Spanish and Service-Learning: Pedagogy and Praxis

Abstract

An increasing number of Spanish instructors are turning to service-learning to enhance student learning, especially in oral comprehension, conversation, and cultural understanding. Even in areas with a relatively small, but rapidly expanding, Latino population, it is possible and desirable to place students in direct contact with native Spanish speakers, through links between the university and various community agencies. Evidence is mounting that when service-learning is well-planned and monitored and pedagogically tied to specific academic goals, objectives, methods, and assessment, it can be a significant tool in reaching ACTFL's standards for foreign language learning. Using analysis of self-assessment of students at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, who worked in the local public health department, this article reports a discussion of the degree to which those standards, known as the five C's? communicating, cultures, connections, comparisons, communities?were met.