Category Archives: FLL Spotlight

In the Spotlight: Spanish Lecturer Karen Tharrington Explains How a FLL Education Makes Our Schools a Better Place to Learn

Karen Tharrington image

Karen Tharrington during a recent Study Abroad trip to Costa Rica. (Photo courtesy of Karen Tharrington)

Karen Tharrington is a Lecturer of Spanish and current Program Coordinator for the French and Spanish Teacher Education program at the Department of Foreign Languages and LIteratures. She is a native Ohioan and longtime Wolfpacker who — after a long and distinguished career in K-12 education — joined the FLL department in 2007. Currently, Karen is pursuing a PhD in Education at NC State.

Karen’s program offers NC State students not only a pathway to a teaching career as a licensed K-12 educator but also a doorway to other careers in lifetime learning and leadership.

In the following interview, Karen shares her insights with Samuel Sotillo about what brought her to teaching, her experiences as a passionate educator, and why she thinks that a FLL Concentration in Teacher Education can help future FLL graduates to influence their pupils’ attitudes and beliefs about languages and cultures.

Samuel Sotillo: First, could you tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from? Where did you go to undergrad and graduate school?

Karen Tharrington: I am originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. I am a Wolfpack alumna, having attended NCSU for both undergraduate and graduate school. I am currently pursuing a PhD here in Curriculum and Instruction.

SS: Can you tell us a little bit about the intellectual trajectory that brought you to teaching? What did you do before coming to NC State?

KTh: I never planned to be a teacher but after observing in a local middle school as part of my undergraduate requirements, I fell in love with teaching and it has driven my life since then. I am passionate about the Spanish language and culture and wanted to cultivate that desire in my students. I spent 11 years teaching in Wake County Public Schools at both the middle and high school levels. I love pedagogy and second language acquisition, so coming back to work with the Teacher Education program seemed like a natural fit for me.

SS: Now, let’s talk a little bit about your program, the Concentration in Teacher Education. What’s about? Who should consider joining this program? Is it only for teachers?

KTh: We are in dire need of good teachers in our schools. Although our state has not made languages as much of a priority as other states have, teachers can influence attitudes and beliefs about languages and cultures. The concentration in Teacher Education is ideal for any student who wants to explore curriculum and instructional methods as a future career. Students leave the program with a content degree (French or Spanish) along with the skills and knowledge about how to transfer that information to someone else, be it a kindergartener or an adult. Although graduates finish with a K-12 teaching certificate, their prospects for careers are broad.

SS: What career opportunities there are for graduates with a Concentration in Teacher Education?

KTh: Learning how to teach is as important as knowing your content area, and graduates of our program have numerous opportunities. The most obvious is teaching K-12, but other career areas could include designing and implementing training programs for adults in an industry, working with the educational department at a museum, or designing curriculum for a company like SAS. Many graduates choose to teach abroad for a while, teaching English in South Korea, Chile, or Spain. With a language degree and the pedagogy, the opportunities are endless!

SS: What makes this program special? What is unique about it?

KTh: Our program is unique in that students are getting 30 hours of language content classes in addition to classes that explore pedagogical, curricular, and educational theory. Our program also includes a teaching practicum during the final semester. For those who are interested in teaching abroad, we have international student teaching programs in China, Brazil, and Russia that complement their domestic internship. Another great aspect of our program is that students are able to complete the program within four years and leave CHASS with a BA in their language area and a teaching certificate k-12 in North Carolina. Since our state has reciprocity with many other states, their certification is good if students desire to move around the country.

SS: Let’s talk a little bit more about you, what do you enjoy and find most challenging about teaching?

KTh: I love interacting with students the most. My mantra has always been to teach the student first, then the subject. Students make the class interesting and bring different perspectives to the discussion. Those “a-ha” moments make me so happy and I truly love when my Spanish students use the language spontaneously and communicatively. The most challenging aspect of teaching in k-12 is dealing with the policy-makers, who often times have never taught. At all levels, having students who do not see their own potential can be very frustrating. Teachers, I believe, are altruistic by nature so it is difficult to watch students sabotage their success.

SS: Thinking about your students, in what major ways do you want most to influence their lives?

