asked a question, rather tricky one: “Are non-native speakers English teachers as good as native ones?” “Well, I said, I am not going to tell you we are worse. We definitely follow you and copy a lot. But we have a superpower, we have achieved a great result, we know the route, we can show it, we can lead our students.” There was an ovation.
This story is not about competition between native speakers and non-native ones, this is the story about a superpower that I got in Florence, in Via Lingua, because I was once believed in.
A Message from the TESOL President & Executive Director Addressing Immigration Executive Orders
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
These words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sound more relevant than ever to the TESOL community, as we witness with increasing dismay the impact of the Trump administration’s latest decisions. Friends and colleagues, we cannot and must not be silent.
Last week, the President of the United States issued a series of executive orders that have a direct impact on TESOL professionals, their students, and their communities. One set of executive orders authorizes constructing a U.S.-Mexico border wall, eliminating federal grant money to sanctuary cities, hiring 5,000 more border patrol agents, and ending “catch-and-release” policies for undocumented immigrants. Another executive order imposes a 120-day suspension of admissions to the United States for people who have been granted refugee status and visas, and a 90-day ban on travel to the United States from citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan.
The immediate effect of these orders has been devastating to the populations we serve, in particular international students, immigrant students and their families, and our own TESOL community. The spirit of these orders goes against the core values that guide our work as an organization:
• Professionalism demonstrated by excellence in standards, research, and practice that improve learning outcomes
• Respect for diversity, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and individuals’ language rights
• Integrity guided by ethical and transparent action
• Commitment to life-long learning
TESOL International Association has issued a public statement strongly opposing these executive orders. Although the impetus for this statement has been the events unfolding in the United States, we recognize that policies aimed at marginalizing immigrants and excluding refugees are becoming increasingly commonplace worldwide. To help you respond to and learn about these issues, we have provided a comprehensive list of tools and resources on the TESOL website, that you may use or adapt to ensure equitable treatment of your students and their families.
Please rest assured that TESOL International Association will actively oppose any proposed policy that seeks to discriminate, diminish, or weaken our communities of English language learners and educators.
To this end, the association is taking the following steps:
1. We have set up a special discussion group in myTESOL called “Impact of U.S. Travel and Immigration Changes,” where we encourage you to share stories about how these recent executive orders have affected your ability to promote quality English language teaching. We also hope that you will use this group as a venue for sharing constructive actions teachers can take.
2. We are exploring possibilities for joint action with other organizations serving English language learners and educators, including the filing of an amicus brief as part of lawsuits challenging the executive orders.
3. We are organizing informational events as well as discussion forums as part of the upcoming TESOL International Convention in Seattle, 21-24 March. These events will address this unacceptable climate of hostility and celebrate Seattle as a sanctuary city. More information will be forthcoming in the myTESOL group mentioned above, and on the Convention website.
We encourage you to speak up whenever possible about these issues through public forums, blog posts, online comments, and opinion pieces. We also encourage you to become involved locally and support organizations that defend equal treatment under the law. It is important that we as professionals not be “silent friends” to those we serve and work with.
Dudley Reynolds Rosa Aronson
TESOL President Executive Director
A Message from the TESOL President & Executive Director Addressing Immigration Executive Orders
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
These words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sound more relevant than ever to the TESOL community, as we witness with increasing dismay the impact of the Trump administration’s latest decisions. Friends and colleagues, we cannot and must not be silent.
Last week, the President of the United States issued a series of executive orders that have a direct impact on TESOL professionals, their students, and their communities. One set of executive orders authorizes constructing a U.S.-Mexico border wall, eliminating federal grant money to sanctuary cities, hiring 5,000 more border patrol agents, and ending “catch-and-release” policies for undocumented immigrants. Another executive order imposes a 120-day suspension of admissions to the United States for people who have been granted refugee status and visas, and a 90-day ban on travel to the United States from citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan.
The immediate effect of these orders has been devastating to the populations we serve, in particular international students, immigrant students and their families, and our own TESOL community. The spirit of these orders goes against the core values that guide our work as an organization:
• Professionalism demonstrated by excellence in standards, research, and practice that improve learning outcomes
• Respect for diversity, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and individuals’ language rights
• Integrity guided by ethical and transparent action
• Commitment to life-long learning
TESOL International Association has issued a public statement strongly opposing these executive orders. Although the impetus for this statement has been the events unfolding in the United States, we recognize that policies aimed at marginalizing immigrants and excluding refugees are becoming increasingly commonplace worldwide. To help you respond to and learn about these issues, we have provided a comprehensive list of tools and resources on the TESOL website, that you may use or adapt to ensure equitable treatment of your students and their families.
