Institution: University of Puget Sound

Language: Spanish

Type: TravelFellowship

Title: Is This Spanish?: From Foreign Language Student to Information Provider

Duration: Syllabus'99: July 24-30, 1999

Brief Description:

During the spring semester of 1999 students in two second semester intermediate Spanish classes at the University of Puget Sound will participate in an innovative learning experiment. On the one hand, they will pursue a course of study similar in many ways to what they expect in a foreign language classroom at this level: intensive reading and writing practice, continued oral exchanges, and a grammar review. However, from the start they will they will be required to become "information providers" in Spanish.

The curricular goal for this course is to make students experience the range and flexibility of Spanish as a world language. The final projects for this course will consist of websites to be designed by students on topics of their choice. My aim is to have students find their very own answer to the proverbial questions: "What can I do with Spanish?" The answer, I believe, is simple - Whatever one wants!

In order to achieve the above stated goals students will have to become proficient in the use of several computer programs, namely: Claris Homepage (http://www.clarishomepage.com/) and WS FTP (http://www.ipswitch.com/). In addition they needed to use of Eudora Mail and Netscape Navigator.

Students will meet in a computer laboratory for a total of three class days during the three weeks of the term. There they will receive instruction and hands-on practice on all the software mentioned above. After this period, they will be required to meet with a dedicated peer consultant specialized in one-on-one training. The intensive use of a qualified peer consultant from the very beginning appears to be a promising avenue to insure that the students attain the level of technical sophistication needed to become information providers in the target language. In addition to the above a class website will contain the information necessary to assist student in the generation of meaningful HTML based documents.

A secondary goal in Spanish 202 is to increase the students' command of written Spanish. To this end students will carry out intensive work using a web-based conferencing software, WebBoard. Students will write a variety of short assignments (grammar exercises, short expository paragraphs, brief analyses, etc.) an average of 2 times a week. They will receive immediate feedback via email on both content and grammatical accuracy. I fully expect that the quality of their writing will increase dramatically and expect to see improvements in their ability to draft longer written assignments. In addition, since WebBoard is a web-friendly product, it will be very easy to require students to visit Spanish language and culture sites in order to carry out specific written assignments. This practice should deepen their feel for Hispanic cultures and ought to be useful to them as future information providers.

A pilot version of this project was carried out in the spring semester of 1998. Is This Spanish? wants to benefit from that experience in order to better assess its impact on studentss. It also aims to serve as a model that can be adopted by other groups of teachers and learners.

II. The proposed format

Is This Spanish? will be a case study of the implementation of advanced instructional technology in the college foreign language curriculum. It will also aim to present comparative assessment data. Three sections of second semester intermediate Spanish at the University of Puget Sound will be involved in the project. Two will be taught making use of instructional technology as detailed above. One of the instructors involved will teach a class in a traditional way, that is, using mostly books, audio and video. Assessment data will be gathered and prepared by Shelley Owen, Instructional Technology Consultant at the University. The Northwest Language Consortium and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation fund this project.

III. A listing of similar presentations that have been given elsewhere by the presenter.

"Todos a una: Multimedia Technologies and the Teaching of the Comedia", Modern Languages Association Conference, December 1998.

Fall Campus Day, University of Puget Sound, September 1998 - Presenter

Advanced Faculty Workshop in Instructional Technology, Middlebury College, (Summer 1998 - Presenter)

Northwest Language Consortium Conference, May 26-29, 1998, Whitman College, Presenter

Fall Campus Day, University of Puget Sound, September 1997 - Presenter

Northwest Language Consortium Conference, September 20-21, 1997, Lewis & Clark College, Presenter

Advanced Faculty Workshop in Instructional Technology, Middlebury College, (Summer 1997 - Presenter)

IV. The relationship of the proposed presentation to other work in the field

A year and a half ago, the University of Puget Sound received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, along with three other private liberal arts colleges in the Pacific Northwest. Since that time, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature and its Spanish section, which I head, have engaged in a variety of projects aiming to integrate advanced instructional technology in the curriculum. We have proceeded in this guided by the lessons learned at Middlebury College's Center for Educational Technology and the Mellon-sponsored Project 2001. The work carried out so far at Puget Sound has been showcased in NWLC meetings and at Middlebury College. Some of my recent work will be showcased in a roundtable entitled: "Teaching the Comedia in the 21st. Century" at the Modern Languages Association conference in December 1998.

V. Presenter profile with affiliation(s)

Harry Vélez-Quiñones

Associate Professor of Spanish

Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature

University of Puget Sound

VI. Computer and equipment requirements, including:

Do you need an Internet: YES

Will you do your presentation on a computer: YES

If yes, what platform will you use: Windows

Will you be bringing your own computer for your presentation? YES

What other technology will you be bringing with you? ZIP DRIVE, DATA PROJECTOR -IF SO ADVISED BY SYLLABUS '99 ORGANIZERS

VII. Abridged presenter profile (one 80-word paragraph) Harry Vélez Quiñones was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and lived there until just after finishing high school. He attended college at Washington University, studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, and earned a Ph.D. in Spanish literature at Harvard University in 1990. He joined the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Puget Sound at that time where he has been teaching, writing, and having fun until now. In 1996 he was Visiting Professor at Duke University. His research interests include early modern Spanish drama and prose, Twentieth-century Spanish prose, and Queer Theory. Since 1997 he has represented the University of Puget Sound at the Northwest Language Consortium. The NWLC is a group of four liberal arts colleges in the Pacific Northwest working on furthering the penetration of advanced instructional technologies in foreign language curricula under the auspices of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Middlebury College's Center for Educational Technology. VIII. Brief description of the presentation for the conference program.

The purpose of this project, Is This Spanish?, is twofold. On the one hand it aims to present a case study documenting how second semester foreign language students can become information providers in the target language in the WWW.

In addition Is This Spanish? aims to serve as showcase of assessment techniques within the Northwest Language Consortium, a consortium of liberal arts colleges working under the auspices of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Middlebury College's Center for Educational Technology.

Instructional Technology Consultant, Shelley Owen, and I plan to study three different sections of Spanish 202 students, two in which instructional technology will be used and one taught traditionally, without recourse to technology. Evaluation, diagnostic exercises, and feedback questionnaires will be administered and collected throughout.

Outcome: Participation in Syllabus'99 will serve to showcase the activities of the NWLC. We hope that this visibility will prove useful as the NWLC gears up to seek further funding.

Timeline: Shelley Owen and I will be attending the Conference for its entire duration. We do hope to report back to the NWLC as to what we learn. We will also report on the reception of our panel.

Amount Requested: $1690.00**

Breakdown:

Registration: $350 Airfare: $200 Hotel: $960 Meals: $180