L&D Loves Languages loveslanguagespodcast

rlett Lopez is from Caracas, Venezuela. She moved to the US in 2014 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Marketing, and later a master’s degree in Instructional Design & Technology. She has a customer success background in the tech industry, and is currently a bilingual Instructional Designer, creating learning experiences for different clients. She volunteers as a career coach at Upwardly Global, mentoring refugee and immigrant job seekers in the US. 
 
Scarlett shares with Sarah and Katherine the importance of being surrounded in childhood by people who spoke multiple languages in shaping her language identity. They also discuss how language evolves through generations, and the challenge of producing content in a “neutral” language that isn’t really neutral at all. Scarlett shares her insights about how instructional designers advocate for learners and how learning a language helps cultivate empathy for learners.
 
Episode sponsored by Molly Shapiro, accountability coach. mollyshapirocoaching@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-shapiro/ 
 
Connect with Scarlett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-scarlett-lopez/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri

In this episode, Sarah and Katherine speak with Andrew Tobey. Andrew is a linguist with a knack for technology who works as a multilingual instructional designer in the corporate space. 
 
Andrew begins the conversation with a personal story about how multilingualism shaped his childhood, and talks more generally about the importance of immersing yourself in a language and speaking it from day one. He explains how learning a language builds persistence and confidence and can be a vehicle for growing many other skills, and how multilingual team members can facilitate so much more than just content creation in multiple languages. We also discuss strategies for leveraging AI as a first-draft tool and using our human skills for quality assurance, and how the ease of AI may lead to increased access through more content in more languages, but also may present security concerns.
 
Episode sponsored by Molly Shapiro, accountability coach. mollyshapirocoaching@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-shapiro/ 
 
Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewthstobey/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri

In this episode, Katherine and Sarah speak with Carly Overfelt. Carly has been teaching in higher education for over 15 years, especially courses in Writing, Literature, ESL and Linguistics. She has experience with faculty-facing programming and has been part of linguistic diversity curriculum and programming initiatives at three different higher ed institutions so far. What she learned in this work, especially from working with students, inspired her book project, tentatively titled Language Diversity in Higher Education: Where to Start and How to Push, a faculty and staff-facing resource on how to start working towards linguistic diversity and linguistic justice in higher education in the classroom and on the campus at large.
 
Carly, Sarah and Katherine chat about the many different Englishes spoken within the United States and how ideas of “right” and “wrong” Englishes can impact notions of status and create barriers for learners and educators alike. They also affirm that “y’all” is the inclusive second-person plural we all need and deserve. Finally, Carly explains how language diversity on campus is sometimes feared, misunderstood and dismissed by people in power, and highlights the constant navigation of prestige in the language we speak, hear, read and write every day.
 
Mentioned in the podcast:
A Linguistically Inclusive Approach to Grading Writing by Hannah A. Franz
The work of April Baker-Bell
A Pedagogy of Kindness by Catherine J. Denial
 
Are you faculty, staff or administration at a higher education institution? Have you been trying to make your classroom or campus more linguistically inclusive? Or are you a current or former college student who is multilingual or uses historically marginalized Englishes or other languages? If so, Carly wants to hear from you for a research study! This is especially applicable if you were on a campus or in a course designed to support linguistic diversity. The purpose of this study is to collect illustrations and real-world examples in this space in order to inform current and future efforts to support linguistic diversity on college campuses. Please email Carly Overfelt, at carlykoverfelt@gmail.com for more information and to set up a 1-hr Zoom call. Please feel free to share!
 
Connect with Carly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-overfelt-ph-d-99a6a9140/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.
 

In our fourth episode, Sarah and Katherine speak with Wedad Maatouk about her work as a district student services liaison. Wedad collaborates with a team of multilingual liaisons to ensure that students and parents in her school district have full language access by coordinating and providing translation and interpretation as needed.
Wedad is fluent in Arabic and knowledgeable in French and Spanish. She was born in Dearborn, Michigan and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Wedad has a master's in TESOL from Madonna University, and is adjunct ELI faculty at Henry Ford College in addition to her work as a district student services liaison for Dearborn Public Schools. She worked in the UAE as an assistant principal for two years and as an English faculty at Qatar University's English Foundation Program for two years.
 
Connect with Wedad on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wedad-maatouk-a1849626
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.

In our third episode, Katherine and Sarah speak with Alinnette Casiano, a bilingual learning and development leader with over 15 years of experience in education and leadership. She builds learning experiences through user experience research for cloud services sales enablement at Amazon Web Services. She recently started a doctoral program in public and nonprofit leadership. She is a Puerto Rican living in Texas and has a passion for emotional intelligence and community involvement through volunteering. Ali is fluent in English and Spanish.
 
Ali, Sarah and Katherine chat about Ali’s bilingualism as a superpower that allows her to understand and connect with people from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Also, Ali describes how she engages in user experience research in two languages, and her hopes for a multilingual future.
 
Mentioned in the podcast: Is Learning a Third Language Easier?
 
Connect with Ali on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinnettecasiano/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.

In this first episode, Sarah and Katherine tell their language stories and geek out about language issues in their respective workplaces. They begin a conversation about language, learning design, accessibility, equity and the people who make all of that happen. To be continued in future episodes!
 
Mentioned in the podcast: 
 
NPR’s Rough Translation podcast - How to Speak Bad English
Ethnologue: The world’s most spoken language
 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Episode transcript in English