Dr. Leor Alcalay

Winner of the 2005-2006 President's Award for Excellence

where he’s studied...
Harvard College,
AB Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Massachusetts, Boston,
MA English as a Second Language
University of Massachusetts, Boston,
MA Critical and Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
EdD Language, Literacy and Culture

what he’s taught...
Intermediate and Advanced ESL
Critical Thinking
Intercultural Communication
Introduction to Philosophy
Grammar
Basic Composition
Oral Communication - ESL
Vocabulary
Academic Reading
Study Skills

WHY DO YOU LOVE QUINCY COLLEGE?

I love Quincy College because it brings together a unique mix of supportive, experienced, and dedicated faculty, personable administrators, and an amazingly diverse population of students who are down-to-earth, unpretentious, enthusiastic about learning, and determined to create a better life for themselves and their families. They display great motivation, self-discipline, experience, and knowledge in a wide range of subjects. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to teach here, for it has enriched my own life so much. I have discovered that many of the theories of learning and human communication I studied in my own education are put into practice here in a special way. This unique and wonderful institution has contributed to the lives of so many individuals.

WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING?

I coined the term “Academic Marinator” to explain what I do as a teacher. I try to create a classroom atmosphere where experiences are shared, ideas explored, personal and cultural perceptions compared, and where all these can steep and percolate in ways that lead to lasting, transformative learning. My educational mission is to welcome students into the new world of academia they have entered, from whatever path, and to make them feel at home in ways that enable them to achieve their full human potential. Students may be coming from another culture and language, from the world of work, or from long-past school experiences, but they have made a decision and commitment to explore the educational opportunities at Quincy College. I prepare students for the modes of learning they can expect to face in their future academic careers. I lay the groundwork for long-term academic and professional success.

I have especially enjoyed the challenge of identifying curricular needs and designing new courses to better serve students. Many of my students have not been raised or educated in an English-speaking home or school environment. My special fields are teaching English to individuals who speak another native language, and preparing students for the abstract thinking required in college work. The ability to communicate in two or more languages is a particularly vivid demonstration of the particular genius of human beings for abstract thought, and has always been a goal of a liberal education. Yet, acquiring academic fluency in English when it is not one’s natural language in a relatively short period of time presents a great challenge, especially in terms of vocabulary, grammar, usage, and thinking directly in English. Even students who have completed a university degree using another language may lack the communicative experience (an estimated 10,000 hours cumulatively spent listening, speaking, reading, writing, or thinking, either actively or passively) all human beings need as we learn to function comfortably in even our native language. To make up for lost time, I ask my students to “use English to learn English” and to translate from “hard” to “easy” English and vice versa, rather than between English and their native languages. I immerse them in a steady diet of literature, newspapers and magazines, critical essays, films, conversations, audio and video instruction, dictionaries and reference books, emails and Web-based resources, library visits, and lectures on a wide variety of topics. Some of my students have grown up in another language and culture, yet already feel comfortable with social English; they still must work hard to learn to function well with academic English. Others are native English speakers who need to expand their vocabularies and strengthen their skills in academic reading and critical thinking to feel solidly prepared for intensive study in their future majors. It is a daily challenge not only to meet the individual instructional needs of each of my students, but also to enable them to appreciate and learn from one another. My own familiarity and experience with other languages and cultures helps me in this task.

I prepare myself for my classes by asking myself not only: “What will I teach today?” but also “What will I learn today?” I am constantly learning as I teach, from myself, from my academic disciplines, and from my students—in terms of language, communication, culture, pedagogy, and knowledge. The varied experiences, unlimited potential, and determination of my students continually reaffirms to me that I need to not only set high standards but also explain the purpose behind challenging assignments, grounding my classroom atmosphere of free inquiry and humor within an academically rigorous framework. I’m so pleased when I see my students graduating, going on to further university degrees, and participating in society and the economy as professionals. A student from Nepal once told me that teachers are so respected in his culture that the word for “teacher” means something like “maker of people.” I feel a sense of professional pride when I recognize that I have contributed to a student’s discovery of his or her full potential as a learner, and I feel a sense of personal fulfillment when I enable students to put their natural abilities to full use.

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