The present volume collects papers from InnoConf18 [Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University Conference], which took place at the University of Liverpool in June 2018. The theme of the conference was "New trends in language teaching and learning at university." The contributions collected here aim to reflect on best…

Discusses the teaching of Spanish to native Spanish speakers, looking at the history of the field and the experiences of bilingual students. Suggests that while bilingual educators and Spanish language teachers may see themselves as quite different from each other, their students may perceive their classes as similar. Reference is made to a study…

An experience-based learning model is reported that helps intermediate and advanced students make the transition from language to literature courses in the context of real-life situations. In the Santa Clara project, students meet practical needs of underserved Hispanic populations while practicing their language skills. (Contains seven…

Describes an immersion program for native Spanish-speaking university students from the University of California, Los Angeles, that was created to help them fulfill the language requirement. Reasons for the program, student characteristics, language characteristics, expected goals and outcomes of the program, and program observations are provided.…

The theoretical and pedagogical issues emanating from the practice of teaching Spanish to Hispanic bilingual college students are discussed. Distinctions are made between standard Spanish and the two most important United States varieties of Chicano and Puerto Rican Spanish, and structural differences are examined. Teaching suggestions are…

A study of communication anxiety in second language learning investigated: (1) the role of four factors (sex, language learning experience, language studied, and confidence) in student apprehension about speaking in the classroom; and (2) students' stated reactions to speaking. Subjects were 101 college students in 4 intact French, Spanish, and…

A study investigated the types of in-class, speaking-oriented activities that second language learners find anxiety-producing and the types of instructor practices that students perceive as anxiety-reducing. A 4-page questionnaire was administered to 135 university-level students of intensive Spanish and 109 high school students in first- and…

This article describes how second language learners become more autonomous in the language learning process, how the cooperative learning strategy helps improve the learning outcome, and how second language learners apply learning strategies to learning tasks both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Three activities were offered:…

This article addresses the learning of second language (L2) writing skills to show how pictures can be used as an effective guided writing tool to facilitate students' writing process and to improve their writing proficiency. A study was conducted with 53 university students who had a prior knowledge of Spanish in secondary school. All students…

Mental rehearsal is a somewhat ambiguous term in the literature of language acquisition, psychology, and second language learning. However, in second language learning it refers to an important strategic behavior involving silent covert practice of the other language, undertaken in relation to an oral or written, future or past language task. A…

In an effort to bridge the gap between Spanish foreign language classes for the monolingual English speaker and the needs of the Hispanic bilingual student wishing to have Spanish instruction, a bilingual teacher trainer has designed Spanish courses specifically for the Hispanic bilingual. To give recognition to bilinguals' existing linguistic…

A university writing faculty conducted a study of the concepts of unity in expository prose and of sentence structure as understood by Arabic, Malay, and Spanish speakers to discover why some students grasp some concepts more readily than others. Interviews, surveys, and analysis of written compositions revealed that the reason lies in ways these…

A study investigated what conscious listening strategies second language learners use when listening to authentic texts. Subjects were six college students of intermediate Spanish. They listened to three authentic audio and three authentic video texts. The introspective commentaries of the subjects on one of the video texts are discussed here.…

The teaching of Spanish to Hispanic bilingual college students, viewed as a distinct field within language education, is growing. It calls for greater emphasis on planning, coordination, and integration of what has developed into an interdisciplinary research area that touches on both first and second language acquisition paradigms, bilingualism,…

This book contains 10 papers on solutions and barriers to improving the access of Hispanic American students to higher education. Following an introductory essay on: "Advances in Assessment and the Potential for Increasing the Number of Hispanics in Higher Education" (G. D. Keller), the papers are organized into four parts. Papers in…