Julie Weise, Associate Professor of History, University of Oregon, is the lead on an OER grant to support teaching college-level courses in Spanglish. Julie’s colleagues on the project are Jennifer Macias, History Instructor, Oregon State University; Joel Zapata, Assistant Professor of History, Oregon State University; and Claudia Holguín Mendoza, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, UC Riverside.
The grant team writes:
Teach in Spanglish is founded on a simple idea: while just a small fraction of today’s college students will progress to the high-level, all-in-Spanish courses offered by language departments, more than two-thirds enter college with the ability to understand Spanish when given context in English, support from their instructor, and time.
Learn more about this project and request free access to Teach in Spanglish resources via the website Teach in Spanglish.
Julie and Claudia presented about their work on a roundtable at the MLA 2022 Convention titled Public Engagement and Multilingualism:
In a conversation about three distinct projects supported by the Whiting Public Engagement Program, panelists connect multilingualism and public engagement through the instruction of language, literature, and culture in their respective communities (K–12, university, and civic-facing).
Julie and Claudia also presented a virtual session at the 2022 Organization of American Historians Conference on American History titled Teaching Latinx History with Bilingual Primary Sources:
Over half of today’s undergraduates studied Spanish in high school or are Heritage speakers (SHL). Historians regularly conduct research in languages in which they are not 100% fluent; students can, too. Teaching Latinx History with sources in Spanish and Spanglish shows students the academic value of the Spanish they already know while elevating their primary source analysis skills. It also enhances SHL speakers’ feelings of academic competence and belonging. In this workshop, an historian and an SHL expert will discuss their pedagogical collaboration, conduct a sample lesson, and inspire ideas for your classroom. “Fluency” not required for instructors, either.
