Ahead of the recent wave of social justice movements (e.g., [All] Black Lives Matter (#BLM), #MeToo, #StopJewishHate, #StopAsianHate), in 2019 the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) declared a stance on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in language education. It affirmed that it "values diversity…

The present study examines the lack of representation of minority communities in the existing literature by examining the representation of Afro-Latinxs in texts and visuals in seven Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) textbooks, and the ideologies behind these representations. Drawing upon Norman Fairclough's (1995) model for conducting Critical…

In Spanish language curricula, it is essential that we teach about "afrodescendientes" in Latin America and the Caribbean to present an inclusive representation of the diverse people, practices, and cultural products. Their perspectives and cultural products must be integrated in the curricula of Spanish undergraduate programs beyond the…

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…

Requirements for the undergraduate major in Hispanic literature and offerings of Spanish peninsular and Latin American literature courses surveying the canon, masterpieces, major works, major authors, major trends, or representative works at fifty-six selected US colleges and universities were examined for academic years 1990-91, 2002-03, 2013-14,…

This short-form article describes an informal, non-evaluative peer observation project undertaken by the authors who are Spanish teachers at two different institutions, one a university and the other a K-8 school. The authors describe the rationale for undertaking the project, their individual teaching contexts, and their joint process in this…

This article demonstrates the pedagogical potential of two free digital tools: the mobile app Snapchat and Northwestern University Knight Lab's StoryMap. By combining Snapchat and StoryMap in the second language (L2) literature classroom, students adapt L2 language skills to twenty-first-century modes of communication, collaborate with peers, and…

A rise in antiracist reform sparked by summer 2020 events have prompted a reexamination of course material across all levels and subjects in schools. This article will focus primarily on Desirée Bela-Lobedde's "Ser mujer negra en España" (2018), and demonstrate how fragments from her culturally rich autobiography, with the support of…

In 1623, Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, a parish priest in Atenango, Mexico, was commissioned by his archbishop to record Nahua beliefs and healing practices for the purpose of denouncing their superstitions and demonic magic. His "Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain," 1629…

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…

In the context of Latin American Studies (LAS) and from a sociohistorical perspective, the author proposes a non-credit workshop in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Its general aim is to raise students' awareness of the interrelationships between coloniality and the geopolitics of knowledge through fiction.…

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…

The current study presents the delayed naming task as an effective tool for testing the robustness of phonotactic constraints. A delayed naming task was employed to test for quantity sensitivity among nonwords in Spanish. Results reveal a robust effect of stress modulation by syllable weight as evidenced by differential rates of error between…

This essay posits that an institution's program design mandates the curriculum for the classes we teach and that curriculum affects the concept of "canonical" literature, teacher preparation, textbook content, and comfort with discussing difference in the second language classroom for undergraduates. For that reason, this essay argues…