How to Become a French, Spanish or Italian Teacher
Are you interested in pursuing a career in education as a World Language teacher? Do you already speak French, Spanish, or Italian, and have you always felt like your knowledge and passion for language and culture could translate (pun intended!) to a really exciting and rewarding career in the field of education? Whether you are a high school or college student, or a working professional looking to transition, this blog post will…
Detail the skills and dispositions that you can begin (or continue) to cultivate today to help forge your path forward in the field of World Language education.
Equip you with general information about the pathways to acquiring certification, including what you can do in high school and prior to enrolling in a university program.
Inform you of important tips for successfully completing your language major.
Before I begin, however, it is important to note that credentialing and certification can look different depending on the country, state, province, county, and even town in which you plan on teaching! Therefore, the information provided in this post will be generic information that can be considered widely applicable, but it’s your responsibility to research the certification process in the specific area where you wish to teach.
So you want to teach languages, eh?
I think it is super commendable that you are interested in becoming a language teacher! You might be asking yourself, however, if this career is right for you, and I think having that sort of introspective dialogue with yourself is critical. Becoming a language teacher is not easy: it is an arduous, long, and expensive path…but it’s totally a valuable and worthwhile one!! I just want you to be sure that it’s the correct path for you before you commit your time, energy, and money to seek certification.
I’d say that in order to be a successful language teacher, you need to have the following characteristics, traits, and dispositions:
You need to love language and culture.
You need to enjoy working with students and transmitting knowledge.
You need to be interested in instructional design: how do my students learn best, and how can I take this material and make it digestible for my learners?
You need to be open-minded, culturally responsive, and a life-long learner.
You need to have a strong work ethic: you should be responsible, dependable, committed, and trustworthy, and you should be a person of good moral character and high integrity.
You need to be patient. Language learning, as you know, is a slow process.
If you’ve got most—or all!—of these traits, then please continue reading on!
High School & University Preparation
If you are a high school junior or senior thinking about becoming a French, Spanish, Italian, Latin or German teacher, I’d recommend that you take as high a level of the target language as you possibly can. If your school offers Honors and Advanced Placement courses, you’ll most definitely want to take them (and take the AP exam!) so that you continue to build your proficiency and habituate yourself with the rigors of upper-level language classes that you will have to take at the college level. If you score a high enough level on the AP exam, you’ll most likely be able to place out of introductory World Language courses at the university level, which can save you money and accelerate your degree progress.
When choosing a university, make sure that they offer a major in the language you’d like to teach. In order to become a Spanish teacher, for example, you’ll most certainly have to major in Spanish, which is usually around 30 credits of upper-level Spanish courses (i.e., courses beyond “Intro to Spanish” and “Intermediate Spanish”). You’ll also want to make sure that the university in question has a reputable Teacher Education program so that you can learn pedagogy, which is the art and science of effective teaching. Be sure that they have professors with PhDs and/or EdDs, be sure that they have a logical scope and sequence to their program, and be sure that they offer fieldwork and student teaching placements so that you can get critical hands-on experience in the classroom.
Also, this must be said: be sure to inquire about the finances (e.g., cost of tuition, student loans, scholarship possibilities) of your university. As you may know, teaching is not known for being a lucrative profession, so if you’re spending a massive amount of money on your degree, it could put you in dire financial straits later down the road as you begin to pay off your student loans.
Before you commit to a program, I also recommend that you try to do some classroom observations. Reach out to some of the World Language teachers in your area, and see if they would be willing to host you in their classes for a few days. I cannot stress this enough: being a teacher is A LOT different than being a student. So many folks believe that they know what it’s like to teach middle school or high school because they, themselves, were once middle school and high school students. This is a pretty naive perspective, and so I implore you to get some observation experience (at the elementary, middle, and high school levels) so that you can make a more informed decision about whether or not this is truly a profession that A) will fulfill you and B) aligns with your values.
NOTE: If you already have a BA from an accredited university, you can seek certification in two ways: you can either do a Masters Degree in Education/Teaching, or you can pursue alternate route certification. There are pros and cons to doing each of these, but I will say that I did my Masters in Teaching and don’t regret it in the slightest. Teachers with a Masters degree may find it easier to get a teaching job due to their advanced credentials, and they tend to earn significantly more money over the course of their teaching career. Alternate route tends to be a faster pathway and gets you into the classroom sooner (and more cheaply), but it does not afford you lateral salary advancement potential. If you are in this position, definitely do some research to find out which option is better for you.
