This longitudinal study tracked ten L1 English-speaking learners' acquisition of Spanish voiceless stops /ptk/ by measuring their voice onset time (VOT) over an academic year in two distinct contexts of learning. Living in a Spanish-speaking dorm, participants in the experimental group experienced a "domestic partial-immersion," in which…

The present study examines the lack of representation of minority communities in the existing literature by examining the representation of Afro-Latinxs in texts and visuals in seven Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) textbooks, and the ideologies behind these representations. Drawing upon Norman Fairclough's (1995) model for conducting Critical…

In Spanish language curricula, it is essential that we teach about "afrodescendientes" in Latin America and the Caribbean to present an inclusive representation of the diverse people, practices, and cultural products. Their perspectives and cultural products must be integrated in the curricula of Spanish undergraduate programs beyond the…

Despite the increase of Spanish heritage language (HL) courses in response to the linguistic needs of HL learners, these courses often combine this student population with advanced second language (L2) learners. This common scenario presents a challenge to many instructors who lack the training to negotiate intercultural and linguistic issues in…

Service-Learning (SL) has been defined as an experiential teaching methodology. Through SL, students participate in activities that benefit their community and enhance their learning experience. In the current study, Spanish as a second language (L2) and heritage language learners (HLLs) engaged in a SL project in which they translated English…

In this article, we outline ways that language pedagogy intersects with best practices in entrepreneurial education. By highlighting two courses, one in translation studies for a polyglot audience and another in entrepreneurship for Spanish-speaking students, we show how to infuse basic business principles into language curricula. Course…

The acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by second language learners has gained increased attention. Some research highlights the value of naturalistic exposure through study abroad while other studies point out that classroom input can facilitate the acquisition of particular features of variation. Nevertheless, said attention to the…

The present study reports on the findings of a cross-sectional acoustic study of the production of Spanish vowels by three different groups of speakers: 1) native Spanish speakers; 2) native English intermediate learners of Spanish; and 3) native English advanced learners of Spanish. In particular, we examined the production of the five Spanish…

Even though many post-secondary institutions offer a variety of Hispanic linguistics classes (Hualde 2006; Lipski 2006), research on the pedagogy of Hispanic linguistics is an underdeveloped or non-existent area of the discipline. Courses in Hispanic linguistics can present not only linguistic challenges for non-native speakers of Spanish, but…

The service-learning Spanish translation course (Spanish 315: "Spanish in the Business World") taught at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in the fall of 2010 and spring of 2012 provided an ideal context for the students to connect with the Hispanic community in our geographical region. Once the connection through service…

This study reports the results of a national survey of Portuguese instructors that investigates enrollment growth in regions and institutions of higher education in the United States. It details the reasons why Portuguese enrollments have grown steadily since 1998, while providing data on the numbers of students enrolled in classes and the number…

Although previous literature has discussed ways of promoting the study of Portuguese, to our knowledge no study has ever directly surveyed students to ascertain why they chose to learn the language. This study reports on a survey of the motivations of first- and second-year Portuguese students to study the language, and contrasts their motivations…

Portuguese is the sixth-most-spoken native language in the world, with approximately 240,000,000 speakers. Within the United States, there is a growing demand for K-12 language programs to engage the community of Portuguese heritage speakers. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 85,000 school-age children speak Portuguese at home. As a result, more…

In order to become cognizant of resources within the community and to practice speaking Spanish, the alumni of the University of the District of Columbia took a cultural excursion, using the services of an engraver as their guide. They listened to instructions in Spanish with the necessary pauses so that they could contribute their observations.…

Study looks at whether Spanish-speaking learners of Brazilian Portuguese as a foreign language demonstrates advantage or disadvantage in acquisition of semi-open vowels e and o. To research the question, eight students enrolled in first-year Portuguese were given a listening discrimination test composed of 18 minimal pairs to determine the extent…