This study represents program-level action research. A U.S. university Spanish language program had a goal for students to reach the ACTFL (2012) Intermediate Mid level after 2 years. An empirical question that resulted after regular end-of-year testing was whether the students were doing their best on assessments. To investigate this, 253…

Because of the current emphasis on accountability at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels across all content areas, accreditation agencies, administrators, program designers, course developers, faculty, and students have increasingly focused on stating and measuring student learning outcomes and documenting the relationship between…

While both the causes and effects of students' language learning anxiety have been a frequent focus of many investigations, few have explored anxiety in the context of upper-level language classrooms. Through a qualitative analysis of questionnaire data obtained from 21 advanced students of Spanish, this study found that, indeed, many of these…

Recent research has recommended increased use of the target language; the use of cognitive, metacognitive, and prosocial strategies; and cooperative learning to help achieve oral proficiency and communication within the classroom. This paper describes a 21-day research action project involving 2 Spanish 2 honors classes and several cooperative…