ACTFL's 5 Cs, Spanish Community Service Learning and the email to Duke's students to Speak English

by Ann Abbott

This semester we offered two sections of SPAN 232 Spanish in the Community. I teach one section, and the wonderful Juan Andrés Suárez Ontaneda, a TA who has taught this course once before, teaches the other section.

In our textbook, Comunidades: Más allá del aula, Lección 4 poses the question "¿Por qué aprender el español en la comunidad?" and addresses ACTFL's 5 Cs. Juan put his own, timely twist on the lesson and did the following with his students:

On Thursday I used the theory about the 5Cs to analyze the email from the Duke Biostatistics DGS (link here).
I asked my students to do two things: 

• First, to assess which principles from the 5C's were missing in the email. 
• Second, I asked them to write the email as if they were DGS, considering both the demands from the Head of the Department, and the cultural and linguistic sensitivity we are aiming for in this class. 

The results were good, and I think students grasped the "real-world" implications of the 5Cs, together with the challenge of the task the DGs had to confront (a task she ultimately failed, as proven by the national repercussions of her email). 

What do you think about this approach? How do you incorporate current events about languages, language ideologies and language learners in your community service learning course?

Gracias, Juan.