My development as a teacher is shaped by a continuous interaction between learning, reflection, and practice. Through trainings, international experiences, classroom experimentation, and pedagogical reflection, I continue to refine my vision of language education and the role I want to play as an educator. The following sections provide an overview of the experiences, methodologies, and educational perspectives that currently shape my professional identity and teaching practice.
Learning profile
With regard to learning profiles, I position myself between a dynamic and an imaginative learner, and my learning preferences align strongly with a kinesthetic ENFP-profile.
I learn best through action, interaction and exploration, while also needing space for reflection, creativity and meaning-making. I am motivated by hands-on experiences, peer learning and concrete challenges, but I also thrive when learning connects to real-life contexts, storytelling, discussion and multiple perspectives. This combination explains why purely theoretical or passive learning environments tend to disengage me, whereas experiential, collaborative and reflective approaches energize me and sustain my motivation.
Learning journey
Eramus+ teacher training
In November 2024, I participated in an Erasmus+ teacher training programme in Cyprus focused on digital skills, blended learning, and innovative pedagogical approaches. Led by Crystal-Jade Lerios and Vasileios Vikos from VitaComm Education, the programme explored how digital tools and methodologies such as the flipped classroom can be integrated meaningfully into education to support learner autonomy, creativity, and engagement. This experience significantly shaped my perspective on educational technology: rather than viewing digital tools as motivational gimmicks, I learned to approach them as purposeful instruments that can foster differentiation, interaction, and self-directed learning when embedded in thoughtful lesson design. Inspired by the training, I started integrating tools such as BookWidgets, Mentimeter, Canva, and Kahoot! more intentionally into my French lessons, while also reflecting critically on the opportunities and challenges of generative AI in education. The programme strengthened my belief that digital literacy should always go hand in hand with critical thinking, ethical awareness, and meaningful pedagogy.
EF Teacher Development Course
To further support my professional development, I obtained the EF Teacher Development Certificate in December 2025. Throughout this program, I participated in various webinars focused on innovative teaching practices, digital pedagogy and student engagement. Rather than approaching these sessions as purely theoretical input, I consistently tried to translate new ideas into concrete classroom practice. After each webinar, I experimented with strategies, tools, or methodologies in my own lessons, reflected on the outcomes, and adapted my approach when necessary.
Targeted communication training
I also participated in a training organized by Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen on targeted communication assignments for reception, production, and interaction in modern foreign languages. This training reinforced my belief that language learning should be rooted in meaningful communication rather than isolated grammatical exercises or artificial classroom situations. The program focused on designing purposeful communication tasks that place students in realistic and relevant contexts, encouraging them to use the language as a genuine tool for interaction. This approach strongly resonates with my own teaching philosophy, in which language learning becomes most effective when students understand why they are communicating and can connect classroom activities to real-life situations. By integrating more authentic and task-oriented activities into my lessons, I aim not only to help students consolidate their linguistic knowledge, but also to strengthen their confidence, engagement, and ability to use French meaningfully beyond the classroom.
Teaching profile
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, I view my students as capable and creative learners. My role is to observe, listen, and guide rather than to transmit knowledge, helping each learner find their own way of expressing themselves in Dutch, French or Spanish.
From Paulo Freire, I take the belief that education is a practice of freedom. I want students to use language not only to communicate, but also to reflect critically on the world around them. I strive to create a learning culture built on trust, curiosity, and social awareness, where learners feel empowered to think, express, and act in a foreign language.
Teaching action plan
The pedagogical insights formulated above in combination with my teaching philosophy statement led to the following teaching action plan:
- I will give my students more ownership of their learning.
I will involve my students in setting learning goals and introducing lesson topics that relate to their everyday lives. - I will present myself as a co-learner and researcher.
I will observe and document how my students engage with different activities, collect their feedback, and adapt my lessons accordingly. Besides, I will share my own learning process openly in order to model curiosity and vulnerability. - I will foster dialogue and critical reflection in my lessons.
I will integrate regular moments for discussion and reflection, using authentic French materials that invite students to question ideas and express opinions. In this way, I want them not only to learn the language but also to use it to think critically about the world around them.
21st century teaching
One of the most recognizable parts of the 21st Century Learning framework is the 4C’s, essential skills to thrive in school, work and life.
These valuable insights affect not only student’s learning but also my teaching practice. As a French language teacher, when choosing strategies or tools and designing activities, it is important to consider how these strategies, tools and activities can foster these skills in my students.
In order to link the 4 C’s to foreign language teaching, I thought of various strategies and activities. In a language class critical thinking can be stimulated when students compare sources from different countries, notice how the same event is framed differently in French, Dutch, or English media and reflect on stereotypes, registers, and implicit cultural norms. Foreign languages courses invite creativity through role-plays and dialogues or the creation of podcasts, posters and social media posts. Students could also rewrite a story from another point of view or imagine solutions to real-life problems using their linguistic resources. Communication is the beating heart of language teaching. That’s why language use should be purposeful, multimodal and audience-aware. Collaboration can be fostered by activities such as information-gap activities, collaborative writing, peer feedback and debates and problem-solving tasks.
Intercultural competence: the silent fifth C
Although not always named explicitly, intercultural awareness is deeply embedded in 21st Century Learning and is essential to foreign language education. In practice, this means that students need to understand that language reflects values, power relations, and social norms. They also learn to tolerate ambiguity and difference while developing empathy and curiosity rather than quick judgment.
Multilingual teaching
Growing up in a multilingual household myself, I experienced firsthand how languages do not exist as separate compartments, but as a dynamic repertoire that evolves through use, context and necessity. In my teaching experiences today, I see a similar reality: learners navigate between languages daily, for different purposes, with different people.
Multilingualism should not be viewed as an obstacle, but as a resource. The concept of translanguaging, using all linguistic resources in a purposeful and strategic way, confirms that learning is not a linear process from one isolated language to another, but rather a constant interaction between what learners already know and what they are acquiring.
What stood out to me most, both in theory and in a video reflection I made some years ago, is the importance of metalinguistic awareness. When students are allowed to compare languages, notice similarities and differences, and reflect on how meaning is constructed across languages, they become more confident and autonomous language users. Moreover, translanguaging carries clear linguistic, cognitive, cultural and socio-emotional benefits. It validates students’ full identities, increases access to curriculum content, reduces performance anxiety and supports a more socially just vision of education.
This reflection also made me aware of the gap that still exists between theory and practice. While plurilingual competence is well established in educational research and policy, it is not yet fully embedded in everyday classroom practices. As a teacher, I work within a system that often still treats languages as separate units. This makes conscious, small-scale pedagogical choices all the more important.
In my own teaching practice, I actively try to translate these insights into concrete strategies such as:
- Think–pair–share, where students first reflect individually, then discuss their ideas with peers who share the same language, and finally reformulate their thoughts in Dutch, French or Spanish.
- Dual-language presentations, in which learners may strategically use different languages. This lowers anxiety, creates a safer learning environment and allows students to focus on communication rather than perfection.
Over the course of time, I see tangible effects: language learners dare to speak more, take linguistic risks and gradually increase their foreign language use. In this way, multilingualism becomes not something to be fixed, but a pedagogical lever that enriches learning for everyone and should be taken into account while designing lessons.
Curious to discover my complete learning journey as a teacher?
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