Using open educational resources (OER) in post-secondary settings has shown to reduce costs for students, advance accessibility and equity, generate motivation, boost enrollment, and improve academic outcomes. This article details innovative coursework and assessment tools for a Spanish for the Professions course designed around OER content…

Educational institutions with world language requirements face increasing student demand to offer Spanish Language for Specific Purposes (SPSP) courses at lower proficiency levels to fulfill language requirements. Language for specific purposes courses are designed to fulfill the communicative needs of students within a specific professional…

This paper presents the results of an empirical descriptive and contrastive study designed to assess how closely postgraduate translation programmes fit the reality of professional practice. Focusing on medical translation, the case study analyses the convergences and divergences between the competences that professional medical translators deploy…

The growing demand for Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) courses at universities in the United States in the last two decades (Klee, 2015) has brought to light the need for more theoretically driven research in this field, which can inform pedagogical decisions and materials design. The present study conceptually replicates Serafini and Torres…

Business Spanish typically teaches the vocabulary, content, and context of the functional areas of business, and how to conduct business in a cultural setting. But it should do more than just that. Leadership with integrity should be primed and personalized as a signature and integrative core value that frameworks any ensuing learning of the…

Scholars of task-based language teaching (TBLT) advocate for the identification of learners' communicative needs to inform syllabus design, particularly in language for specific purposes contexts (e.g., Long 2015). However, little research has applied TBLT principles in designing Spanish for specific purposes curricula. Moreover, despite the…

Despite a growing trend and early successes, program development for business language courses is still in its early stages. Curriculum developers have much work to do, many decisions to make, and a variety of problems to solve, most important of which are content, approaches, learning systems, and instructional strategies. First, the program type…

The development and results of Career Spanish instruction at Mesa State College in Colorado from 1975 to 1991 are described. The class is an individualized, career-oriented class for students who have only 3 to 6 semester hours available for foreign language study and an interest in particular vocational applications of Spanish. With no…

This paper discusses how the business Spanish courses offered by the University of Mississippi are conducted, focusing on the use of videotaped materials in the classroom and the development of appropriate handouts for students to use in conjunction with video materials. Introductory-level instruction is offered in the Spanish 101, 102, and 201…

Because a degree of competency in Spanish has become recognized as an essential skill for persons involved in health care activities, Northern Illinois University has developed a Spanish course tailored to the background and abilities of pre-service and in-service medical personnel. (Author/NCR)

A commercial Spanish course offered at Marywood College (Scranton, Pennsylvania) serves both Spanish majors and majors in international business. In addition to language proficiency activities common to most commercial language courses, students have identified two projects as most functional and challenging: (1) a "carpeta" or file into…

The language program at the United State Air Force Academy is described with emphasis on its upper track courses that are designed to prepare area specialists to interact with their foreign counterparts. Air Force officers assigned to Latin America, for example, may serve as experts in political-military affairs, foreign military sales, or as…

The selection and use of authentic reading materials for Spanish instruction of graduate-level international management students is described. Focus is on materials used in the second and third semesters of a 3-semester language course designed to foster communication skills. In the early part of the second semester, students present oral reports…

Spanish language training at the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management is discussed, focusing on the instructional materials and classroom techniques used in advanced Spanish conversation classes. While traditional materials (dialogues, dictation, literature, mass media, video- and audiotapes) and learning activities (recitation,…