Target Language Experts

TLE Voices

My Four Roles at Carthage

By Ruth Solarte, Colombia

The acronym "TLE" means Target Language Expert, but I would like to redefine this for a while in order to display how being a TLE has implied changes in my life. This new definition would be Target Language Experiencer.

Through the use of both Spanish and English, I have had to function in four different roles as a teacher, a student, an office worker, and an alien! Each one of these roles has given me awesome moments and has made me grow professionally and personally.

Teacher

I will start with my teacher role. In Colombia I was an English teacher, so I thought that teaching Spanish would only mean switching languages. That turned out not to be entirely true. I had to modify my classroom management strategies. The thing that surprised me most was that the strategies used with primary school students were effective with my college students. For example, Colombian children are really happy when they receive a happy face sticker as a prize for their student performance. And here at Carthage, my college students were really happy with these stickers. In Colombia my kindergarten students did not like to be called "niños", the Spanish word for children, so when they were undisciplined and I wanted to reestablish order I counted to three, and my students automatically were quiet (after 3 they would be addressed as "niños"). Here this strategy worked with my freshmen students.

Student

I cannot say that I ever feel that I am completely a student. I feel watched as a TLE by undergraduate students in the library, in the cafeteria, in the gym, even in classrooms. Some of my classmates turned out to be friends of students in the Spanish classes I taught, so they talked about me and then in my Spanish classes, my students made comments about the classes that I took. After a year I am used to that, but at the beginning I felt little uncomfortable.

Office worker

My third role is office worker. I never thought about working in an office, but this came to my life here. It was an option that this program offers us to make extra money. It has been wonderful, I really like working in the Registrar's office. I work with six wonderful people, who unconsciously or consciously have helped me to improve my English. Every day I learn words and expressions. Furthermore, I've learned a lot about American culture, mainly when the ladies make comments about events or things that happened in their everyday lives. During the summer I have had the opportunity of working every day so it has been another means of immersion in the English language.

Alien

Finally, my role as an alien. Before coming here the only definition that I had in my mind for the word alien was "a creature from outer space," or E.T., but here I learned that in legal terms it is the word used to define my citizenship. Thus, I am an alien, which fits in several ways: defining my legal status here and how I feel sometimes adapting myself to the food, life style, and cultural issues in general.

Filling these four roles during my first year as a TLE has been challenging, interesting, and exciting. Overall, it is the best experience I have had in my life so far. I'm looking forward to the coming year.