KTh: Since I have two very different types of classes, I’ll give you two examples. For my Spanish students, I want them to love the language and be able to actually use it in real-life situations. I also want to inspire them to travel! For my Teacher-Education students, I want them to go out and be amazing teachers who never accept the status quo for teaching. I want them to know that teaching is tough but rewarding, if it is done right.

SS: Anything you are reading right now?

KTh: I am currently reading El mañana by Mirta Ojito. It is about a woman who came to the States as part of the Mariel Boat lifts from Cuba. Professionally, I read lots of journals in the foreign language and educational fields.

SS: Anything else we should know about you?

KTh: I love photography and traveling. I always wanted to be a professional photographer for National Geographic. I also dance competitive ballroom with my husband, although we aren’t really that good; it’s mostly for fun.

SS: What do you look forward to most?

KTh: I look forward to beautiful days where I can sit on my porch and enjoy the nature that surrounds me.

SS: Do you have any advice for our students and alumni who are on the job market?

KTh: Travel first, work later 🙂

By Samuel Sotillo, Lecturer/Webmaster, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

In the Spotlight: Spanish Sociolinguist Dr. Rebecca Ronquest

Dr. Rebecca Ronquest, New FLL Tenure-Track Faculty

Dr. Rebecca Ronquest, New FLL Tenure-Track Faculty.

Rebecca Ellen Ronquest joined the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures during the Fall 2013 semester as an Assistant Professor in Spanish Sociolinguistics and Acoustic Phonetics.

A native of the Midwest, Dr. Ronquest started working in the department last year as a Postdoctoral Teaching Scholar before making the transition to her new position as Assistant Professor. Her specialty is acoustic phonetics, particularly that of Hispanic bilingual speakers residing in the Carolinas.

The following is an email interview that FLL Webmaster Samuel Sotillo recently conducted with Dr. Ronquest.

Samuel Sotillo: First, could you tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from? Where did you go to undergrad and graduate school?

Rebecca Ronquest: Although I was born in the Midwest and moved around a lot when I was very young, I spent most of my childhood and teenage years in Northern Virginia. After high school I attended the College of William & Mary, where I completed a B.A. in Spanish. I became really interested in linguistics during my last two years of college, so I decided to pursue that interest further in graduate school. I went on to earn my M.A. and Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at Indiana University.

SS: Can you tell us a little bit about the intellectual trajectory that brought you to academia and to Spanish Sociolinguistics and Acoustic Phonetics?

RR: I’ve been interested in words and languages for about as long as I can remember (even though I was never really any good at spelling!). In middle school I took an “Overview of Foreign Language” class, and the following year starting taking Spanish, which I continued all the way through high school. In college I signed up for a class called “Spanish Phonetics and Phonology” (the equivalent of FLS 333) without really knowing what phonetics was at the time, and loved it. For me, learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) was like learning another language, and I really enjoyed transcription and studying the sounds of the world’s languages. I then took a course called “The Study of Language” which introduced me to the other areas in linguistics, including sociolinguistics. In graduate school I took a number of specialized classes and seminars, and even spent some time working in a psycholinguistics laboratory. The course assignments never seemed like work to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process of conducting research. 

As a graduate student, I was also given the chance to teach introductory and intermediate Spanish at the college level. Although I had no prior training and had never really considered teaching as a career until that point, I found that I felt very much at home in front of a classroom. I learned quickly that teaching is really hard work, but it is also one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. After teaching Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics for the first time, I knew for certain that I wanted to be a professor, and to continue sharing my enthusiasm for Spanish and linguistics with the next crop of potential researchers and teachers.

SS: What does a Spanish Sociolinguist do? What is Acoustic Phonetics?

RR: Very generally speaking, Sociolinguists investigate the relationship between language use and social variables such as age, gender, and socioeconomic class (to name a few). A sociolinguistic study of Spanish, for example, might investigate if male and female speakers differ in terms of how frequently they pronounce or delete “s” in certain linguistic contexts. Sociolinguists also investigate topics such as bilingualism, language and society, new dialect formation, and the connection between language and identity. I’m particularly interested in bilingual pronunciation and how Spanish-English bilinguals might use language as a means to construct a dual or hybrid identity.

