Layla Al-Bedawi

Introduction: Layla is a multilingual, multicultural language instructor with an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from West Virginia University. She was born in Germany, where she grew up speaking German, English, and Russian, and has lived in the US since 2006. She has experience teaching and tutoring ESL, German, English composition (for native and non-native speakers), creative writing, TOEFL preparation, and English conversation, as well as proofreading personal, business, and academic writing, and translating German>English. Layla is also a writer of fiction, poetry, and personal essays. Her work is published or forthcoming in Bayou Magazine, Liminal Stories, Strange Horizons, ARTHouston, and elsewhere. I have a genuine, natural enthusiasm about languages and language instruction. I love immersive, interactive classrooms, and believe that learning to communicate successfully should be an empowering, joyful experience. I believe that language and culture go hand in hand, and that you can't teach one without the other, so my English instruction is always influenced by my students' cultural background as well as the cultural and social situations they encounter in their lives here in the US. A permanent resident myself, I know very well what it takes to adapt to new environments, and I'm happy to help students navigate new territories of both language and culture to make their day-to-day experience a richer, more positive one. I love working with students from a variety of backgrounds, and find that the best teaching environments are those where students and teachers learn from and about each other.