My Cannibalized Self

Michael Kay Allred is a Lecturer of Spanish at Southern Methodist University. Michael Kay Allred graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction specializing in World Language Education. In addition, he earned an MA in French from the University of North Texas and a Master of Engineering in Technical Japanese also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before completing his graduate studies, Michael was a teacher of Japanese, French, and Spanish in public high schools in Texas. In his research, he specializes in discovering new, holistic approaches to world language education and understanding the educational and psycho-emotional needs of heritage language learners in mainstream education as well as in heritage and bilingual education to foster heritage language acquisition and mother tongue maintenance in immigrant communities in the United States; particularly in Spanish and Japanese language communities. From his diverse experiences as a language learner, teacher, and academic, he constructed a holistic approach of world language education for mainstream students and heritage language learners through a framework of anthropophagy in which learners cannibalize authentic pieces of literature, music, television, art, and other forms of expression in the target language and from the target culture for the creation of a bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural self that can communicate in the target language in a way that is appropriate to how native speakers express themselves and the norms of the target culture. This bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural sense of self addresses the increasingly global nature of the ways in which language learners will use the target language in their professions and how the target language and culture will become an integral aspect of their identity as citizens of the world.