SWCOLT 2025

Often, teachers are given no direct instruction or curriculum on how to teach heritage classes. Teachers navigate on their own the specific resources or textbooks that are available to them. In this session, teachers will be able to get access to a curriculum that is made from only authentic resources without the need for a specific textbook. Participants can ask questions about curriculum design and share reflections about their own experiences. This session is meant to inform other heritage teachers how to start creating their curriculum and provide them with guidance and a list of resources.

This session explores how to use authentic resources in the Spanish classroom, level 1 and through upper levels. We will discuss ways to support different types of students with appropriate tasks and will focus on instructional strategies that use authentic resources to build students’ proficiency in Spanish and explore intercultural comparisons. Join us to share how the use of authentic resources can motivate our students to use Spanish in and beyond the classroom.

While increasing in both need for and number of programs, heritage language classes remain challenging to teach because of the diversity of heritage learners, the lack of teacher training, and the lack of available resources for many educators. "Conectando con confianza" will offer teachers specific texts and activities that can be implemented right away to help heritage learners of varying abilities build both skills and a sense of efficacy, as well as generalized strategies that can be used with a variety of texts all year long.

Presenters: Melissa Bullard & Paulina Rios

Twenty years ago, award-winning author Thomas Friedman proclaimed The World is Flat in his eponymous novel. This visionary concept addressed economics, politics, technological innovation, and telecommunications. To what extent has language education gone global? How can educators prepare our students for an interconnected world? How will this notion shape our approaches in the classroom? Come explore the latest multimedia and digital, authentic resources in Spanish, French, and German to engage a variety of learners.

In this session participants will learn how to effectively use the daily oral language strategy of "Silly and Spontaneous Conversation Starters" in the Spanish classroom by actively participating in several different activities. The attendees will listen, speak, and present ideas by responding in Spanish to various written prompts. The presenter will demonstrate how to use follow up questions in order to get all students talking in the target language throughout the lesson. This lesson is designed to provide teachers and students with more interesting and humorous conversation prompts so that every student will find something they want to talk about in the target language.

How can we take full advantage of authentic materials? In this workshop, participants will experience the power of authentic materials to develop and enhance students’ interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication, while developing their critical thinking, and linguistic, and intercultural skills.

In this Roadrunner session, participants will explore how to integrate historical and mythical Mexican women into their classrooms. Participants will get a deeper knowledge of the cultural, social, and historical situations surrounding these women as well as their continuing influence on Mexican culture through stimulating conversations, engaging storytelling, and multimedia presentations. This program explores the lives and achievements of historic characters, from strong indigenous deities to trailblazing activists and artists. This session celebrates the resilience, creativity, and empowerment embodied by these legendary women.

This session explores the integration of Virtual Reality (VR) in language learning, focusing on its impact on cultural competence and intercultural skills. Using the application Wander, students virtually explore cities in Spanish-speaking countries, identify cultural patterns, and engage in project-based learning tasks that promote deeper cultural understanding. The session will discuss practical implementation strategies, present case studies of student projects, and offer insights into the challenges and benefits of using VR in the classroom. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for incorporating immersive technology into their teaching practices to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.

In this session teachers will examine a wide range of cultural topics that offer rich cultural experiences, such as music, literature, films, and news. By identifying trends and conducting some research, students will take charge of the learning process, engaging in discussions, writing, reading, and listening activities in the target language. Various strategies will be provided to enhance these four core areas by incorporating current trends into the language classroom.

Chatbots are software programs powered by AI that are currently used in real-life contexts (eg., bank transactions, health advice, etc.). Recent studies have researched the affordances of chatbots to facilitate second language development. The findings look promising, because chatbot interactions seem to expose learners to authentic input and reduce their anxiety while increasing their motivation to language learning and willingness to communicate in the target language. This session addresses the benefits and challenges of using chatbots in the language classroom as tools that can simulate real-life interactions in the target language. The presenter will describe some chatbot activities implemented in Spanish classes at the college level and will present initial data of students and instructors’ perceived usefulness of this AI-powered language practice. Attendees will have the opportunity to try some of the Chatbot apps used in the activities andwill discuss their potential use in different instructional contexts.

In this interactive session, teachers will explore innovative strategies, best practices, and ideas for creating a vibrant language classroom that inspires both students and teachers.