With a recent interest in virtual reality, educators have begun to explore how using technology can mitigate feelings of Foreign Language Anxiety, or FLA. For this dissertation, the author has co-created a virtual reality conversation scenario to test with novice and intermediate-level Spanish students at the University of Wyoming. The research…

While the literature on second language reading agrees that exposing students to graded readers (GRs) is beneficial, little is known about how students perceive them. This study explores students' anxiety and overall experiences in a reading program (RP) using GRs in a large first-year Spanish language program. Data are based on 312 students' pre…

Higher education Spanish programs in the United States are diverse and complex, especially when it comes to student linguistic background. However, most studies on language proficiency were designed for traditional learners (L2s). In this study, we examine oral proficiency development of 125 Spanish majors in light of four linguistic profiles:…

This article details the challenges and best practices of evaluating second language learners for placement into postsecondary Spanish language courses. The literature on testing for placement purposes in second language acquisition and language testing provides a great deal of insight, but language programs must make many decisions as well that…

Over the last several years, faculty have engaged students and community members in a series of collaborative projects with the goal of addressing complex issues such as identity, language, and belonging. I posit that the work we have been doing constitutes a broader innovative humanities project centered on cultural studies. To demonstrate as…

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…

Using intergroup contact and stigma management communication theories, this work examines the effect of cultural teaching and learning in Spanish language classes on cultural stigma, social distance, and ethnocentrism. Additionally, this study examines how individuals respond to positive and negative messages about foreigners. Survey results…

Study abroad (SA) provides a space and place for second language (L2) learners to be challenged in terms of their target language skills and intercultural awareness. In order to appropriately equip learners, a task-based approach seems ideal to identify learners' specific needs (Long 2015). The present study reports a multiphase needs analysis…

The present work is a historical/linguistic account of an unprecedented fact regarding the existence of two English Speaking Communities [British English and American English], in our country the Dominican Republic, where Spanish is the official and most used language, to the extent of being considered a monolingual nation or country. It is…

In this paper, we explore how advanced college students use the past history and experiences of others to understand the present while learning a foreign language through a content-integrated curriculum. To assess student learning we operationalize Norris (2006. "The Why (and How) of Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in College Foreign…

This essay examines the state of Digital Humanities work in the subfield of literature from the Spanish speaking world. It provides a case study of a multiyear digital mapping project conducted with undergraduate students at a highly selective liberal arts college. This project serves as a means of examining the digital state of the field and…

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been at the center of the debates on which approaches are most effective for structuring, planning, and implementing language courses. Several articles have focused on its effectiveness (Bryfonsky & McKay, 2017; Long, 2016; González-Lloret & Nielson, 2015), but few have shared specific implementation…

Portuguese is the fifth most-spoken language in the world, with about 260 million speakers (and growing to an expected 400 million by 2050), the third most spoken in the West, the most widely spoken in the Southern Hemisphere, an official language in 9 countries and other regions. It is present in Europe, South America, Africa, and parts of Asia.…

This study serves as a follow-up to VanPatten's (2015a) demographic report including the makeup of many university language departments. The present study investigates what some literary and cultural studies experts self-report regarding their training in SLA/language pedagogy, term familiarity, perceptions of Communicative Language Teaching, and…

Research on the language-literature divide in undergraduate second language programs documents the challenge of engaging literature learners in classroom discourse which is conducive to their developing interpersonal speaking skills as measured on the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Scale. In this study, Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) were…