Hello, I’m Scott from Alaska, USA, and I’m happy to introduce myself. This is my second year at Tianhua College of Shanghai Normal University, and during my time here I have met many interesting leaders, colleagues, and students who have helped me a lot. I have benefited a lot from them and I am deeply grateful for that!
大家好，我是来自美国阿拉斯加的Scott，很高兴能以这种形式让大家了解我。这是我入职上海师范大学天华学院的第二年，在职期间，我遇到了很多有趣的领导、同事以及学生，他们为我的衣、食、住、行以及日常教学提供了强而有力的保障。从他们身上，我获益良多，为此深表感谢！我们也都成为了彼此的好朋友。
在我很小的时候，我曾梦想着以后成为一名作家。因为我的父母都是老师，所以我那时候觉得我以后不会从事教育行业。然而，在我本科毕业之后，发生的诸多事情最终让我走上了教师这条道路。我的第一份教师工作是在日本的一所口语学校（conversation school），主要教授任何想要学习英语的成人或者孩子口语。我慢慢地意识到教师就是我今后想要认真从事的职业，因为我发现我对英语教学充满热爱。自那以后，我一直在美国或者别的国家的高校任教，尽兴施教，乐在其中。在美国明尼苏达州任教的时候，我利用空余时间，攻读并获得TESOL硕士学位。随后，我又在韩国的一所大学教了几年。这些海外教学经验，让我意识到教授国际大学生与我十分契合。在坐落于亚利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫小镇上的北亚利桑那大学（天华学院的合作院校之一）授课期间，我获得了应用语言学博士学位。
最开始，我的研究兴趣和方向聚焦于英语教育，之后慢慢转变为语言学，主要研究词汇习得，即人们如何学会新的单词。我的博士论文选题围绕英语教材中的词汇分析——语料库语言学视角。因此，我对人们是如何学会新的单词以及通过教材如何学会沟通这两个问题倍感兴趣。你知道吗？大部分的英语教材都不会提供足够多的机会给学生去练习他们新学的词汇。此外，很多教材都不会收录一些常用的英文单词。当我在研究中发现这些时，我颇感意外，但事实的确如此。这就是我感兴趣的研究话题，因为它能帮助我们更深入地了解语言本体，同时也给广大教师和学生就如何更好地学习英文词汇提供了新的思路和视角。
因缘际会，我有幸成为天华-北亚中外合作办学机构的语言教师，这对我而言意义非凡。项目中的学生就好像是我的同学一样，因为我们都有在同一所学校——北亚利桑那大学学习的相同经历。尽管他们的年龄要比我小，但想到在不久的将来，他们在毕业之际将会拿到北亚的学位时，我倍感兴奋，与有荣焉。此外，在本项目中，作为他们的老师，我的职责是为他们的成功提供帮助和支持。在我的启迪和引导下，指引他们踏上小学教育或者学前教育的伟大教育之路，这也是另一个令我感到意义非凡的地方。我很期待，他们会将天华、北亚以及我的教育信念和理想继承下去，星星之火，可以燎原。在未来，我们都将会以教师的身份，为教育事业添砖加瓦，启迪下一代，共建美好和平的新世界。他们积极乐观的人生态度以及元气满满的生活模式真的给了我很大的鼓舞。
就教育理念而言，我一直信奉以学生为中心，竭尽全力提供各种支持与帮助，促使他们走向成功。我总会想方设法，设计一些有趣的教学活动以及动手活动，寓教于乐，在做中学，让课堂“活”起来。学习一门新的语言是一项长期的任务，需要学生的反复操练，这样才能在循序渐进中获得进步。有时，我也会提供一些真实教学情境与案例，保障同学们在今后的实际教学中有所准备，不会感到束手无措。此外，我同样也会在课堂上启迪学生思考，注重他们思维品质和综合能力的培养，以便学生可以在今后的教学生涯中更好地引导他们的学生，构建一个大家可以相互学习、相互帮助、相互成长的和谐社会。
最后，我想谈谈我所在的部门——国际交流处。部门内的所有同事都很友善、乐于助人，他们为我提供了一个非常温暖、和谐、富有爱心的工作环境。我们的办公室永远都是干劲满满，欢声笑语不断。从领导到同事，他们对我的教学工作都百分之百的支持，我们相互学习、一起教研、共同进步。除此之外，通过中教同事们，我更加深入地了解了中国文化与历史，让我对这个具有五千年历史的东方古国越发热爱。尽管迄今为止我只在上海周边随便逛了逛，但是我期待今后能够参观更多的地方，体验更多的中国文化。
如果你在校园中见到我，不要害羞，请对我说“你好”或者“Hello”。我非常愿意和你一起探讨美国阿拉斯加、中国、语言学、教育学等等，希望能更加了解你！
Hello, I’m Scott from Alaska, USA, and I’m happy to introduce myself. This is my second year at Tianhua College of Shanghai Normal University, and during my time here I have met many interesting leaders, colleagues, and students who have helped me a lot. I have benefited a lot from them and I am deeply grateful for that!
