Spanish & Illinois

by Ann Abbott It's well known that enrollments in higher ed programs in the humanities are decreasing. A lot. It has hit languages hard. Spanish, too. It seems we're all scrambling with no clear strategy that we can have complete confidence in. First of all, we don't really know from the students themselves why they are choosing to stay away from our programs. How can we fix a problem we don't understand? Still, the Head of my department and I went in search of some potential solutions. We knew that the Department of Communication at our university had successfully reversed a very big dip in enrollments some years ago. We talked to them about how they did it. Remember, there are no magic bullets. We probably need a combination of strategies, and we might even have to change some things about the very nature of our programs. (Ugh, it's so hard for people to change.) But here are the strategies that we walked away with. Consider your name   They changed th...

It feels good to check items off the list. by Ann Abbott When I made my March writing list, I tried to be realistic. I knew that March included spring break plus travel to Phoenix for the LSP Symposium. Still, I completed every item on that list by March 22. While I'm happy about that, it's not because of anything special that I have done. There's no secret. I just simply sat down and wrote for about 60 minutes almost every day. It wasn't every single day. And it wasn't always a full 60 minutes. But I just kept advancing. Slow and steady. Here are a few things that help me stick to that. Passion.  I am passionate about the things I write about. I to want to share ideas and experiences with the world, and writing is the best way.       Are you writing what you're truly passionate about? I sometimes see people who think they "should" research and write something that doesn't match with their true passion and area of interest. Ment...

by Ann Abbott At the recent Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) Symposium, I participated on a panel titled "Where's the Community in Languages for Specific Purposes?" Deb Reisinger (Duke) presented about the possibilities for French, Community Service Learning and LSP. Lourdes Sánchez-López challenged us to try to understand why there are not Spanish community service learning courses in all or almost all Spanish programs? Diana Ruggiero (U of Memphis) shared insights from her program, and I was most captivated by the reading she gave of one of her student's photo journals. Barbara Lafford (Arizona State U) suggested a clear path to creating and institutionalizing our LSP community of practice. And I talked about our online community of practice. Normally I prepare slides and speak extemporaneously, but for some reason this time I wrote it out. Due to time constraints, I abbreviated my remarks during the presentation. Here they are in full. Where is the...

by Ann Abbott I'm looking forward to attending the 3rd International Symposium on Languages for Specific Purposes in Phoenix  this week. Not only will I be able to see wonderful colleagues and friends (too many to list here), I always come away from this conference (and the CIBER Business Language conferences that have been folded into this one) with new ideas and renewed energy.  A quick glance at the conference program , and you can see that many languages are represented, many professions and many approaches. Whenever there are speakers from the professional world, I always take away tidbits of information that I can work into my activities, so I'm happy to see that there is a panel on Friday evening. I also want to learn more about Spanish for the health professions because we have a lot of student demand for that, but no course. (I haven't blogged yet about my student's independent study this semester in which she is working at a local hospital and writing up ...

Image source:  https://freerangestock.com As you read through Joey's detailed reflection consider this: in addition to the possibility of not sharing the same cultural norms and responsibilities in a school setting, it's possible that these students also have competing responsibilities that sometimes take priority. They might work, have family duties (childcare for siblings, extended family members, etc.), transportation problems, etc. There's a lot to think about when you work with people whose daily experiences are different than yours! --Ann by Joey Gelman             Llevo un mes en mi trabajo voluntario con el programa de ESL en la escuela secundaria de Central en Champaign. Para esta entrada, quiero enfocar en el choque cultural que he notado con los estudiantes.  Desde mi primer día con este programa los profesores y administradores me recordaron que estos estudiantes son de muchos trasfondos diversos y tienen normas culturale...

We focus on social entrepreneurship that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, with 28 hours of service learning. Week 8 by Ann Abbott Semana 8: Medios sociales Martes ¿Qué importancia tienen los artistas solidarios para las causas que apoyan?  ¿Es Angelina Jolie una artista solidaria?   Lee esta página web y analiza las ventajas y desventajas de utilizar las grandes artistas para llamar la atención a una causa . ¿Qué causas apoyan estos artistas latinos?   Mira el video y haz una lista de los artistas que aparecen y la causas que apoyan .  ¿Qué es una fundación?   Echa un vistazo a este documento  y luego explica la diferencia entre una fundación y una organización sin fines de lucro. ¿Qué tipo de branding hace Ricardo Arjona para su Fundación Adentro?  El branding es importante para las empresas sociales. Analiza esta imagen de Ricardo Arjona y el poster de su Fundación para lue...

This semester Joey is doing an independent study in which he works in the community and contributes a blog post each week. --Ann by  Joey Gelman He empezado mi oportunidad voluntaria con el programa ESL en la escuela secundaría Central en Champaign. Para este semestre quería encontrar una manera para hablar en español constantemente, después de mi experiencia en el extranjero estudiando en Granada, España. También quería una oportunidad para trabajar con estudiantes que son hispano-hablantes. Después de un par de semanas, me siento más cómodo con los estudiantes en las clase, y también estoy más cómodo con mi español. En este momento, creo que entiendo casi todo lo que ellos dicen pero lo más difícil es cuando necesito responder. Todavía  necesito traducir en mi cabeza antes de hablar, entonces me está tomando más tiempo en el principio a responder, pero sé que estará mejor. En realidad, llevó casi 6 semanas o más desde la última vez que hablé en español constantemente, ...

What books do you have on your shelf? Read on to find out Mark Wehling's book recommendations. by Ann Abbott In last semester's "Business Spanish" class, student teams had to do a networking project that culminated in each team reaching out to one of my former students to ask for career advice. (We did the work over several weeks, but here's a link with most of the information about the project .) My hope is that students learned about how to network appropriately. But of course the real gift was that all three former students answered the current students and gave them valuable advice. Such valuable advice. I won't delay any further, just enough to say that I had goose bumps reading Mark's reply (below). He is truthful, inspiring and detailed. I think he should write a book. Here's his email! Hola Kristin, Shamir, Haley, Daniel, y Xuefei (quieren copiarl@s?) Me da mucho placer poder contestar estas preguntas y ayudarles de esta mane...

We focus on social entrepreneurship that is linguistically and culturally appropriate, with 28 hours of service learning. Week 1 by Ann Abbott SEMANA 1: PRESENTACIÓN DEL CURSO Martes: Los elementos del curso Meta: saber por qué quieres dedicar tanto tiempo y esfuerzo a este curso. Aprendizaje en la comunidad: 28 horas I´ll start with the current situation in Champaign-Urbana's Latino community: anxiety over the announced ICE raids on a national level. Reading.  Students skim a December article in the Washington Post about the announced raids . Video.  Together we view this short video about knowing your rights.  Trabajar en la comunidad. I'll put students who took SPAN 232 together with students who didn't. But before they actually get together, they need to think of what they think the others should know, and the others have to come up with two questions to ask. Emprendimiento social: nuestro tema I want them to learn about entrepreneu...

by Ann Abbott Thanks to Annissa Zak, I want to share three competitive internships that I think would be of interest to my Spanish community service learning students. I´ll just leave them here in a list, but I hope you will scroll through my blog to see posts in which I help students think about the connections between their Spanish CSL work and professional positions. 1. The Humanities in Action Fellowship in Europe   The objective of the Humanity in Action Fellowship programs is to facilitate a collective exploration of the social and political roots of discrimination, as well as to provide a forum where potential solutions to some of today's most challenging issues can be considered and discussed. The programs are also intended to instill a responsibility among Humanity in Action Fellows to recognize and address the need to protect minorities and promote human rights—in their own communities and around the world. Click here to see their timeline . 2. The White House In...

My notes from the CIC meeting of language program directors. by Ann Abbott It's good to have a peer group. You can share and compare because you know that you're in similar situations. And that's what the CIC annual meeting of language program directors and executive officers is all about. (Although I'm not a language program director, I am the Director of Undergraduate studies; that's why I go.) But the things driving our discussions--helping our students learn the most possible, integrating technology intelligently, combating declining enrollments, and running large programs effectively--concern all language educators. So I'll share some things here. In the interest of privacy, I'll keep things very general, and I won't share the names of the university or person who presented the ideas. Hopefully you can find one or two things that could help your language program and courses. There's no particular order to this list. Course titl...

by Ann Abbott I'm so happy with the networking emails that my Business Spanish students wrote for their networking project this semester. And I am ecstatic with the responses they have received from Mr. David Mackinson and Mr. Benjamin Brodner ! (The third person is currently in the middle of moving his office to Singapore--bad timing but also shows that the students chose a fascinating person and career.) But it took work to get there. I have very smart, talented and hardworking students. If their networking emails needed to be informed, edited and shaped, then I think everyone could benefit from the information that took their messages from okay but slightly problematic to very good. Here, in order, are the steps you can take to make sure your networking emails or direct messages are sharp, clear and compelling. Read advice about how to compose networking messages. As with most topics, there is already a lot of good advice on the internet. Sometimes, though, a task s...