The all-encompassing term "Medical Spanish" references the Spanish used by healthcare professionals. Medical Spanish courses have gained traction as the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. continues to grow. Consequently, demand for courses in Medical Spanish and other areas of Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP), a subfield of…

The scope of this article is twofold: to revisit the foundational importance of Business Spanish to the United States and to track its early formalization in American secondary and higher education. It will focus on the years surrounding American Independence in 1776, followed by the key role played by the American Association of Teachers of…

World language classrooms in the United States have been significantly impacted by the physical and ideological disruptions experienced in recent history. Such disruptive times call for the reform of pedagogical practices to raise awareness of social justice issues and ignite real change both in and out of language classrooms. This essay outlines…

This article analyzes the growing trend among US higher education institutions to replace four-semester, proficiency-oriented language requirement models with shorter exposure-oriented sequences frequently restricting exemptions and aimed at bringing languages into distribution requirement structures. By contrasting the history, strengths, and…

Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has called for proposals on the "greening" of the Spanish curriculum for their 2020 convention. University students are and will be faced with complex twenty-first-century economic problems, such as food deserts, costs of industrial agriculture, organic regulations and market demand,…

Based on the experience of developing and teaching an introductory course on Spanish-English interpretation, this study will situate and justify translation, more specifically interpreting, as an important component for language development. The goal is to analyze ways the development and implementation of an interpreting course (focusing on…

The US health care system faces linguistic challenges. Disparities in language-concordant care for Spanish speakers persist due to current demographics and a paucity of bilingual providers. A proliferation of courses in Spanish for health care professions suggests that universities and post-graduate institutions are attempting to meet this need;…

In the past two years, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has produced two significant proposals for curricular change in foreign languages. The first, "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changing World," addressed the foreign language curriculum with specific suggestions for programmatic transformation. The second,…

The Spanish program at UNC Charlotte is timely and responsive because it is designed to meet documented societal (job market) needs in today's and tomorrow's global village and economy by providing graduates with strong specialties in English-Spanish translating and in business Spanish. It is integrative in that it does so while maintaining its…

Two recent reports offer some paradigm-shifting proposals regarding the teaching of world languages in general at the undergraduate level. The Modern Language Association's (MLA's) "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" and "Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature"…

Change in higher education, as manifested in curriculum reform, can be particularly difficult as the structures of academia, such as rank and tradition, retard the process. Two recent reports from the Modern Language Association (MLA) strive to address needed curricular adaptations and offer a roadmap of considerations for modifications. The 2007…

Describes a college course on the written literature in Spanish of the Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans of the United States, including the rationale, resources, and course structure. Such a course helps to shatter misconceptions regarding Hispanics and further expands the intellectual horizons of students. A bibliography of Hispanic literature…

Describes how to teach Spanish to elementary students in multiage classes in a way that allows high comfort and comprehensibility for the first-year students while maintaining the interest of the second-year. The model describes varied expectations that allow a two-year instructional sequence with a single Spanish teacher. (SM)