When I was very young, I dreamed of becoming a writer. Since both of my parents were teachers, I didn’t think that I would pursue a career in education. However, after I graduated from undergraduate school, many things happened that eventually led me to the path of teaching. My first teaching job was at a conversation school in Japan where I taught English to any adult or child who wanted to learn English. I slowly realized that teaching was what I wanted to do seriously in the future because I found that I had a passion for teaching English. Since then, I have been teaching at colleges and universities in the U.S. and other countries, and have enjoyed doing so. While I was teaching in Minnesota, I spent my free time studying for my master’s degree in TESOL. I then taught at a university in South Korea for several years. These overseas teaching experiences made me realize that teaching international college students was a great fit for me. While teaching at Northern Arizona University (one of TESOL’s partner institutions), located in the small town of Flagstaff, Arizona, I earned my PhD in Applied Linguistics.
At first, my research interests and directions focused on English education, and then slowly shifted to linguistics, focusing on vocabulary acquisition, i.e., how people learn new words. The topic of my PhD dissertation revolves around the analysis of vocabulary in English language textbooks – a corpus linguistic perspective. Therefore, I am doubly interested in the questions of how people learn new words and how they learn to communicate through textbooks. Did you know. Most English textbooks do not provide enough opportunities for students to practice their newly learned vocabulary. In addition, many textbooks do not include some common English words. I was quite surprised when I found this out in my research, but it is true. This is the kind of research topic that interests me because it helps us to gain a deeper understanding of language ontology, and it also gives teachers and students new ideas and perspectives on how to learn English vocabulary better.
By chance, I have the honor to be a language teacher in Tianhua-North Arizona Sino-foreign Cooperative Education Organization, which means a lot to me. The students in the program are like my classmates because we all have the same experience of studying at the same school, Northern Arizona University. Even though they are younger than me, I am excited and honored to think that in the near future they will graduate with a degree from Northern Arizona. In addition, as their teacher in this program, my role is to help and support their success. Guiding them to embark on the great educational path of elementary education or preschool with my enlightenment and guidance is another thing that is meaningful to me. I am very much looking forward to the fact that they will carry on the educational beliefs and ideals of Tianhua, Beiya and me, and that a single spark can start a prairie fire. In the future, we will all work as teachers to add to the cause of education, to enlighten the next generation and to build a beautiful and peaceful new world. I was really inspired by their positive attitudes and optimistic life styles.
As far as educational philosophy is concerned, I have always believed in putting students at the center of my education and doing my best to provide them with all kinds of support and assistance to help them achieve success. I always try to design interesting teaching activities and hands-on activities to make the classroom come alive by making it fun and learning by doing. Learning a new language is a long-term task, and students need to practice it over and over again in order to make progress in a gradual manner. Sometimes, I will also provide some real teaching situations and cases to ensure that students are prepared for the actual teaching in the future, so that they will not feel at a loss. In addition, I will also inspire students to think in class, focusing on the development of their quality of thinking and comprehensive ability, so that they can better guide their students in their future teaching career, and build a harmonious society in which we can learn from each other, help each other, and grow up with each other.
Finally, I would like to talk about my department, the International Exchange Office. All my colleagues in the department are friendly and helpful, and they provide me with a very warm, harmonious and caring working environment. Our office is always full of energy and laughter. From leaders to colleagues, they are 100% supportive of my teaching work. We learn from each other, teach and study together, and make progress together. In addition, through my Chinese colleagues, I have gained a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and history, which has made me more and more passionate about this ancient oriental country with a history of 5,000 years. Even though I have only been able to take a casual stroll around Shanghai so far, I am looking forward to visiting more places and experiencing more of Chinese culture in the future.
If you see me on campus, don’t be shy to say “Hello” to me. I would love to talk to you about Alaska, China, linguistics, education, etc. I hope to get to know you better!
Dr. Scott was introduced by ISAC Teach in China Program to work at Tianhua in Fall 2022. In the interest of personal privacy, the teacher’s last name is not revealed.
Read more on: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7Ate7v_I937MLLeDc4vfPw