Acoustic phonetics is the study of the acoustic properties of speech. Acoustic phoneticians use a variety of tools to examine the fine-grained details of speech sounds that often can’t be perceived by listening alone. An acoustic investigation might allow us to see if second language learners of Spanish and native speakers pronounce the “p” in the word “pato” differently, or determine if the “d” in “hablado” is the same or weaker than the “d” in “lado.” Characterizing a sound or group of sounds in this way has a number of important implications, from accurately describing the sounds of a particular language or dialect, to understanding why a certain group of sounds might be difficult for some speakers to pronounce and/or perceive.

SS: What are you working on right now?

RR: Right now I am continuing to work with some of the data I collected for my dissertation, which deals with the pronunciation of the Spanish vowels by heritage speakers of Spanish. I have begun to extend this work to include vowel production by Spanish-English bilinguals in Raleigh and the surrounding areas, and am in the process of making comparisons between bilingual speakers from the Midwest and those here in the Southeast. Some of these projects are collaborations with Dr. Jim Michnowicz and one of our graduate students, Mary Raudez.

SS: In what ways do you think are your research and your teaching connected?

RR: Since I primarily teach courses in my specialty areas, there is a pretty strong connection between my research and my teaching. In FLS 333 (The Sounds of Spanish) and FLS 402/502 (Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics), I’m able to share my knowledge of phonetics and acoustics with the students, and make a point to discuss some of the findings of my vowel research with them as well. Last year I also taught a seminar on Spanish in the United States, which focused on analyzing the linguistic characteristics of bilingual and immigrant varieties of Spanish spoken in different communities across the US. We spent a good deal of time discussing heritage speakers of Spanish, who are my main population of interest.

Teaching has also allowed me to meet members of the local Spanish-speaking community. In fact, my interest in heritage speakers grew out of my experiences working with them in the classroom. Teaching and getting to know members of the Raleigh bilingual community has helped me identify some of the aspects of their speech that should be investigated further, and provided ideas for future research projects.

SS: What do you enjoy and find most challenging about teaching?

RR: I think what I enjoy most about teaching is witnessing someone’s “Aha! Moment” — when all of a sudden, all of the complex, abstract concepts suddenly make sense and a student notices something we’ve discussed in class in a real-world context. The challenge — but also something I truly enjoy — is coming up with creative and innovative ways to teach the information and present it to the students in a context that is relevant to their lives. This involves getting to know the students and learning about their interests, keeping up with what’s “trending,” and maybe even watching the MTV Video Music Awards.

SS: Anything you are reading right now?

RR: Although I’m always browsing the latest journals and keeping up with research in the field, I try to make time for some fun reading. I just finished Veronica Roth’s “Insurgent”, which is about a dystopian society in a future Chicago.  It is somewhat similar to “The Hunger Games” series, so if you liked those books, I highly recommend it.

SS: Anything else we should know about you?

RR: Let’s see. I love to run, and try to make time for it every day.  I enjoy competing in road races, and hope to complete my first marathon and triathlon this year. All that running makes my feet hurt, so I keep a pair of slippers in my office. You might catch me accidentally wearing them in the mail room. You might also hear me talking about my dog Max, an 11 year-old Pekingese. He is quite charming and adorable, so I hope you’ll all get a chance to meet him. And I can ride a unicycle and juggle, just not at the same time.

SS: What do you look forward to most about your new position?

RR: I’m really looking forward to becoming part of a team and contributing to the teaching and research communities here at State.  Last spring I was given the chance to offer a new senior seminar, and I hope to create new courses in my specialty areas down the line that will strengthen our linguistics track. I’m also really looking forward to the opportunity to grow as a researcher, to learn from my colleagues in FLL and in the Linguistics program, and to collaborate with so many talented researchers — both faculty and graduate students alike. A lot of innovative and important research is underway, so I’m enthusiastic to be able to work on some of the existing projects as well as design new ones of my own.

SS: Do you have any advice for our students and alumni who are on the job market?

