Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to 2023! It is time for another student spotlight from our LTS cohort, and it is our pleasure to introduce Emma Snyder, who has normally been the writer of these blogs this year, but this month the tables are turned on her!

Hi Emma, could you introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Emma Snyder, and I am the writer for the LTS blog this year, as well as a graduate student in the intensive Language Teaching Studies master’s program, where I am beginning my third term.

I am an Oregonian born and raised, and grew up in the town of Keizer, before coming to Eugene for university. I completed my undergraduate in linguistics, with a minor in creative writing. I absolutely adore learning languages, and have studied Spanish and Arabic, with hopefully many others to come in the future!

Have languages always been an interest? What brought you to language teaching? To UO?

My comedic answer would be that I was inspired to pursue linguistics because of the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. More realistically, looking back, I think that many of my interests all the way back to childhood revolve around language. I’ve always been a big reader and writer, and language feels like such a huge unifying force between people. Linguistics first caught my eye in a freshman interest group revolving around linguistics and psychology that I took my first year at university. I realized I was passionate about teaching after I began to take job and volunteer opportunities to tutor for language learners. UO was originally my choice in undergraduate because I had family that had lived and been raised in Eugene. By the time I was ready to start looking at graduate programs, I loved the city, loved the professors, and loved the friends that I had made. 

Speaking of past teaching and tutoring, what have your experiences in language teaching been so far? What is a fond memory that you might have from them?

I have been lucky to have had numerous opportunities when it comes to language teaching and tutoring. I began with volunteering at the nonprofit Paper Airplanes, which works to provide language instruction to people affected by conflict. It was incredibly rewarding work, and the people I met as a part of it were nothing short of inspiring. I have also had the opportunity to lead conversation circles and pronunciation classes for adults and children at El Cultural in Trujillo, Peru. Now, I am a classroom tutor and a conversation partner at the American English Institute at UO. All of my teaching and tutoring opportunities have given me such fantastic experience and insight into my own future teaching strategies, and my life has been so enriched by all of the people that I have met in the process.

Now that you are approaching being halfway through the LTS program, what has been a highlight for you of the program so far?

Last term I was one of the Ducks that helped lead the Talking With Ducks program. Not only did I get more practice in a classroom, but I got to work closely with my peers in brainstorming and developing lesson plans and activities every week. It was absolutely incredible to watch so many talented individuals bring their own strengths and personalities to the class, and I truly feel that I learned and grew so much from being able to watch them and work with them. 

Looking forward into the future, how are you hoping to work in the language field after your time here?

This is such a tricky question, and I feel like my answer changes slightly every time that I think about it. I have enjoyed every context and every program that I have had the opportunity to work in. I absolutely love the AEI, and I think that it does incredible things, so I would very much enjoy being able to work with a similar organization. I also have a lot of interest in curriculum design. While I am certainly not opposed to working internationally, I think that there are a lot of language learning needs to be met on the local side of things too!

Finally, what is something outside of language teaching that you are passionate about? A fun fact about yourself that others may not know?

I am a huge hobbyist, and a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I absolutely love reading and writing, and through the last few years I’ve dabbled in gardening, baking, fiber arts, and a handful of musical instruments, to boot. I love visiting antique shops, and have a bit of a tendency to acquire strange or unique things!