U.S. State Department selects CWU professor as English Language Specialist

About a month from now, CWU Professor of Education Dr. Kate Mastruserio Reynolds will travel to Egypt at the behest of the U.S. State Department.

Selected for the English Language Specialist program, Reynolds will spend 23 days in Cairo and Luxor, familiarizing local English teaching supervisors with tranformational leadership and mentoring teachers on the new curriculum. She will work with the Egyptian Ministry of Education and the Al-Azhar Institute to reach English-teaching leaders to create collaborative instructional teams to enact the new curriculum.

"It's about coaching and mentoring of colleagues and peers," Reynolds said. "We have to develop trusting relationships, give them a lot of respect, and demonstrate new ideas for them to incorporate in their teaching, while recognizing that they are the experts in their location. It's very exciting to be able to make a real difference, working with instructional supervisors who will share their knowledge with English teachers."

Reynolds is a member of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) faculty at CWU, part of the Department of Education, Development, Teaching and Learning. She also works with the international English-teaching community through the TESOL International Associations's Board of Directors. She was appointed to the State Department's English Language Specialist position following an intensive interview and review process, and she will be joined by another member of the TESOL international community in Egypt.

Reynolds says her work with TESOL is often much less rigid than what one might expect in a traditional English classroom, due to its focus on applying English in everyday contexts.

"What we're actually doing is teaching people how to use language," she said. "We've moved well beyond formulaic repetition of grammar forms, and that makes me really inspired and excited. My field is never the same on any given day. Language evolves, so we're not necessarily interested in these prescriptive rules you have to follow, but rather teaching people to use real language that sounds authentic."

While Reynolds' primary goal in Egypt is to teach, she also expects to learn a great deal about the north African nation, its language, and its people through the program. She says an ongoing love of learning about cultures and peoples is her main reason for pursuing this line of work.

"That's why I and many other people get into my field-the desire to travel and a love of language and culture," Reynolds said. "I've been to 31 countries now, which is, comparatively, not a lot for someone in my line of work. These are the kinds of opportunities that come with being licensed to teach English as a second language. You can travel the world, you can work for the Peace Corps, you can do a Fulbright award, and you can teach basically anywhere. It's a really rewarding field."

Learn more about CWU's English Language Learner program online.