As a sixth year student of Spanish looking back on her foreign language education, the author believes she has a greater understanding of what attracted her to and maintained her interest in the language. Yet she also recognizes areas in her education that could have benefited from change, including flexibility in creating her own program of study…

Recent evidence suggests that culture is a dynamic construct activated in response to cues encountered in a given situation. Research on acculturation indicates that this is a complex construct that might be domain specific. Two studies were undertaken to investigate the effect of two ways of priming culture on acculturation and enculturation…

Last spring, the author distributed a survey to majors and minors in Hispanic studies at Connecticut College and at other schools to informally gather student attitudes toward the nature of Hispanic-studies courses as it pertained to their interests and goals. Although results were somewhat predictable, an unexpected finding was that of 148…

We investigated the aptitudes, attitudes, attributions, and achievement of undergraduates identified as gifted who were taking a beginning Spanish course, and compared these characteristics to undergraduates in the same cohort group who had not been identified as gifted. There were differences in the aptitudes, attitudes, and achievement of…

One of the key concerns of educators is to come to know what works in language teaching and under which conditions (Intercultural) Communicative Competence can be furthered. This concern is even bigger among professionals experimenting or willing to experiment with new media. Following socio-constructivist theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) and…

This article aims to demonstrate how the use of an online journal, a bilingual blog, can contribute to filling in the language and cultural gaps of foreign language learners. This case study focuses on the participation, interaction, motivation, language acquisition, feedback and cultural input improved by students of Spanish as a Foreign Language…

Weblogs--personal online, web-based publications--have exploded on the internet scene in recent years. They are among the technologies indicating changes in the way information is created, managed, and exchanged. This study examined the use of a blog in an intermediate level Spanish class and its effect upon students. Could blogging provide an…

This study analyzes the effects of the Interactive Reading with Instructor Support (IRIS) model on reading comprehension, as compared to a traditional (direct-teaching/lecture format) instructional model. The IRIS model combines reading strategies and social mediation together in the Spanish as a second language environment. In the IRIS model,…

A Latina college professor describes the family history-writing project she uses in her reading/language arts teacher preparation course. The project provides opportunities for Spanish bilingual teacher candidates to gain greater understanding of their cultural selves and to consider ways to successfully deploy that new insight as teachers in…

Some US researchers and practitioners are calling for the use of written codeswitching in mainstream college courses, despite a strong English-only sentiment among many teachers and the public. This paper describes the existing positions in this debate and presents findings from the author's research to shed light on the debate and make…

Concerned that her students "knew" Spanish but could not use it in real life situations, the author created new learning goals, new learning activities, and new assessment activities. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, the author was introduced to "Creating Significant Learning Experiences" (Fink, 2003) while studying with Steven…

The purpose of this brief commentary is to determine which language skill Polish higher school learners think ought to be practiced most frequently during Spanish classes. Fifteen undergraduate students who study at AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland were surveyed, and the authors found that most learners (73%) want to practice…

Although studies on self-efficacy and attribution have independently contributed to the motivation literature, these two constructs have rarely been considered together in the domain of foreign language learning. Here, 500 undergraduates in Spanish, German, and French courses were asked to report whether test scores represented a successful or…

This study examines synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) discourse in a bilingual chat setting consisting of Spanish-speaking learners of English and English-speaking learners of Spanish. Participants were members of a telecollaboration involving 80 students at North Carolina State University and the University of Puerto Rico. Data…

Though much of the research looking at the issue of language in the Spanish heritage language field is intended to guide the Spanish heritage language teacher in the classroom, students' voices are often stifled. This article fills this gap by giving voice to students' opinions on language use in the Spanish heritage language classroom. Survey…