Siham El Ougli

Instructor
EH 141

Biography

I graduated with a BA in English from USMBA in Fes, Morocco. I also have a master’s degree in English (with an emphasis in Linguistics) and graduate certificate in Applied Linguistics from Marshall University. I initially taught a variety of English and Reading courses with Mountwest Community and Technical College before working as a writing tutor with both MCTC and Marshall. Since graduation, I have also taught various beginner, intermediate, and advanced ESL classes covering different skills. Since 2015, I have developed and offered academic honesty workshops in addition to a plethora of service learning and other elective courses.

I see teaching as an opportunity to evolve. Today, I am not the same teacher I was eight or ten years ago when I had the privilege of teaching with the LEAP program, INTO and now ELI. First, being a former French and English language EL/EFL learner broadened my perspective about the challenges of learning a foreign language; by the same token, it made me appreciate the multilayered benefits of language learning. Hence, being around ESL students for this long helped me mold a more solid understanding of ways through which utilizing students’ diverse cultural backgrounds can help build lesson plans that potentially boost students’ academic and social performance.  I view teaching as an opportunity to assess my performance and embrace pedagogical tools based on the specific needs of my students. In the classroom, I view myself as both a student and an educator. I see myself benefiting from being exposed to diverse student learning styles and cultural backgrounds as I try to use this knowledge in order to gauge my students’ learning needs to better serve them. I also view new courses I teach as an opportunity to experiment with novel ways of teaching, which also opens my eyes to new learning ventures.