Words That Connect: TESOL 4510’s Service-Learning Initiative

About the Partnership 

TESOL 4510 Language Development has actually carried a service-learning designation for the past three years through an earlier partnership with Hawkeye Community College. However, that collaboration came to a halt after their Volunteer Coordinator left. I had wanted to revive the service-learning component for some time, but I was not sure whom to partner with, partly because I had assumed service-learning partners needed to be off campus. When UNI’s Service-Learning Coordinator reached out to service-learning leaders, I asked whether the Culture and Intensive English Program could serve as a partner. As soon as she said yes, I immediately reached out to CIEP. 

TESOL 4510 Language Development is often taken by students who have had limited meaningful interaction with international individuals or language learners. In many cases, they also have not had especially rich language-learning experiences themselves. That can make second language acquisition somewhat abstract, because there are few personal reference points for the theories and concepts we study. I thought partnering with CIEP students would enrich their learning tremendously by giving them a real human context for the course content, while also giving international students more opportunities to practice English in a supportive setting. 

Student Learning & Impact 

I hope my students gain a more concrete and humane understanding of language learning. It is one thing to read about second language acquisition in a textbook; it is another to build a relationship with someone who is actively living that process. I hope they develop stronger intercultural awareness, better listening skills, more patience, and a deeper appreciation for what it means to communicate across linguistic and cultural differences. I also hope they begin to question assumptions they may not even realize they hold about language learners and multilingual speakers. 

My classes are usually interactive, and I regularly ask students to connect course concepts to their own experiences or observations. After only two visits with CIEP students, my TESOL students have already started bringing a wealth of insight into our class discussions. They are making thoughtful connections between theory and lived experience, and the conversations have become much richer as a result. That kind of immediate transfer is exactly what I had hoped for. 

Collaboration & Community 

One of the biggest barriers to intercultural understanding is that people often remain in their own social bubbles, interacting mostly with those who are familiar or similar to them. That is not a moral failing; it is simply a very normal human pattern. What this partnership does is create a meaningful reason for students to step outside those bubbles. Through it, 22 students are now forming relationships with people from different countries and backgrounds whom they might never have met otherwise. The unfamiliar can feel intimidating at first, but we are connected at very basic human levels. I hope experiences like this help students recognize that and become more open to intercultural relationships and experiences in the future. 

What feels especially meaningful this year is that this partnership is new. We are building something from the ground up, and that has made the experience exciting for everyone involved. There is a real sense of possibility in creating connections between programs on our own campus that may not have intersected in this way before. 

I would just add that this project is mutually beneficial. My students are learning in deeper, more applied ways, and CIEP students are gaining additional opportunities for conversation and connection. For me, that is what makes this partnership so valuable: it is not just academically useful, but genuinely human.

TESOL 4510 students shared that the service‑learning partnership has already deepened their understanding of language learning and intercultural communication. Tori Woods Lombard said the experience has helped her connect course concepts to real people and real conversations.

“Getting to know my partners as people has helped a lot because we can apply the things from second language acquisition in real time.” She added that the personal connections have been especially meaningful. “I love that I get the opportunity to talk with people whom I may have never encountered otherwise. It’s an eye‑opening kind of thing.”Working with English learners has also strengthened her communication skills.

“You have to speak clearly, slowly, and allow ample thinking and processing time.” Tori shared that even small moments matter: “Seeing CIEP students outside of our conversations and saying hello makes me happy. I’m proud to know that I’ve made a connection with them beyond our classes.” “I hope to get more experience communicating with English learners and to learn more about different countries around the world.”