The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to investigate general education K-12 teachers' perceptions of instructional practices and professional development for teaching Spanish as a first language English Language Learners. Specifically, I investigated the instructional practices and professional development experiences of K-12…

World Language (WL) instruction in the U.S. can no longer be aimed toward a monolingual English speaker acquiring a second language (L2). Secondary students who take WL courses may speak a variety of languages, bringing their home language and culture into the classroom. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the U.S. and many…

This chapter describes an effort to internationalize a foreign language education initial teacher certification program through a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) grant project that was funded by Valdosta State University. The purpose of the QEP grant was to foster discipline-specific inquiry skills among undergraduate students and to promote the…

Based on a qualitative study documenting how Spanish teachers bear an especially heavy burden as unofficial translators, interpreters, and school representatives, this article documents how some Latina high school Spanish teachers struggle to form social networks with Latino students in new Latino school communities. Employing social frameworks,…

This study examines the academic experiences of heritage Spanish-speakers who were placed in a traditional Spanish class for non-Spanish speakers at the secondary level. Each of the participants in the study demonstrated advanced-levels of oral proficiency in Spanish yet each was placed in a beginning-level Spanish class. An ethnographic case…

This article is a high school Spanish teacher's perspective on the current state of foreign language education in Georgia. Particularly, the author considers the need for more connections to be made in foreign language education, including explicit links between students' experiences and the relevance of language study, more integration of the…