Spotlight on Christopher Caccavo, Adjunct Professor

English language instructors tend to come from two possible directions; they are either lifelong teachers or have entered the profession after enjoying success in another field. Either way, English language teachers love language, people, and culture.

Christopher Caccavo, a long-time Adjunct Professor of English as a Second Language and English Composition at St. John’s University, describes his path to becoming a TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) instructor as an accident—albeit a happy one. His career began somewhat arbitrarily with a request to teach English abroad in Japan soon after earning his B.A. in English Education at Molloy College. While in Japan, Mr. Caccavo became fluent in Japanese and earned a master’s degree in TESOL and a certificate in teaching Japanese as a foreign language at Temple University in Tokyo.

He arrived in Japan with no knowledge of the language or the culture, which has made it easier for Mr. Caccavo to identify with his students, especially those whom are reticent to speak or unaccustomed to life in the US. Over the past 30 years, he has taught students of all ages in Japan, at St. John’s, and at other colleges in New York City, where he continues to find new ways to grow and challenge himself as a teacher and his students as learners.

At St. John’s, Mr. Caccavo has taught in every capacity as an English language professor, including at the English Language Institute, in the ESL program, and in the free adult literacy program offered by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His classes are very much like him: creative, funny, and kind.

This past year, Mr. Caccavo once again increased his teaching bandwidth when he was invited to join the faculty in St. John’s online Intensive English Language Certificate Program for Japanese English as a Foreign Language Teachers, a grant-funded program awarded to the Office of International Education. His experience was invaluable in helping to create a program that fostered the participants’ language skills, inspired their teaching practice, and provided them with many technological tools and opportunities for collaboration.

In the future, Mr. Caccavo hopes to return to Japan to visit friends and colleagues. In the meantime, he continues to teach at St. John’s as he completes his Ed.D. in E-Learning at North Central Arizona University, where he is researching how to increase student motivation in online TESOL speaking classes.

Genie Smiddy joined St. John’s in 2014 as an instructor in the English Language Institute. She currently serves as the Coordinator of Short-term Programs, Office of International Education. She has a B.A. in Art History and M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.