International non-profit organizations (INGOs) were traditionally established to facilitate dialogue and bridge cultures. In order for INGOs to successfully carry out their objectives, global activists must work together in a culturally sensitive and responsible manner. The current article examines a volunteer training model that was designed to…

This study describes how length of stay in a foreign country influenced personal adjustment, language acquisition, and culture learning among a convenience sample of 150 United States student volunteers participating in a short-term cross-cultural living/learning situation in Mexico. Short-term was defined as two, four; six, eight, or ten weeks.…

This work reports, from a qualitative research perspective, the development of an English Corner project for a preschool Children's House classroom in central Mexico over the course of a 3-year period. It shows the transition of a language specialist over six consecutive periods of work, from a traditional understanding and practice of teaching…

Prior research describes the positive benefits of dual language education as increasing students academic performance in addition to promoting bilingual development. However, these studies have not adequately addressed the tensions that exist in developing Latina/o communities bilingualism. This paper addresses the issue of bilingual development…

In this article I introduce a framework that centers indigenous educational sovereignty in university-school partnerships. Developed from collaborative work with Indigenous Maya families who are migrants from Yucatan, Mexico, the framework operates from an understanding that Indigenous parents have knowledge that is important for their children to…

This article details a study conducted to determine the effectiveness of a professional development model for inservice Spanish teachers. Subjects were participants in intensive summer immersion programs abroad that included a rigorous methodology course advocating sound pedagogical models for lessons and stressed 90%+ target language use in the…

This preliminary study investigates the acquisition of second language phonology with respect to two variables: immersion in a target language community, and explicit instruction in the form of a phonetics/pronunciation class. Specifically, the research examines the second language acquisition (SLA) of specific properties of the Spanish phonology…

The 23rd EUROCALL conference was held in Cyprus from the 24th to the 27th of August 2016. The theme of the conference this year was "CALL Communities and Culture." It offered a unique opportunity to hear from real-world CALL practitioners on how they practice CALL in their communities, and how the CALL culture has developed in local and…

Describes the experience of 11 Michigan bilingual teachers attending an immersion program in Mexico involving 15 days of intensive seminars dealing with Mexican history, geography, mythology, folklore, politics, and education. (CB)

A Chicana bilingual teacher from Arizona lived with a middle-class Mexican family during a 5-week Mexican immersion program. Her complaints about "harsh reactions" toward her and her Spanish showed how her use of a few stigmatized characteristics of nonstandard Spanish were judged by standard Spanish speakers to indicate an uneducated…

This article reports on a diary study conducted to explore third language acquisition in the immersion setting in Mexico as experienced by a bilingual Russian/English learner of Spanish who had recently immigrated to the USA from Russia. Language learning is approached as a socialization process that involves negotiation of meaning (Vygotsky,…

Describes a two-week Mexican immersion program for teachers including language instruction, homestays to enhance language and cultural development and a course focusing on the systematic exploration of how to integrate authentic materials into daily instruction. Results suggest that the program was successful in preparing teachers to meet the…

The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) annually presents the Melba Woodruff Award to an exemplary foreign language program in the nation. This year at the ACTFL conference in Baltimore, MD, the Eisenhower International School received this award for its outstanding immersion programs. International student exchanges at the…

A collection of essays contains articles on content-based foreign language courses at three levels (beginning, intermediate, advanced) and on foreign languages across the curriculum, including: "Content-Based Instruction: From Theory to Practice" (Stephen B. Stryker, Betty Lou Leaver); "Content-Based Instruction in a Basic Russian…