Her professional interests include accent modification, the teaching and learning of vocabulary in a foreign language, and learning differences. Baker’s curiosity about life outside of the United States was piqued by a semester abroad in Ireland while she was a U.S. history major at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids. She followed that up after graduation by teaching English for one year in Kyoto, Japan.

After returning to the U.S., Baker worked for two years as a residential and commercial energy consultant for various Michigan utility companies while taking a couple of linguistics classes at Hope College. She then enrolled in graduate school at Michigan State University, where she taught in the English Language Center while earning a MA-TESOL; she graduated in 1988.

“My husband and I then taught at Glenville State University in Glenville, West Virginia,” Baker said. “We returned to Michigan when my husband took a job for the Barry County District Health Department, and I began teaching at CELCIS in January 1990. I applied for work at CELCIS because I had met the program’s instructors at MITESOL conferences and was impressed with the quality of their professional activities. While teaching ESL full time at CELCIS, I completed a Master of Arts in Speech Language Pathology at WMU in 1994.”  

Helping international students advance their English reading and writing skills to prepare for studying at WMU is the focus of Baker’s teaching. CELCIS students come to WMU from more than 12 countries, and about 90 percent of the program’s graduates enroll in a WMU degree program upon graduating from CELCIS.

“For the first half of the fall semester I taught a reading and writing class at the intermediate level,” Baker said. “In this class the students learned English reading and writing skills through introductory economics, which was the content area of the course. This class concluded on October 22 and now I am working full time at my position as CELCIS Curriculum Coordinator. I provide training and guidance to new instructors at CELCIS, evaluate and update the curriculum, and coordinate our portfolio assessment project.”

Baker also volunteers for various department and university committees, including serving as chair of the CELCIS Promotion Committee and as the CELCIS representative to the Executive Committee of the WMU faculty union.

CELCIS Interim Director Joel Boyd said he met Baker and became friends while they were graduate students at MSU, working as teaching assistants in the English Language Center. Their paths crossed at professional conferences a few times post-graduation, and she eventually recruited him to teach in CELCIS in 1995.

“While I was studying linguistics, I was an active member of a group of students who got together to practice speaking German, and those of  us who were TAs also participated in many social activities together,” Boyd said. “Ila, her husband, and I were involved in these two groups which overlapped.  It was a wonderful time in all of our lives when we had a large contingent of international and American students all interested in language, food and culture, who socialized together and enjoyed the kind of lives that many of us yearned for.  Most of us had travelled and seen things that many people had not seen; sharing our lives and adventures was joyous.”

Not only has Boyd been a witness to Baker’s professional development, he enjoyed watching the Baker’s become parents to Adriana and Johanna, who are now 13 and 12.

“Our opportunities to socialize like in the old days are rarer than they used to be, but I still feel close to Ila and her family,” Boyd said. “The girls are both young ladies now who show interest in language, food and culture. Friends like Ila add so much to life.”

Ila biking with her daughters on Mackinac Island

Baker said the most rewarding part of her job is helping students see progress in their language learning and working with the CELCIS faculty and staff.

“I enjoy inviting students to compare their early work in the semester and their later work and hearing them comment with pride at how much they have progressed,” she said. “I also enjoy working with my fellow teachers at CELCIS. We share scholarship, materials, and teaching techniques. Many of our teachers have taught in various countries and in various types of English language programs, so each teacher brings unique experiences and skills to this work.”

Baker continues to expand her language catalog studying her husband’s native language—Dutch—which she gets a chance to hear every day through Dutch TV shows broadcast on satellite stations. The family even has a dog with a Dutch name, a Goldendoodle named Boef, which means “rascal.” Outside the classroom, Baker also enjoys gardening.

Visit the CELCIS Web site: www.wmich.edu/celcis