The year 2017 saw the publication of one of the strongest endorsements of language education on record: "America's Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century" (henceforth "America's Languages"). Commissioned by a bipartisan group of members of Congress and authored by the Commission on Language Learning of…

It is late at night, after working all day on her postdoctoral research Laura Colombo is trying to wind down while drawing and jotting down thoughts in her notebook. She is in the living room/office of her apartment in Buenos Aires, the city where she was born and left when she was 26 years old to pursue her graduate studies in the United States…

Michael Woolf's article, "Come and See the Poor People: The Pursuit of Exotica," is a provocative critique of what he calls the "new orthodoxy" of promoting study abroad in non-traditional destinations. Woolf's underlying point is that the current emphasis on promoting student mobility to non-traditional, i.e. non-European, destinations "is…

Recounts experience with the Segovia Virtual Study Abroad Program as one attempt to use technology to expand the curriculum by incorporating study abroad into the curriculum at home. The project's success suggests that a course on contemporary Spain can be designed around a virtual study abroad Web site, incorporating civilization and culture…

To show students the interdisciplinary relevance of language study and to encourage non-language majors to study abroad in programs where English is not the principal language of instruction, interdisciplinary short-term study abroad programs were proposed. Offers evidence that short-term programs provide students with exposure to a foreign…

An adult learner of Spanish presents a diary outlining the process of learning Spanish during her five-week program in South America. (AM)

Describes intensive, community-based, experiential foreign language course titled "Spanish in Ohio" implemented to meet needs of nontraditional students bound to campus and unable to participate in study abroad opportunities. The course, offered during the summer at Ohio State University, is conducted entirely in Spanish, requires…

This article describes using dialog journals as part of a teaching-methods course in a summer program in Spain. Participants were teachers of Spanish with a range of experience and language proficiency. (JL)

A comparative study examined the influence of overseas experience on how learners put their second-language knowledge to use during communication, and how they compensate for gaps in their knowledge. Results do not suggest a strong dichotomy between language learning in the classroom and abroad or between grammar and oral proficiency. (20…

The changes in written and spoken Spanish proficiency of two college students during a semester of study in Spain are examined in their oral and written performance and in their grades at a Spanish university. Both students were initially rated, according to American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines, at…

Discusses the response of Hope College (Michigan) language departments to shifts in language enrollments, particularly the rise in Spanish enrollments and declines in other languages. Strategies include using the smaller classes as an opportunity to enhance the teaching-learning environment and make those courses more attractive, placement…