ELI Lecturer IV Carmela Romano spent the Fall 2024 semester bringing her unique art- and performance based pedagogy to faculty and students at the University of Luxembourg. 

Throughout its long history, ELI’s creative, innovative faculty have led the way in the fields of applied linguistics, English for academic purposes, and TESOL teacher education. This year, ELI Lecturer Carmela Romano was recognized with a Fulbright award to spend a semester as a teacher and researcher at the University of Luxembourg. Carmela reports that Luxembourg appealed to her as a scholarly destination because of how deeply multilingualism is embedded into its society. In Luxembourg, she says, “The whole idea of language learning is just sort of a given.”

Working with Luxembourgish faculty and students, Carmela drew directly on the innovative, arts- and performance-based pedagogies she has been developing over many years with her collaborator, Michigan State University Professor of Theater Deric McNish (and summer ELI faculty member), including in their textbook Drama in the Language ClassroomWhat Every ESL Teacher Needs to Know, published by University of Michigan Press. 

Reflecting on her time in Luxembourg, Carmela describes the experience as both affirming and reinvigorating. Teaching abroad strengthened her commitment to core beliefs about language learning, she says. “I was seeing a lot of what I talk about in my classes in action, and just having those beliefs confirmed was probably the biggest thing.” She also highlighted the benefits of living in a culture where she did not speak any of the dominant languages, noting that it “was a really good reminder of what it’s like for students when they study abroad or immigrate here.”