Advocating for Early Language Learning: Julia Mallalieu (HISP ’19) Receives FLAVA Award
Education in languages other than English is cornerstone in training future global citizens that can address both domestic and global issues in culturally sensitive ways. Unsurprisingly, several students in the HISP program are inspired to select the professional path of education. And they thrive in it.
Julia M. (Inglesby) Mallalieu (HISP ’19; MA Ed ’20) won the Best of Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA) award for her outstanding presentation at the FLAVA conference in November 2022. As a first grade teacher in the Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program at Alanton Elementary (Va Beach), Julia taught math and sciences in Spanish. Her presentation, titled “Number Talks in a Dual Language Setting,” was distinguished at the annual conference of FLAVA, Virginia’s premier organization advocating for world language education. “Number talks are a great way to help your child grasp mathematics in both languages,” Julia explains. She also received a $1,000 scholarship from FLAVA to attend the Northeast Conference of Teaching Foreign Language (NECTFL) in NYC in March 2023.
Julia’s love for languages started early and played a significant role in her years at W&M. “I started taking Spanish classes when I was 11 years old and didn't stop until my first semester at W&M because I knew I had already met the language requirement. I knew that I enjoyed Spanish, but I didn't realize the way I would miss it until that semester when I no longer had a class in Spanish.” After talking to HISP professors at the MLL open house that fall, Julia decided to sign up for Intro to Hispanic Studies in the spring and re-ignite her relationship with Spanish.
After graduating with a major in HISP, Julia immediately enrolled in the W&M School of Education to pursue an MA degree. It was there that Prof. Katherine Barko-Alva, a specialist in bilingual instruction, encouraged Julia to investigate the DLI program in VBCPS. “I actually attended K-12 in Virginia Beach, but never knew about the DLI program until talking to Dr. Barko-Alva. I was fortunate to secure a position in first grade at Alanton Elementary and spent three wonderful years teaching there” until summer 2023.
Being part of a military family, Julia is currently looking into opportunities to work on bilingual education outside of the classroom. “Reading about the work of organizations like JNCL-NCLIS and NABE has inspired me to consider work in advocacy and/or curriculum development for bilingual programs in US schools, especially at the elementary school level. I know how important my own language learning has been to my experiences as a student and as a thinker, and I would love for language education beginning in elementary school to be a national standard.”
“I am so grateful for the Hispanic Studies and MLL departments at W&M and the experiences they afforded to me.” concludes Julia.
During their time in the HISP program, students have the chance to take classes on issues related to Hispanic linguistics, such as language ideology, language contact & change, bilingualism, and the use of Spanish in the US. These experiences have lead students to write Honors Theses, or to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees and certificates in ESL or Bilingual Education. Students also have the unique opportunity to participate in the HISP/MLL Teaching Internship and serve as undergraduate Teaching Assistants in the HISP language program (103-203) under the close mentorship of an instructor.
In recent years, HISP alums who have chosen the path of education have received awards for their pedagogical work in the local high school system. Others have embarked on adventures abroad, whether it be teaching at a bilingual school in Costa Rica; spending a semester in Chile teaching English at a high school via a joint initiative of the Chilean government and the United Nations; or teaching English in Mexico thanks to a coveted Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award. Several HISP alums have also participated in the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP) run by the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain to become Language Assistants and Cultural Ambassadors in elementary and secondary schools across Spain.
