Many educators face challenges with online learning since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Online modalities became common in world language courses; however, challenges remain in creating communicative contexts. This study examined university student perceptions of an experiential learning sequence using films in Spanish and French at the…

To address racial inequity and the exclusion of African Americans in applied linguistics, second-language acquisition, and world language (WL) education, our field must reckon with social justice problems of racism and anti-Blackness. Theoretical frameworks of critical race theory (CRT) and critical race pedagogy (CRP) elucidate how such…

English language learners are a growing demographic in secondary, two-year, four-year and research institutions where many students encounter their first course in statistics. In the statistics education literature, recent calls have been made to improve statistical education for underserved student populations, including English Language Learners…

We tested the effectiveness of the spaced-repetition flashcard application, Anki, on improving 62 university-level learners' second language (L2) learning in a semester-long beginning Spanish course. Using effective study strategies is critical for L2 learning, but college students learning an L2 often study with strategies that are only useful…

The number of Spanish students in Australia is increasing. This growth coincides with a period of revival in the teaching and learning of pronunciation in the foreign language classroom. However, unlike their peers in the UK and especially in the US, no specific materials are available for Australian students. In order to assist them, the first…

The aim of a discourse-pragmatic approach to teaching the indicative/subjunctive contrast in Spanish is to engage students to move beyond grammar and semantics and enter the domain of language use in complete texts. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research have mostly focused on the morphology, semantics and syntactic aspects of…

This study investigated second language (L2) learners' perception of L2 sounds as an individual difference that predicted their improvement in pronunciation after receiving instruction. Learners were given explicit pronunciation instruction in a series of modules added to their Spanish as a foreign language curriculum and were then tested on their…

The growing importance of Spanish in the U.S. has generated an impressive growth in the number of university Spanish programs that offer community service learning. However, students' and community partners' misaligned expectations can create tensions and problems in these programs. Instructors must make a special effort to articulate and align…

This article reports on the use of design-based research (DBR) in the development of online reading materials for beginning and intermediate Spanish learners. The report focuses on four studies of two main aspects of the development, namely, interface design and learner perceptions. The discussion of interface design includes the analysis of…

Examines the past and present role of illustrations in language learning and analyzes the illustration content of 18 introductory Spanish texts published from 1960 to 1989. Illustrations may confuse students who lack adequate guidance from their teachers. (21 references) (Author/CK)

The previously validated Employability Skills Series was systematically translated into Spanish, and field tests were conducted, using criterion referenced measures, to establish if the materials were effective with Hispanic students. Data were collected on the achievement of 484 students on thirty-nine knowledge and twenty-five performance…

The responses of 938 first year Spanish students at 2 major midwestern universities to a survey regarding their motivation and strategies for learning Spanish identified several affective factors that were associated with students' reactions to the use of authentic instructional materials. (28 references) (CB)

There are three main problems in teaching Latin American literature: (1) It is difficult to maintain a regional overview, while, at the same time, including a sense of the literary history of Latin America; (2) It is necessary to teach literature so that the material seems worthwhile in its own right and not only as a complement to other…

Reviews studies delineating positive effects of visually engaging, authentic classroom materials on language learning and cultural attitude formation. Cross-disciplinary approaches combining language, literature, history, and art emerge as effective methods of creatively using class time to achieve linguistic and cultural proficiency. (30…

This article discusses how the critical examination of "culture as difference" and "culture as hierarchy" is often lacking in the Spanish language classroom. As such, the author suggests that the current challenge in the Spanish language classroom is to identify techniques to enhance not only students' language proficiency but also their cultural…