Since the initial application of the 'affordances' concept to the context of language learning by van Lier, relatively few studies have continued to explore its implications for second language (L2) learning. This study examines from an emic perspective the affordances that 13 Spanish learners in a study abroad context perceived in their…

Environmental issues have received significant attention in German Studies for a number of years, leading to innovations in both research and pedagogy. More recently, attention has focused on applied pedagogical practices such as service-learning projects and bilateral exchanges related to environmental sustainability. While these initiatives…

To address linguistic, social, and settlement needs among professional and highly educated newcomer language learners in Canada, a Service Learning program was established at an urban community college. It incorporated field-specific language instruction, cultural humility and intercultural communication training, and meaningful Service Learning…

Purpose: While most language departments of the university offer service-learning (SL) subjects based on language teaching, such as "Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Local Schools" and "Serving the Community through Teaching English," this paper aims to argue that teaching students to teach language(s) is yet to be the…

The global economy and COVID created an interdependency where managers work in multiple countries, requiring cultural awareness. Cultural Intelligent (CQ) is a recent concept described as predictor of cultural adaptation. We studied 188 international business university students in terms of gender, language, major, financial need, and study…

The most effective way to address the critical social and political issues confronting students today is to promote intercultural competence with empathy at the core of language instruction. Language has the ability to shape our thoughts and to alter our consciousness. As students view the world through the prism of cultural openness, they are…

This article reports on a preliminary finding of sociocultural adaptation experienced by two pre-service teachers (PSTs) during a service-learning program. They wrote photo-voices, a photo-mediated self-reflection, to share how they adapted to the sociocultural life of their first two-week service learning. Using the U-heuristic analysis model,…

Service-learning (SL), as a pedagogy that promotes reciprocal partnership building between campus and community through meaningful service and critical reflection, can provide language students with not only valuable language and cultural immersion experience, but also civic learning opportunities. Although SL research has revealed numerous…

This dissertation examines the skills, knowledge, and support needs of novice and experienced Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) teachers in higher education in the United States. Using a critical ecological approach (CEA) framework, it aims to contribute to the global growing body of research on LSP teacher preparation that has thus far…

Teachers who participate in learning and teaching abroad enhance their intercultural competence, develop more globally informed and critical perspectives on education, and improve their foreign language and teaching skills. However, most of the research on teacher study abroad has been conducted with pre-service rather than in-service teachers. To…

Since its inception in 2004, Siena Italian Studies (SIS) has worked to offer students a challenging and engaging intercultural experience thanks to the implementation of the service-learning pedagogy and the practice of reflection combined with language acquisition. Over the years, SIS courses have been aligned with European policies and…

Language-related Study Abroad (SA) experiences can be catalysts for learner transformation in the areas of cognition, socialization, and/or affect by virtue of the location and experience. An Open Architecture Curriculum Design (OACD) framework can support, promote, and enhance such transformation, as evidenced in eight programs for young adults,…

This dissertation explores community-based learning (CBL) in university Spanish education. Although Spanish education continues to construct Spanish as a foreign language (Leeman, 2014), recent trends such as changing demographics in the US have led to calls for Spanish education to focus more on US Latinx communities (e.g., Torres, Pascual y…

Byram's (2008) intercultural citizenship framework includes the following orientations: cognitive, evaluative, comparative, action, and communicative. Using this framework as a theoretical basis, this study explored the international service-learning (ISL) experiences of four Taiwanese non-native English speakers (NNES) during a two-week trip to a…

This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish…