Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Second Language Learning: Functional Literacy Vs. Mastery, Ella Ross

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

“It’S Not Just About Improving My Spanish.” Student Perceptions Of Service Learning, Farah Ali

Global Language Studies Faculty publications

In the last few decades, service learning (SL) has emerged as an instructional model that facilitates connections between learning experiences in and outside the classroom, and highlights the socio-political nature of language use (Grim, 2010; Bettencourt, 2015; Moreno-López et. al, 2017). However, its effective and relevant curricular implementation remains a challenge for educators. This exploratory paper examines how SL impacts advanced learners’ beliefs, attitudes, and motivation towards learning Spanish, as well as their ability to connect their service experiences with course content. Findings show that learners evaluate service experiences through a proficiency-based lens, where the success of their experiences depended …

“It Wasn’T Just About Learning How To Speak Spanish”: Engaging Histories Of Oppression And Enslavement In Spanish Heritage Language Education, Tania Avilés, Anthony J. Harb

Publications and Research

We present a curricular intervention in elementary Spanish heritage language in a Hispanic serving institution located in the US Northeast (Bronx, NYC), that aims to contextualize Latinx students’ experiences and perceptions of Blackness within broader histories of oppression and enslavement. Our practice brings together critical Latinx pedagogy and critical approaches to Spanish heritage language education to facilitate sociohistorical consciousness for both language instructors and students through the use of open-access Latinx archival resources. We outline a three-week unit designed using the First Blacks in the Americas online collection curated by the City University of New York Dominican Studies Institute. During …

An Analysis Of The Discourse Of Advanced Low And Advanced Mid Speakers Of Spanish When Talking About The Past, Enrique Torner

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

The main goals of this study are: 1) to elaborate and draw comparisons between the discourse features of speakers at each sub-level, and between heritage and non-heritage speakers; 2) to compare the resulting conclusions with the level description of the Guidelines; 3) to contribute to the process of either validating or offering suggestions for the improvement of the descriptors included that pertain to the act of narrating and describing the past, which is so fundamental to proficiency at these two levels; and 4) to provide some extra insight into the process of learning how to talk about the past.

Bilingualism And The American Family, Caitlin M. Nickerson

Senior Honors Projects

Bilingualism is the ability to speak more than one language fluently. People of all ages may aspire to learn a second or third language in order to fulfill both personal goals and communicate with a variety of people in different contexts. Irrespective of one’s walk of life or socioeconomic status, being bilingual is a valuable skill. Although English is the language of power in the United States, there are hundreds of other languages spoken in this country.

There are a number of different ways in which children can become bilingual. For example, they may enter the school system speaking the …

Reported Literacy, Media Consumption And Social Media Use As Measures Of Relevance Of Spanish As A Heritage Language, Isabel Velázquez

Spanish Language and Literature

Aims and objectives: This paper explores one dimension of language maintenance among college-aged heritage speakers of Spanish (HSS) in three communities of the U.S. Midwest. The aim was to understand whether Spanish was relevant at a point in life in which they were developing their own networks away from their families. Research questions: Were reading and writing in Spanish relevant for the participants? Did they use Spanish when on social media? Did they text in Spanish? Was Spanish relevant for them when consuming content on electronic media?

Methodology: This analysis is part of a larger study on HSS in communities …

Is Spanish Pragmatic Instruction Necessary In The L2 Classroom If Latin American Speakers Of Spanish Take On American English Pragmatic Norms Once Prolonged Exposure In The United States Occurs? A Study On Refusal Strategies, Jeremy W. Bachelor, Lydia Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship – Spanish

As educators of foreign and second languages debate the most efficient methods of implementing pragmatic instruction in the L2 classroom, is it possible that Spanish pragmatic instruction is not necessary if American Spanish pragmatic norms are no different than American English norms? The present investigation studies the pragmatic norms in refusal strategies of speakers of Latin American Spanish who have had little exposure to English, speakers of Latin American Spanish who have spent over two years in the United States, and native speakers of American English. The study found that the Spanish speakers who had spent over two years in …