Gamification within courses has offered great opportunities for students to engage further into the course material. Traditionally, gamification is used with one or two elements of a course. This study investigated full course gamification of a Second Language (L2) classroom, which has not been explored heavily within research. The researchers…

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (DFLL) at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) is home to a pioneer program in Spanish for the Professions and Specific Purposes (SPSP) in US higher education. For the last two decades (2000-18), its Spanish curricula have been carefully experimenting and evolving to adjust to the societal…

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…

At a time when language programs around the United States are in crisis--the University of Rhode Island's Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures is realigning its curriculum to emphasize proficiency and intercultural competence within a strong liberal arts context. The result of the department's recent initiatives? More than…

Recent scholarship in professional development (PD) has advocated for solid conceptual frameworks and understanding of the complex process involved in how language educators may continue to develop and fulfil the current challenging teaching demands. However, specific relationships underlying departmental cultures and how language educators relate…

Through the Problem Solving and Reasoning Skills Cognitive Development Model for Severely Disadvantaged Puerto Rican College Students, the Ana G. Mendez Educational Foundation developed a model for cognitive skills development for disadvantaged, low-achieving Hispanics. The program incorporates cognitive skills into existing remedial courses in…

One of the key recommendations of the Worton Review of Modern Foreign Languages provision in higher education in England (2009) is more effective collaboration between language centres and language departments. This paper presents a fully integrated model of such collaboration and develops recommendations for language centres and language…

A plea for a revision of methods used in graduate language programs, particularly Spanish, this article opposes admitting students to graduate programs for the purpose of obtaining teachers or filling up upper-level classes. Highly structured programs should be substituted with individualized, flexible ones. Testing should be revised. (SC)

The alternatives to the traditional intermediate or second-year courses in community colleges are three student-centered plans designed for colleges with low or high enrollment of second-year Spanish students. Plan A is a two-year program of Spanish instruction. It consists of Spanish 101 and 102 and eight four-week minicourses, including two…

The data presented in this paper indicates that the present Spanish language program at Mesa College serves only one quarter of the student body and probably even a smaller fraction of the community. This situation exists because the recommended curriculums for 52 of Mesa College's 66 lower-division majors, largely nongeneral liberal arts and one-…

A SURVEY OF THE HISTORY AND POSITION OF PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE STUDY IN AMERICA (A DISCIPLINE LONG NEGLECTED IN OUR SCHOOLS) SHOWS THAT CERTAIN MEASURES ARE IMPERATIVE IN ORDER TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF THE RECENT RESURGENCE OF INTEREST. ALL AVAILABLE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS MUST BE UTILIZED TO THEIR FULLEST EXTENT, COLLEGE TEXTS BEING MODIFIED FOR HIGH…

Eighteen model syllabi are presented for teaching Spanish to native speakers of Spanish. The syllabi were produced during a summer institute, entitled "Teaching Spanish to Native Speakers of Spanish," in order to meet the unique language situation of U.S. hispanophone students. Traditional lower division Spanish-as-a-foreiqn-language courses are…

A community college is committed to serve all persons living in the areas it encompasses, and it must demonstrate this commitment. At Sauk Valley College in Dixon, Illinois, language instruction must extend beyond the traditional Spanish-for-anglos classes, because there is a large population of Mexican-Americans living within the school district.…

Investigating students' needs in three foreign language departments in a liberal arts college setting, the study discussed in this article aims to find similarities and differences in language needs among students enrolled in French, German, and Spanish and the extent to which students' perceived needs match the mission the departments have…

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…