By Janna Lelis, Florida State University
This past summer, I had the privilege of spending two months in a small Andean city called Huaraz, in the beautiful country of Peru, studying about English teacher education and investment in English learning perspectives. I was working with a local NGO called Seeds of Hope, assisting a local teacher teach English at a public school and tutoring the children at Seeds of Hope’s afterschool program.
The impact I hope to make with my research is to understand the experiences and perspectives of English education investment in the Global South and how language education and nonprofit management can be a way to serve your communities. More specifically, this project focuses on the experiences of students who are studying to become English teachers and how they view the value of learning and teaching English in a remote city in Peru.
TESOL International, the professional organization for English language education, recently published its Research Directions Report for 2023–2027 (TESOL International Association, 2024). Two of the four research priorities identified in this report are teaching methods and professional learning. The report specifically recommends investigating how teaching and learning practices are experienced and understood in diverse contexts, including under-resourced settings.
The Peruvian government has declared English as a mandatory subject in public schools. However, there are still many barriers that students face when learning English in Peru. There is a big gap in student test performance between rural versus urban areas and public versus private schools. Lack of access to resources and corruption affects the student performance in the education system in Peru all across the nation.
I hope that my research can bring to light the experiences and challenges of language education and how educators, NGOs, and policymakers can provide more accessible education to students from marginalized communities. The stories that my project highlights may inspire students all over the world in considering the value of multilingualism and language education.
My students practicing English adjectives by describing a soccer player loved by Peruvians, Erling Haaland
This upcoming year is my final year at Florida State. I have been enjoying every process of this project and it has been such a dream getting to watch it come to life. After graduation, I hope to continue teaching English abroad to continue developing myself as a teacher and to be able to travel the world. I hope to eventually enter a master’s program in education policy and/or work in higher education working with international students or government/nonprofit work with refugees and immigrants.
I come back to Tallahassee with so many valuable memories and experiences from my time in Peru. I keep all of this growth in mind as I enter the next chapter of my life. As I wrap up my time at Florida State, I reflect on the experiences that shaped my time at this amazing school, and I want to cherish every moment of my last two semesters. This summer has been extremely life-changing for me, and being part of this year’s Tyler Fellowship cohort has been an honor.
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