U.S. Department of State selects SEMO faculty member for English Language Specialist Project

Sarah Yenesel ~ sarahy@semissourian.com Academic Hall on Southeast Missouri State University campus as seen on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020.

Sarah Yenesel

Southeast Missouri State University faculty member Sarah Dietrich was recently selected for the U.S. State Department’s English Language Specialist Program.

Dietrich, who has served as co-coordinator of the master’s in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) with SEMO’s English Department since 2017, will “develop and facilitate a 12-week project teaching language for civil society and media literacy in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.”

Dietrich was appointed to the position following an interview with Regional English Language Officers and U.S. embassy representatives.

“This project creates opportunities for international recruitment and to build the foundation for future intercultural collaborations,” Dietrich said in a news release. “Personally, this project allows me to build on my experience with English language teaching and online collaborations as I learn about, with and from a new group of students.”

The English Language Specialist Program offers TESOL leaders an opportunity to “enact meaningful and sustainable changes in the way that English is taught abroad.” Specialists will work with local teacher trainers, educational leaders and ministry of education officials to “exchange knowledge, build capacity, and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities in the United States and overseas.”

Dietrich has taught English and served as a teacher educator in Brazil, France, Mexico and the United States, and was a Fulbright Scholar in TESOL/Applied Linguistics. She was co-director of a Fulbright grant in 2014, which brought eight scholars from Iraq to the U.S. for 10 weeks, and has authored multiple publications about TESOL.

More information about the English Language Specialist Program or the U.S. Department of State is available at www.elprograms.org/specialist, by calling (202) 632-6452 or emailing ECAPress@state.gov.