To address linguistic, social, and settlement needs among professional and highly educated newcomer language learners in Canada, a Service Learning program was established at an urban community college. It incorporated field-specific language instruction, cultural humility and intercultural communication training, and meaningful Service Learning…

This investigation explores oral proficiency outcomes in short-term study abroad programs, as well as the interaction of those outcomes with the type of second language (L2) courses involved. For three years, speaking ability gains were measured in a study abroad setting among intermediate learners of Spanish under two different course conditions:…

Since its inception in 2004, Siena Italian Studies (SIS) has worked to offer students a challenging and engaging intercultural experience thanks to the implementation of the service-learning pedagogy and the practice of reflection combined with language acquisition. Over the years, SIS courses have been aligned with European policies and…

This dissertation explores community-based learning (CBL) in university Spanish education. Although Spanish education continues to construct Spanish as a foreign language (Leeman, 2014), recent trends such as changing demographics in the US have led to calls for Spanish education to focus more on US Latinx communities (e.g., Torres, Pascual y…

Using open educational resources (OER) in post-secondary settings has shown to reduce costs for students, advance accessibility and equity, generate motivation, boost enrollment, and improve academic outcomes. This article details innovative coursework and assessment tools for a Spanish for the Professions course designed around OER content…

Dramatically changing demographics of students learning English as another language across the world and in the United States pose a significant challenge for today's school systems. For example, an estimated 1.5 billion students are learning English in the world (British Council, 2014). Recent research on service-learning and TESOL (Al Barwani,…

Interest in service-learning within TESOL has increased in recent years. Teacher-scholars have described multiple uses of such pedagogy in programs for students of English as a second language (ESL) and in courses of ESL teacher education. This article employs action research to focus on an introductory TESOL class at a U.S. university for which…

This study is framed from a theoretical perspective that values the incorporation of reflection and multimodal products in service-learning that engage ELLs in "real-time" language learning. Using a pedagogical framework that is translingual and culturally sustaining, the author examines a community project in which the ELLs in a…

Supplementing the foreign language curriculum with the incorporation of art museum visits has benefits for students, faculty, the campus art gallery, and the institution. Such a collaborative program serves to expand the classroom and complement instruction by providing learners with a new space to engage in authentic practice in the target…

Background: The ability to effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse students is critically important. Research has shown that providing teacher candidates educative experiences through critical service-learning can better prepare future teachers and can foster a social justice stance. Purpose: This study examines teacher candidates'…

The service-learning Spanish translation course (Spanish 315: "Spanish in the Business World") taught at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in the fall of 2010 and spring of 2012 provided an ideal context for the students to connect with the Hispanic community in our geographical region. Once the connection through service…

The clichés "it's a small world" and "the world is our classroom" are becoming practical realities for many educators. Increasingly accessible transnational contexts for English language teaching and learning offer new opportunities for local-global learning. This article reflects on a content-based online English course…

The authors describe the service-learning component of two intermediate Spanish-language courses and present the findings of a qualitative study that examined the nexus between language learning and cultural understanding. The service-learning component was designed to enrich the curriculum and enhance academic learning while providing significant…

Critical service-learning is often defined in opposition to a more traditional, "charity" approach that does not necessarily seek fundamental changes. Service-learning courses, however, may not quite follow this dichotomy. In an intercultural communication course, students engaged in service-learning that included some elements of both…