Please rest assured that TESOL International Association will actively oppose any proposed policy that seeks to discriminate, diminish, or weaken our communities of English language learners and educators.
To this end, the association is taking the following steps:
1. We have set up a special discussion group in myTESOL called “Impact of U.S. Travel and Immigration Changes,” where we encourage you to share stories about how these recent executive orders have affected your ability to promote quality English language teaching. We also hope that you will use this group as a venue for sharing constructive actions teachers can take.
2. We are exploring possibilities for joint action with other organizations serving English language learners and educators, including the filing of an amicus brief as part of lawsuits challenging the executive orders.
3. We are organizing informational events as well as discussion forums as part of the upcoming TESOL International Convention in Seattle, 21-24 March. These events will address this unacceptable climate of hostility and celebrate Seattle as a sanctuary city. More information will be forthcoming in the myTESOL group mentioned above, and on the Convention website.
We encourage you to speak up whenever possible about these issues through public forums, blog posts, online comments, and opinion pieces. We also encourage you to become involved locally and support organizations that defend equal treatment under the law. It is important that we as professionals not be “silent friends” to those we serve and work with.
Dudley Reynolds Rosa Aronson
TESOL President Executive Director
A Message from the TESOL President & Executive Director Addressing Immigration Executive Orders
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
These words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sound more relevant than ever to the TESOL community, as we witness with increasing dismay the impact of the Trump administration’s latest decisions. Friends and colleagues, we cannot and must not be silent.
Last week, the President of the United States issued a series of executive orders that have a direct impact on TESOL professionals, their students, and their communities. One set of executive orders authorizes constructing a U.S.-Mexico border wall, eliminating federal grant money to sanctuary cities, hiring 5,000 more border patrol agents, and ending “catch-and-release” policies for undocumented immigrants. Another executive order imposes a 120-day suspension of admissions to the United States for people who have been granted refugee status and visas, and a 90-day ban on travel to the United States from citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan.
The immediate effect of these orders has been devastating to the populations we serve, in particular international students, immigrant students and their families, and our own TESOL community. The spirit of these orders goes against the core values that guide our work as an organization:
• Professionalism demonstrated by excellence in standards, research, and practice that improve learning outcomes
• Respect for diversity, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and individuals’ language rights
• Integrity guided by ethical and transparent action
• Commitment to life-long learning
TESOL International Association has issued a public statement strongly opposing these executive orders. Although the impetus for this statement has been the events unfolding in the United States, we recognize that policies aimed at marginalizing immigrants and excluding refugees are becoming increasingly commonplace worldwide. To help you respond to and learn about these issues, we have provided a comprehensive list of tools and resources on the TESOL website, that you may use or adapt to ensure equitable treatment of your students and their families.
Please rest assured that TESOL International Association will actively oppose any proposed policy that seeks to discriminate, diminish, or weaken our communities of English language learners and educators.
To this end, the association is taking the following steps:
1. We have set up a special discussion group in myTESOL called “Impact of U.S. Travel and Immigration Changes,” where we encourage you to share stories about how these recent executive orders have affected your ability to promote quality English language teaching. We also hope that you will use this group as a venue for sharing constructive actions teachers can take.
2. We are exploring possibilities for joint action with other organizations serving English language learners and educators, including the filing of an amicus brief as part of lawsuits challenging the executive orders.
3. We are organizing informational events as well as discussion forums as part of the upcoming TESOL International Convention in Seattle, 21-24 March. These events will address this unacceptable climate of hostility and celebrate Seattle as a sanctuary city. More information will be forthcoming in the myTESOL group mentioned above, and on the Convention website.
We encourage you to speak up whenever possible about these issues through public forums, blog posts, online comments, and opinion pieces. We also encourage you to become involved locally and support organizations that defend equal treatment under the law. It is important that we as professionals not be “silent friends” to those we serve and work with.
Dudley Reynolds Rosa Aronson
TESOL President Executive Director