Over the last 10 years, Dr. Wendy Ashby, instructional designer in the Faculty Support Center at Cochise College, has visited the Philippines and Bolivia whenever the embassies needed English language specialists to run short-term programs, small projects or various outreach events. In November, over Thanksgiving, she will be heading to Bangladesh.
The U.S. Department of State announced Dr. Ashby was selected for a one-week English Language Specialist project focusing on Sustainable Approaches to English Language Education in a Changing World for the Bangladesh English Language Teacher Association (BELTA). Ashby is part of a select group, as her project is one of approximately 240 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.
The project was initially scheduled for March 2020 but was canceled due to COVID. It is one of the first projects recently reinstated. “I still have all the workshop materials and supplies the government paid for two years ago, so I wasn’t surprised when I was selected,” revealed Ashby. “At first, I felt apprehensive about saying yes because these projects are extremely intense and public-facing. Thankfully, Dr. Sheena Brown, our Dean of Academic Affairs, supported me and encouraged me to embrace this opportunity.”
In Bangladesh, Ashby will be the keynote speaker at the BELTA International Conference and support the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy Dhaka with public diplomacy goals by providing dedicated workshops for English teachers and academics from rural and underserved communities on engaged, communicative language instruction, classroom technology, e-Learning, and blended learning.
The English Language Specialist Program gives leaders in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) the opportunity to enact meaningful and sustainable changes in how English is taught abroad.
“I have a great salwar kameez, a Bangladeshi outfit I bought two years ago to wear for giving the keynote speech that ended up at the back of my closet, so I am excited about unpacking that and getting to wear it,” Ashby said. “This opportunity will reconnect me with my academic discipline. I started working at the college right at the beginning of the pandemic and the sudden large-scale shift to online teaching.”
While in Bangladesh, Ashby looks forward to hearing the similarities and differences between instructors in other countries and how they are managing. “It always makes me feel more centered in my profession when I can step back and view things from a wider lens,” Ashby said. “I look forward to bringing that knowledge back to the college.”
Dr. Wendy Ashby has been working at Cochise College since May 2020. She holds a doctorate in second language acquisition and teaching from the University of Arizona and has conducted teacher training, curriculum development, and program evaluation at home and overseas in face-to-face, online and hybrid formats.
Original source can be found here.
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