The University of Texas at Arlington

Dr. Jeffrey Witzel

Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics and TESOL
College of Liberal Arts

UT Arlington Faculty

Dr. Jeffrey Witzel received a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from the University of Arizona in August 2010. He also received a Master of Arts in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawaii and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Witzel’s research focuses on language comprehension in both native and non-native speakers as well as on developing language teaching and assessment techniques based on psycholinguistic research methods. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Center for Advanced Study of Language.

Service Learning Class

Service Learning Classes (Spring 2012)

LING 4395: Internship

LING 5110: TESOL Practicum

LING 5393: TESOL Teaching and Observation

LING 5395: Graduate Internship

Academic Outcomes

Sixteen students provided close to 900 hours of English instruction at 14 different organizations, in service of around 150 learners from various language and cultural backgrounds. As testament to the students’ professionalism and dedication to this project, one of the participants, Carolyn Jones (MA TESOL '12), received the 2012 Literacy Texas (http://www.literacytexas.org/) Volunteer of the Year award for her service learning work at Vickery Meadow Learning Center (http://www.vmlc.org/)

Service Learning Project

Volunteer English Teaching

As part of the undergraduate- and graduate-level teaching practicum classes (LING 4395/5110/5393/5395) in the Department of Linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), students participated in a service-learning project in which they volunteered as English teachers and tutors at organizations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This service learning opportunity offered students the chance to gain hands-on teaching experience and to apply skills and techniques learned in class to actual teaching situations. One of the goals of this project was to help students think critically about how various teaching methods can be applied to meet the needs of specific student populations. This project also gave students the opportunity to see firsthand that their education can have a real and immediate impact on the community.

Description:

1. Students volunteered to teach English for 10-45 hours (depending on the class) at organizations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
2. In regular blog reflections, students discussed the lessons they learned and challenges they faced during their teaching, including innovative teaching techniques that they experimented with, different methods of classroom management, and how they worked to address the specific learning needs of their students. These reflections were organized as blog posts so that students could learn from and comment on their classmates’ experiences.
3. Students also recorded themselves as they taught one of their classes. They then submitted this recording along with a detailed reflection on their teaching. In this reflection, students discussed how the lesson demonstrated their strengths as a TESOL instructor, specific ways in which the lesson could have been improved, and what the lesson revealed about areas in which they need to develop further.

Partners:

Arlington Reads, Catholic Charities Fort Worth, Grace Community Church, LIFT at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, LIFT at First United Methodist Church, English Language Institute, Northlake Community College, Richardson Adult Literacy Center, South Hills High School, Tarrant County College Language Center, UT Southwestern International Office, Vickery Meadow Learning Center, W.E. Greiner Elementary School