This year, one of our very own Trustee Terri Marlow was awarded the James E. Alatis award by JNCL (Joint National Committee for Languages) in recognition for her work with Language Advocacy.
The James E. Alatis Founder’s Award was named for the late Dr. James E. Alatis, a founding member of the JNCL-NCLIS, as well as a number of other professional language associations, the James E. Alatis Founder’s Award is bestowed on an occasional basis during Language Advocacy Day to honor exceptional and life-long contributions to the advancement of language and international education, research and development, and practice.
When asked about the award Terri says, “I don’t feel that I’ve done anything special or out of the ordinary, but I have been doing language-related work for many years. And being a language teacher in the U.S. means being a language advocate. Language learning in our country is not valued as it should be, and language teachers constantly have to promote our programs in order to survive.”
Terri promotes the study of language through education by providing the most relevant and engaging lessons for students to help them increase their proficiency, organizing activities to reward students for their work, exposing them to other perspectives, providing opportunities for them to experience the joy of language learning, and publicizing student achievement and language events in an effort to make students, parents, the school and community aware of the multiple benefits of language learning is language advocacy.
Other activities include working with her department to plan and carry-out yearly National Foreign Language Week Celebrations or Language Fairs, serving on committees to document the place and importance of world language study in the curriculum, creating flyers for Open House, or discussions with School Board officials, parent groups, and community organizations – all of these and more are included in the definition of “world language teacher”. She also gives back to the profession with contributions to support the WV Foreign Language Teachers’ Assoc. and AATSP-WV over the years.
As if that weren’t enough, Terri also celebrates her 10th year participating in Language Advocacy Days this year by serving as “Official Delegate” for the state of WV, she is a member of the Outreach Committee, and occasional volunteer when needed. She follows up with legislators, stays connected with JNCL-NCLIS, and keeps WV members advised of Action Alerts and other updates. She founded the WV Advocacy for Languages team with colleagues Peggy Dolan, David Marlow, and Nancy Ryan.
“I also recognize that the little things we do and the consistency of our efforts also make a valuable contribution. And I have been consistent.” – Terri Marlow
See Terri’s achievement and other award winners here: https://www.languagepolicy.org/awards