RR: My best advice? I think it goes without saying that it is very important to research each position carefully. Before even applying, investigate the school and the position; know who works there, what they do, and how you can contribute. The job market is also a waiting game, so you have to be patient. Sometimes you submit an application and don’t hear anything for months, if at all. Once an application is submitted, move on to other things and don’t dwell; trust that the right job will come along at the right time. Finally, probably the biggest lesson I learned over the past few years is that so much of the search process deals with finding the right “fit.” Even if a particular job sounds great on paper, you might go on an interview and realize that it just isn’t the right place for you. Pay attention to your interactions with the people you meet, think about what it would be like to be one of their colleagues, and try to get a sense of the departmental dynamics. Intuition usually tells you pretty quickly if it will be a good place to start or continue your career.

By Samuel Sotillo, Webmaster/Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Kaitlyn Rogers: FLL Major Extraordinario

FLL Major Kaitlyn Rogers in a traditional Mayan huipil and corte dress (Guatemala).

FLL Major Kaitlyn Rogers in a traditional Mayan huipil and corte dress (Guatemala).

The first impression you get when you meet Kaitlyn Rogers for the first time is that you are in front of a very intelligent and inquisitive person. Her sparkling eyes are particularly memorable: they don’t simply contemplate the world; they also constantly weigh in, inquiring and conversing with everything around her.

Kaitlyn, a double major in Spanish and Biology, is president of the FLL Spanish Club, and an aspiring medical student. As a Jefferson Scholar, she recently participated in an experiential learning trip to Bermuda.

She was my student several  semesters ago, and she was outstanding. The following is the full version of an email interview I conducted with her.

Samuel Sotillo: First, could you tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from? Where did you go to HS? What are you majoring in at NC State?

Kaitlyn Rogers: I grew up in Chapel Hill, NC about 35 minutes away from the NC State campus. I attended East Chapel Hill High School where, in addition to all the “typical” classes, I also took four years of Spanish. I knew I wanted to continue studying Spanish in college so I declared a double major in Human Biology and Spanish.

SS: Why did you choose your FLL Major?

KR: I started studying Spanish in 5th grade and have been taking Spanish classes ever since. By my senior year of high school I’d gotten to the point where I could hold a (slightly disjointed) conversation in Spanish and I didn’t want to lose that ability. I also knew that studying Spanish would make me more employable. I’m hoping to attend Medical School post graduation and speaking Spanish will not only help my application but, long term, make me a more effective doctor.

SS: What opportunities within your FLL Program have been most beneficial to your education? Of these, which would you recommend to incoming FLL students?

KR: I know that many of the foreign language programs have clubs and would recommend that any foreign language student, whether they’re a beginner or advanced, check those clubs out. I joined the Spanish Club at NC State in the fall of 2011 and I was elected president of the club for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years which has given me a lot of great opportunities to not only make friends but also to learn about Hispanic heritage and culture (the subjects of our group meetings). Spanish Club also hosts conversation groups which have given me the opportunity to practice my speaking skills with other people who are also passionate about learning Spanish. Practice really is the only way to learn a new language and conversation groups, whether they’re part of a class or offered by a club, provide an excellent, low stakes setting for people to make friends and become better, more confident speakers.

The other major opportunity I’ve had (and would recommend for every foreign language student) was to travel abroad. In my case, I studied in Guatemala for seven and a half weeks this past summer with NC State’s Ethnographic Field School. While I was in Guatemala I conducted 21 formal and informal interviews asking about the Guatemalan healthcare system, how and when patients decide to go to the doctor, and some of the obstacles doctors and patients encounter when it comes to providing and receiving quality healthcare. Beyond my actual research project, I learned a lot about Guatemalan and indigenous culture. I wore the traditional Mayan huipil and corte (blouse and skirt), made tortillas on a wood burning stove, watched the Disney Channel dubbed in Spanish and had long conversations with my host mother about school, the cost of eggs in the market, her family, my family and what it means to be Guatemalan, indigenous or American. My trip will be useful from a curricular standpoint, allowing me to get an Anthropology Minor as well as providing me with the material for my Thomas Jefferson Scholars capstone project. Beyond that, however, I learned a great deal about myself and the beauties of a culture that is both similar and different from my own (something which can only be touched on in a classroom setting).

SS: What does it mean to be a Jefferson Scholar? Do you think that being a FLL Major may have helped you to be better prepared as a Jefferson Scholar?

