This study explores transformative learning (TL) in community-based language learning experiences. The fall 2019 study, conducted with 25 undergraduate students enrolled in two advanced language courses with a service-learning component, was designed to identify if TL is occurring, which classroom and community-based activities lead to TL, and…

This study investigates the ways students' disposition toward solidarity can be fostered during a community-based service-learning (CBSL) project performed remotely, not requiring direct contact or interactions with community members. Seventeen students were enrolled in an advanced Spanish grammar course section with a service-learning component…

Globalization and internationalization have created a need for dialog among people of different persuasions in our own societies and beyond. Language teachers can meet this challenge through the concepts of intercultural citizenship and intercultural service learning, renewing emphasis on educational and humanistic aims as well as instrumental.…

Language teachers are often masters of using the physical space in their language classrooms, rearranging furniture, groups, and artifacts to facilitate meaningful encounters with and among learners. Indeed, during the COVID-19 crisis, many language teachers are sharing that these human encounters--reading learners' needs through body language,…

This action-research study describes a course that emphasized critical language awareness (CLA)--an understanding of how language intersects with identity and power--for additional language (L2) learners of Spanish. As L2 learners have been shown to reproduce racist and monolingual discourses, educating them to recognize and question language…

Language education has mobilized community-based service-learning's (CBSL) experiential paradigm in the United States and in international settings over the past 20 years, with the goal of enhancing the linguistic and communicative competence of language learners and advancing the intercultural competence that is necessary for global citizens to…

This article explores the intercultural and citizenship dimensions of foreign language teaching and discusses, in particular, the implications for foreign language teaching and teacher education. The work (1) extends the fundamental concepts that were developed by Byram and Wagner (2018) in this journal--that foreign language education has…

This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish…

This article probes the extent to which postsecondary Spanish learners can substantively increase their knowledge of Spanish over a two-week period within a context of language and content instruction for four hours per day. The article considers the relationship of an immersion experience to upper-level literature and culture classes. Insights…

The present study examined the impact of a service learning activity on students' perceptions of language, identity, and community in an advanced Spanish for the Health Professions course. Forty-five advanced Spanish heritage learners (SHLs) participated in health fairs as assistants to health-care providers as part of the curriculum requirements.…

The growth of Latinx populations in the United States has resulted in an increasing number of community-based service-learning (CBSL) opportunities. In particular, the steady growth in Spanish-English dual-language schools and the accompanying staff shortages position elementary classrooms as meaningful settings in which to develop relationships…

In spite of advances in the understanding of the effects of the immersion experience on language and cultural development in the last three decades, many questions in study abroad (SA) research remain unanswered. The present article offers a close examination of the field as it is today with an eye toward future trends and gaps in the literature.…

The researchers used qualitative and quantitative instruments to measure students' linguistic gains and their opinions and attitudes toward intercultural awareness while studying Spanish as a foreign language under four different pedagogical models: a traditional face-to-face classroom, face-to-face classes with a community-based learning…

A nine-week empirical study of 25 adults in a second language (L2) Spanish phonetics course explored whether students' participation in service-learning language exchange sessions with native Spanish speakers outside of class influenced learners' (1) motivation for foreign language learning and (2) phonemic perception in Spanish. Divided…

Because of the current emphasis on accountability at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels across all content areas, accreditation agencies, administrators, program designers, course developers, faculty, and students have increasingly focused on stating and measuring student learning outcomes and documenting the relationship between…