“When I moved to the United States, and I was in a connecting flight in Chicago O’Hare going to San Diego, California. And I remember it was early in the morning and I was sitting there waiting for the next flight, and I was very nervous. First time moving somewhere else, 18 years old. And I remember seeing two girls, which to me they probably looked like native speakers of English, Americans just speaking so fast in English and they look tall, blonde and I’m just like, I’m never going to fit in here. That’s the first thought I had, and I felt like, what am I doing? I don’t belong here…And it took a while to sort of come to terms with who am I? why I think I do belong here and why I don’t need to be like them…So I think it’s a matter of just being patient, being open and understanding it’s a journey. Right? It’s not something that happens overnight and it’s not something that somebody else can tell you what it feels like. Nobody else can give you the checklist of things you need to do.”
My conversation with Florencia (Episode 45) is a must-hear for all teachers working with students in language and literacy!
Florencia Henshaw‘sBio
Florencia Henshaw has a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she is now the Director of Advanced Spanish. She has taught 19 different undergraduate and graduate courses, and she has designed 8 online courses.
Dr. Henshaw has published and presented nationally and internationally on technology integration, heritage language instruction, and research-based pedagogical practices. Dr. Henshaw is also a certified ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview tester, an Editorial Board member of FLTMAG (an online magazine on technology integration in language teaching and learning), and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP).
Dr. Henshaw has received a number of awards, including the Excellence in Language Instruction Award within the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, the Academic Professional Award within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Sheppard Memorial Award conferred by the International Association for Language Learning Technology. Her upcoming book, “Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory goes to the Classroom” (co-authored with Maris Hawkins), aims to help educators visualize how to put principles into action.
Resources
My site: https://sites.google.com/view/techforlangteaching
My YouTube channel: “Unpacking Language Pedagogy”
Twitter handle: @Prof_F_Henshaw
To learn more about previous guests on It’s About Language or access other episodes of the podcast, visit It’s About Language or click on the Podcast tab above.