KR: I was invited to join the Thomas Jefferson Scholars Program in my senior year of high school after indicating on my NC State application that I was considering double majoring in Spanish and Biology.  The Jefferson Scholars are a small group of about 40 students all of whom are double majoring in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Every student in the group is double majoring in the sciences and humanities and many of us are FLL majors. We meet biweekly to listen to guest speakers and discuss any club business but, more than that, we are involved in several service projects around campus (Shack-A-Thon and The Warming Tree), we just hosted our inaugural Distinguished Lecture Series, and we take two trips each year, one in the fall and one in the spring. This past May the Jefferson Scholars Program introduced a new, international element to the program inviting all the juniors and seniors to travel to Bermuda for a week where we learned about marine biology, ecology, and the island’s culture.

SS: What community engagement opportunities related to your FLL Major have most influenced your professional vision and practice? Was your involvement with any of these community activities based on a faculty/staff recommendation or course requirement?

KR: Last fall I got an email about an internship with the Urban Ministries of Wake County Open Door Clinic. I mentioned in my cover letter that I was a Spanish major who was very comfortable speaking Spanish and, for that reason, was awarded the internship. I spent three months working with English and Spanish speaking applicants in the eligibility department and, in the spring, started working as a nurse. Although the clinic has interpreters who help with Spanish speaking patients (and I often get their help with taking patient histories), it’s great to not be reliant upon their availability to check in a patient or schedule a follow up appointment. Speaking Spanish was what got my foot in the door at the clinic and has been incredibly useful in my work since then.  I’ve had my moments of confusion when patients use unfamiliar words but I’m continuing to learn and this experience has reaffirmed my desire to not only be a doctor, but to be a doctor who is fluent in Spanish.

SS: How has your FLL coursework and research influenced your decision to pursue a particular focus or area within your field?

KR: I’d love to do something like Doctors Without Borders and am definitely interested in the Peace Corps but working at the clinic in Raleigh has also illustrated the need for Spanish speaking doctors locally. I was initially interested in going into pathology or anesthesiology which are fields of medicine with low patient contact. My work in the clinic has made me realize how much I enjoy working with patients, however, which, combined with my Spanish degree, has me more interested in fields where I will not only have more patient contact but contact with Spanish speaking patients.

SS: What is the most challenging aspect of your FLL Major? What’s the most rewarding?

KR: The biggest challenge for me as a Spanish major has always been mastering Spanish grammar. I love being able to speak with native Spanish speakers at my job, in a store, or while I was studying abroad but sometimes find that I don’t have the necessary language skills to understand or be understood. These moments are always frustrating but especially in a classroom when poor grammar and an incorrect conjugation can affect your grade. Fortunately, these moments of absolute confusion are becoming less frequent as I continue my Spanish major and my Spanish language skills improve. It’s incredibly rewarding to reread a short story which I struggled with in high school only to realize that I understand it perfectly now.  All those classroom discussions of literature have also increased my confidence in my spoken ability and having an actual conversation in Spanish has become easier. I still have those moments when I realize my Spanish skills are completely inadequate for the task at hand (I avoid speaking Spanish over the telephone at all costs), but they are less frequent than they were three years ago.

SS: When you think of the future, what gives you a sense of hope? What concerns you?

KR: I won’t graduate until December of 2014 due to my dual degrees but I’m already starting to think about life after college and what that will entail. Like a lot of soon to be graduates I’m looking forward to finishing college and continuing on with the next stage in my life (which will hopefully be Med School) but I’m also worried about studying for the MCAT, the med school application process and creating backup plans. More long term, I look forward to seeing gay marriage legalized in all fifty states. I’m delighted to see healthcare coverage expanding here in the United States and hope that trend will continue until everyone will have access to the medical care they need regardless of their personal finances or citizenship.

SS: What’s next for you after graduation? What are you looking forward to?

KR: I’m planning to graduate from NC State in December of 2014. After that I hope to go to medical school although I’m also considering taking a gap year (or two) to join the Peace Corps or another volunteer organization. I will most definitely miss NC State and all of the friends I’ve made here but I’m also looking forward to being somewhere new.

By Samuel Sotillo, Lecturer/Webmaster, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.