I am proud to have been at the University of Denver (DU) for more than 16 years, currently as Associate Director of the Center for World Languages & Cultures (CWLC). I enjoy overseeing our language tutoring program and community language courses, as well as supporting faculty in DU's first-year language program. My work includes mentoring student peer educators in our Languages for You! program, through which we offer courses in Farsi, Turkish, Swahili, Vietnamese, Hindi, and other languages that are less commonly taught in the U.S. Prior to joining the CWLC, I was a teaching associate professor in the Office of Internationalization, where I taught general English (ENGG), international education (INTZ), and first-year seminar (FSEM) courses. I also have experience as a private language trainer, curriculum coordinator for a South Korean language institute, and developer of a university business English program for international professionals. I love to travel, and as a language teacher, I have had the opportunity to teach business communication, train faculty, and lead cultural learning projects in places like Algeria, Burkina Faso, Curacao, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Senegal, Togo and Turkey. 

With my educational background in writing and sociology, I approach teaching and the rest of life from an ethnographic point of view. I enjoy learning about the geographic and ethnic cultures represented in our classes, as well as the academic, political and corporate cultures where my students work. By learning about these cultures, I can help students focus on and apply effective communication strategies to succeed in their degree programs and the workplace. My specialty areas are: languages for specific purposes (LSP), content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL), and English as a medium of instuction (EMI). At the CWLC, I have added a passion for peer educator training. I enjoy teaching live and in person, as well online and hybrid courses. 

Ethel C. Swartley - Curriculum Vitae

English Language Learning in Libya

English Language Learning in Libya

Interviewing for this project has been completed, and the results were presented at the 2010 COTESOL convention in Denver, Colorado. The overall project involved interviews with Libyan students studying at DU and other Denver area universities, with the purpose of learning more about the Libyan English-language learning experience and the expectations of Libyan students in American English classrooms. The survey included questions about teaching methodologies in Libyan schools, teacher backgrounds, students’ access to English instruction in Libya, and preferred learning styles. If you would like to know more about this project, please email me at Ethel.Swartley@du.edu.