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Meadowcroft said her pedagogy classes at UD helped her develop a new outlook on how she herself best learns a new language.
“I learn best by immersing myself with others who speak the
language,” she said. “Understanding, from a pedagogical point of view,
why that helps me learn a language better is really helpful. I'm not
going to go and read a bunch of things, because I know that's not the
way that I best take in information. Instead, I would interact with
people face to face, speaking the language. I learned through pedagogy
courses how to teach people a language in the way that works best for
them, and then I flipped that back on myself.”
The job outlook for world language teachers, particularly in
Delaware, is strong. According to a 2015 report published by the U.S.
Department of Education, Delaware has struggled with extensive teacher
shortages since the 2002-2003 school year. There are shortages in
content areas such as science, reading, math, music, art, foreign
language and English as a second language. However, some areas are
considered “critical need,” and foreign language is one of those
“critical needs” in which Delaware has consistently reported a teacher
shortage for the past two decades.
Juliana Monticello, a junior Italian education major, started
studying Italian in sixth grade and knew from a young age that she
wanted to be a teacher.
“I’m looking forward to helping kids love to learn,” she said.
“Sometimes students say, ‘I'm bad at school. I'm bad at learning
languages.’ And that’s definitely not true. Everyone is capable of
learning a language, and I want to help foster that love of learning for
other students.”