A great partner for study abroad in South America

Diego del Corral from la Academica Latinoamericana sends his greetings. We've used his schools for study abroad in the past to Peru and Ecuador and were very impressed with the program.



For more information, visit the Academia Latinoamericana website at latinoschools.com.

A visit to el Parque Chicano brings a class project to life

On Friday, fellow Spanish instructor, Rosalina, and I walked to el Parque Chicano in San Diego to see the murals. After working with my students this semester on a Chicano poetry project, I just had to see these murals in person. 

The murals, located under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, were painted in the 1970s after residents of the Barrio Logan took back their neighborhood after the freeway cut through and destroyed many of their homes.

For a thorough recount of the park's history, check out the website for the Chicano Park Historical Documentation Project at San Diego State University.

African-American students offer their perspectives on language study

I attended the African-American Students SIG meeting and presentation to hear students' perspectives on studying language and traveling abroad. Tamari Jenkins, Spanish instructor at Chaffey College, brought a panel of students to share their experiences in the classroom and in study abroad.

One theme I kept hearing in the students' responses was the importance of encouragement. They were inspired by their instructor on an ongoing basis - to come to class, to think about study abroad and to continue their language study. Of course, this is important for all students in our classes, but as Jenkins said, "African-American students tend to be pioneers in study abroad" and even in advanced language study. They are less likely to have family or friends who have studied languages, especially abroad. Although the panelists, in general, found their families to be supportive of their travel, they did face real obstacles, particularly with funding.

Jenkins made a statement that truly sums up the conversation, "It's ok to be intentional about ending the disparity that exists" for African-American students. Explicit, even intrusive, encouragement can make all the difference in whether students persist and succeed in our language classes.

For a more detailed summary of the participants' responses, read on.

What learners should take away from their beginning language studies

We all know that many of  our students in our lower-level language classes are not planning to continue studying after they leave our doors at the end of the semester. So what can we do to maximize use of the time we have with them, and possibly convince them to stick around?

I attended a presentation by Grant Goodall from the University of California San Diego and  Darcy Lear from the University of Chicago, sponsored by McGraw Hill, on "What Learners Should Take Away from their Beginning Language Studies." The ideas presented align very well with our institutional goals and really give us something to think about in designing activities.

My takeaways from the opening session (part 2)

This year's keynote speaker was travel author and guide Rick Steves. I'm embarrassed to say that I knew nothing about him before this conference, so I really didn't know what to expect. I almost didn't go, but boy am I glad I did!

The theme for Steves' talk was "Travel as a Political Act," also the title of his most recent book. He walked us through several of his travel experiences and spoke to how they have helped shape his world view.  The main theme to his talk (for me) boiled down to his statement that travel humanizes us and others and therefore makes it harder for propaganda to dehumanize.

My takeaways from the opening session (part 1)

This year's opening session was probably one of the best I've attended at ACTFL. I always love the "rock star" feel of streaming into the big auditorium with some 6,000 colleagues, music filling the room. It's not often that language teachers get to feel like such the center of attention. Now when I say this was one of the best for me, understand that I've always been impressed with the convention opening sessions. The messages this year just resonated with me more.

ACTFL president Jacque Van Houten and CNN correspondent Susan Candioti presented clips from an international panel of professionals addressing questions on the importance of studying languages. My favorite quote from one of the respondents was that she studies language so she "can communicate with 3x more people and have access to 3x more ideas." The professionals spoke about how their language skills have been crucial to their jobs, allowing them to solve problems when their monolingual counterparts would not have been as successful.

Van Houten and Candioti ended their segment posing two questions to the audience that I believe are worth taking some time to consider:

• What opportunities are we giving students to develop their intercultural skills?
• Thinking of the time when you came to realize that language study was useful, how could we spark that kind of experience for our students?

Why reinvent the wheel? Great free resources available from the LRCs

I've heard of the National Foreign Language Resource Centers (NFLRCs) for years, and I knew they had "stuff" to offer. I also knew there were several LRCs around with various specialties. Well, today I went to an ACTFL session highlighting the free resources available, and I was blown away.

The great part about his session is that it really condenses into one simple idea: go to www.nflrc.org and search for anything you want!

They have a searchable database of resources produced by the 16 different LRCs over the last 20 years or so. They have classroom resources, teacher training materials, even how-to's for running international events on campus. The resources also span all ages and nearly any languages you would imagine teaching.