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Growing up in the South, in Mobile, Alabama, I spoke a variety of English that differed from the varieties heard in most parts of the United States. Though my English was normal to me, it sounded different from what I heard on television or on the radio, which caused me to spend a lot of time reflecting on the way that I talk, particularly in relation to other Americans.
Eventually, my career took me to New York where I was exposed to a Northern variety of English, after which I moved to California and was exposed to “standard” American English. These exposures led me to an even greater curiosity for English and its many varieties, and after several years of careful consideration, I decided that I would return to college in order to pursue a career in language instruction.
I began my educational journey here at Los Angeles Valley College, from which I transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and received my B.A. in French Language and Literature (Summa Cum Laude), with a minor concentration in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. After teaching pronunciation skills to international graduate students at UCLA, and teaching speaking/conversational skills to native Chinese ESL instructors in an experimental summer studies program at UCLA, I came back to Los Angeles Valley College in order to teach ESL Speech 1 and Speech 2, in which I utilize the many skills that I have acquired throughout my personal and educational experiences.
Currently I am pursuing my M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at California State University, Los Angeles, and I am planning to pursue doctoral studies in Applied Linguistics in the near future.