What does the general pathway look like to becoming a World Language teacher?
Major in the language you wish to teach. Earn the required credits in your major (usually around 30).
Complete an accredited teacher education program. Be sure to have completed all fieldwork and student teaching requirements.
Graduate with at least a BA or BS, although a Masters won’t hurt you.
Take and pass any qualifying exams like the Praxis and Oral Proficiency Interview.
Note: You’ll usually have to be able to demonstrate your oral and written proficiency in the language you wish to teach.
Apply for your teacher certification in the state in which you live. (This may look different outside of the US.)
Begin applying for open teaching positions in your area. Be sure to have references, letters of recommendation, an updated resume, and a teaching portfolio.
Once you’ve acquired your first job, you’ll most likely be assigned a mentor teacher and have to complete a few years of successful teaching with your provisional teaching license.
Once you’ve fulfilled all of your requirements, you’ll be able to apply for your standard teaching license. And voilà, you’ll be a fully certified World Language teacher!
Tips for Majoring in a World Language
Some of these tips may be controversial, but I am sharing these tips based on my own experiences and what I believe to be true about higher education:
Whenever possible, focus on practical language courses. I took courses in both my undergraduate French Civilization program and graduate French Teaching program that turned out to be pretty unhelpful. (Why did I need to take that course on French Renaissance Literature?) Focus on courses that have you reading modern texts. Conversation courses are great! I never regretted taking grammar courses, either.
Try to take a phonetics course, unless you are a native speaker. This type of course will help you hone your pronunciation skills, which, of course, will be super important as you teach novice students how to pronounce new sounds in the target language.
Consider doing a double major. If I could go back in time, I would have double majored in French and Spanish and sought certification in both languages. (Instead, I double majored in French and English because I loved literature, but I have no plans on becoming an English teacher.) If you are a dual-language teacher, you’ll find that you most likely won’t have trouble finding a job, as teaching two languages makes you incredibly marketable.
Hold on to important class notes, resources, and textbooks from your language courses. You never know when you’ll need to brush up on your language skills, and these can be invaluable resources.
Use your resources! Join a language club at your university. Take advantage of your professors’ and teaching assistants’ office hours. Even if you use the time to practice speaking in the target language—they’ll be happy to help!
Try to do a study abroad program. I personally feel that studying abroad should be a requirement for all prospective World Language teachers, but I know that’d most likely be a nightmare to implement and certainly not the most equitable practice…but I can tell you from personal experience that all the time I spent in France—I taught English for a year, as well—has been an invaluable asset in my profession. I couldn’t imagine being a French teacher without having had those essential formative experiences abroad in France. (This also will make you more marketable and will end up becoming a line on your resume that can distinguish you from future competitors in the job market.)
Meet with your advisors regularly. All of the requirements for certification can be incredibly overwhelming! Meeting with your language AND teacher education advisors can help to ensure that you are fulfilling all of your requirements in a timely manner.
If possible, do some tutoring on the side. Teaching a new language is not an intuitive skill that we’re all gifted with—it’s one that develops over time. Tutoring middle school, high school, or even lower-level college students can be a great way for you to practice your teaching skills while you still work toward your certification. It also provides you with opportunities to actually implement what you are learning in your courses.
Survive student teaching. Don’t expect to thrive. In my opinion, student teaching is one of the hardest experiences most teachers have to go through on their path to licensure. Think about it: you’re PAYING A LOT of money to work full time FOR FREE…you don’t really know what you’re doing…and the worst part is that you’re entirely at the mercy of your cooperating teacher, not all of whom are very cooperative! This is the time for you to relinquish your perfectionism, take lessons in humility, and just put your head down and try to survive. Pick up as many teaching strategies as you can, but don’t expect to do a great job… There is no such thing as a great student teacher… so just do your best, and understand that a miserable student teaching experience does not necessarily mean you’ll have a miserable time teaching in your own classroom. For me, it was the exact opposite experience! My student teaching experience was disastrous and terrible, and here I am… almost 10 years later, doing great work day in and day out in my own classroom. :) It gets better!
I hope this blog post has helped give you a general overview of the process for becoming a French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, German (or another World Language!) teacher. In retrospect, I’d say it’s a long and arduous path, but it can be a super rewarding one. If you have any questions about becoming a World Language teacher, feel free to email me at michael@worldlanguageresources.com, and I’ll try to help out as best as I can!
Happy language learning and teaching,
~ Michael
