Eduardo M Valerio, PhD
Department of Foreign Languages
Foreign Language Education
VITA
Home
This narrative will provide you with an overview of my role at Lock Haven University. In the right hand column above are links to documents supporting my application for promotion. Other links may be found within the narrative.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATOR
I was hired to fill a position vacated by Linda Emmanuel (who died of
cancer) for preparing foreign language teacher candidates. The focus of
my doctoral studies was foreign language pedagogy and second language
acquisition. I studied the foreign language standards during all my
years of study at Purdue University and focused on the standards and
curriculum research for my doctoral thesis. These standards were not
adopted formally by state and national departments of education until
the semester before I received my Ph.D. Still I recognized the
importance of the standards and used them as a foundation for my
teaching materials. I also advised university leadership that the
standards were in the process of being formally adopted for foreign
language teacher education and language study. University leaders
responded by approving a fact finding project, which I was commissioned
to conduct during the summer of 2002. The standards were formally
adopted in the fall following completion of this project. My
development of language and language education courses around the
standards coupled with the anticipation of the formal adoption of the
standards were key components of the success we achieved in attaining
Pennsylvania Department of Education approval on their first visit
following the adoption of the national standards for foreign language
teacher education.
LINGUISTICS TEACHER
I was also hired to fill a position vacated due to the retirement of
Bob Mullen. My master's degree was awarded in Applied
Linguistics-Spanish. This training especially suited the needs of the
university at the time I was hired. Spanish is a language spoken in
more than 20 countries. The diversity represented in the Spanish
language is immense--there are four dialects found in Spain alone.
Students frequently will believe they have lost fluency when studying
linguistics, in reality they have been made aware of their errors. The
study of linguistics is essential for Spanish teachers who must learn
how to explain to learners a variety of language characteristics and
learn use sounds from their own language to demonstrate key components
of the Spanish language. An important feature of these classes are
native speaker visitors who talk with the students and they learn to
distinguish among the various dialects of Spanish. This is appreciated
by both the students in the linguistic class as well as the
Spanish-speaking visitor. It also demonstrates an important element
advocated in the language standards to provide as much exposure as
possible to face-to-face communication with native speakers.
COMPREHENSIVE WEBSITE
The HOME link will take you to my main website
which is a comprehensive and vital component of all my courses. It
contains course information for 18 months. In this way students who
would like to take classes that are only offered every other year can
see a class handout listing course objectives as well as the kinds of
assignments and rubrics used to assess student work. Former students
may also refer to information.
The website serves as a valuable resource for all my courses. I post course documents, class handouts, PowerPoint presentations, forms, and valuable course links there. I post assignments on my website so students can type right in them.
I consistently refer interested members of the community to my website as a valuable language resource. It contains basic Spanish (and many other languages) for a variety of professions, and links for children and adult language learners.
I have received Email requests from students taking other language classes who heard from fellow students about helpful language study resources and wanted to take advantage of the exercises available there. I also receive messages from individuals who have appreciated the many resources available and responded on my comments page.
I require my language students and teacher candidates to search the Internet for resources for a variety of purposes. They report specific strengths of the sites they reference. I also am directed by colleagues in professional language associations to especially useful web resources. I evaluate new sources and add those I feel are the best.
Keeping a website this comprehensive requires significant effort; however, I feel the benefits surpass the work required.
Effective use of technology is an important component required by the university as well as required of my teacher education students that I believe my website showcases. It is also an effective advocate for Lock Haven University in the local as well as in the greater academic community.