A monster encouraged me to major in English.

Beowulf was my gateway drug into loving linguistics, the English language, and teaching English.  I’m still unclear about why I loved reading that text, learning a little Old English, and getting an introductory to the OED (all standard procedure for exploring the creepy underworld of the famous story). It fueled the fire of my Anglophilia, already growing in my teenage brain. It sealed my decision to major in English and spend all day reading books and discussing complex literary topics in college.

Image courtesy of [papaija2008] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After a stint using my English degree to write tweets and Facebook posts all day for a living, I returned to the academic world to learn how to teach tiny people. I met the monster again in the pages of the textbooks for literacy and teaching English Language Learners. “Muhahahaha!” he growled, “Sárcwide mec þín brægen” {give me your brain}. I love this so much that I’m reminded of how reading about the foundation of our Modern English inspired me to dig deeper into literary themes.

My chronic curiosity inspires me to learn more about how to teach these kiddos. Today I realized that this chronic curiosity might land me in Great Britain again in the future. Perhaps I’ll have the opportunity to visit Ireland or England for one of the many conferences and seminars they hold on the topic of teaching English as a second language. Check it out!

• M.Phil. in English Language Teaching at Trinity College Dublin
• British Council’s “English Agenda” seminars (some online webcasts here)
• International Association of Multilingualism conferences of interest
• International Association of Multilingualism L3 conference
• International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca