Rediscovering My Latin-American Professional Identity: A Reflection on a Fulbright Experience.

I emigrated from Peru to the United States in the mid- 1980s. More than 20 years later, a short trip to Latin America helped me come full circle personally and professionally and close the gaps that I had felt developing over the past two decades. This opportunity was provided by a Fulbright Senior Specialist Program award at The University of Costa Rica in San Jose at the School of Modern Languages during 2008. The Fulbright experience was a renewal for me professionally, as it opened a window of opportunities to see the cultural and language commonalties and differences between my academic experience in the US and my Latin American ancestry.In 2008 I was selected by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) for a Fulbright Senior Specialist Program award at The University of Costa Rica in San Jose. The program aims to increase the participation of U.S. scholars in Fulbright academic exchanges by providing shorterlength programs of study, allowing for more flexibility for academics in planning their work schedules around overseas scholarship.Costa Rica has a big need for developing English language skills in their college students in relation to their fields of expertise because of job demands among global companies. The country has become highly educated after the government began supporting free public education in the 1950s, and with a large segment of young people, a number of international and global companies have developed on-site branches in Costa Rica. As a result, there's a high demand for young professionals who can speak English fluently and a growing number of students in The School of Modern Languages at The University of Costa Rica (UCR).As my expertise is in the English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) areas, I was selected to collaborate with administrators and faculty at the School of Modern Languages at UCR during December, 2008. I was positively impressed by the high professionalism and enthusiasm of the colleagues I met, all of them professors at different undergraduate and master levels of ESL/EFL and other foreign languages programs. The faculty of the School of Modern Languages was formed by a large cadre of professors, around 100 of them, who train elementary, high school, and postsecondary educators to be specialists in teaching a variety of second and foreign languages (including English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic).UCR administrators and faculty have been engaging in a multi-year process of developing a new professional identity for the university, which has resulted in a renovated interest in improving knowledge and in keeping up-to-date with new research trends and instructional methodologies. One of the outcomes of this effort was the First International Linguistic Congress organized by the Head of the School of Modern Languages, Mr. Alder Senior (who played the role of my host) in collaboration with faculty and other administrators. My visit was motivated by two purposes: (1) to network and plan possible collaborative activities on research and training with short and long term goals, and (2) to participate in the First International Linguistic Congress as a keynote speaker, round table panelist, and workshop presenter.My keynote address provided an overview of major historical and contemporary research trends in teaching ESL/EFL, and applications for assessment and instruction for adult learners. I also participated in a roundtable panel that explored the role of multiculturalism in different countries and led two workshops, one examining second-language learning and the other exploring the cultural adaptation of international students in the U.S. The conference activities and presentations were well planned and highly informative and interactive.The administrators and faculty were eager to develop international contacts and collaborative activities, and they expressed a genuine interest in training opportunities abroad at the doctoral level. …