Call for Papers for AATSP Session at MLA 2019

Title - Spanish/Portuguese for Specific Purposes in the 21st Century: Engaging the Humanities

Over the past thirty-some years, Spanish/Portuguese for Specific Purposes has matured into a recognized subfield of our profession as learners and teachers alike discover its potential to explore and enhance interdisciplinary connections between Spanish and Portuguese as humanities fields and other fields in innovative ways and contribute to students' development of translingual and transcultural competence as they prepare for professional life after college.  In what ways are innovative ways to SPSP / PPSP curricular development; innovations in community-based learning and academic civic engagement; and the changing demographics of our students (specifically, the growing number of heritage language learners in our classes) informing new approaches to Language for Specific Purposes in the 21st century?

250-word abstracts are invited on innovative approaches to SPSP that go beyond a strict emphasis on technical language/knowledge to forge deep connections between language proficiency and a professional domain that engage the humanities, including, but not limited to:

• approaches that incorporate significant analysis of cultural perspectives and/or engagement with non-literary or literary texts;

• approaches to teaching leadership, professional ethics, transcultural competence, media literacy, and so forth as a bridge between the humanities and the "soft skills" needed for careers in a global world;

• approaches that build bridges between community-based learning and academic civic engagement and SPSP/PPSP;

• approaches that engage heritage learners as well as learners of Spanish/Portuguese as a foreign language.

Please direct inquiries and send abstracts to: Gwen Barnes-Karol, Department of Romance Languages, St. Olaf College. 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: March 16, 2018.

PLEASE NOTE: All presenters selected for the session must be members of both AATSP and MLA by April 7, 2019.