This essay looks at the representation of disability in the recent Spanish film "Yo, tambien" through the lens of disability studies, understood as a political project. The film's portrayal of a character who is, like the actor who plays him, Europe's first university graduate with Down syndrome, is unique. Moreover, "Yo, tambien" provides the…

"La gran Cenobia" deals with the war between Queen Zenobia of Palmyra and the Emperor Aurelian. Calderon de la Barca draws most of his information from historical sources; the dramatist, however, changes history and adapts it to his own dramatic purpose. The theme of Fortune gives unity to the play. Aureliano is portrayed as a tyrant who, to prove…

Critics have traditionally looked to the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 as the origin of the doctrine of transubstantiation and the inspiration for Gonzalo de Berceo's "Sacrificio de la misa". Textual evidence proves that this belief far predated 1215 and that Berceo based his text on the Latin tradition of explicating the Mass that had become…

This small-scale study investigates the effects of community service learning (CSL) projects or a cultural presentation on the development of the cultural understanding of low- and high-intermediate L2 students. Fifty-two learners in four sections of two Spanish classes in Canada participated in the study. The participants also completed pre- and…

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the applications of service-learning pedagogy for an advanced Spanish language course through a case study conducted at Rollins College, a comprehensive liberal arts institution in Winter Park, Florida. The paper discusses diverse theories on service-learning pedagogy, explaining how and why this teaching…

Short-term study abroad programs of less than a semester are becoming increasingly popular among undergraduate students in the United States. However, little research has examined the changes in students' cultural sensitivity through their participation in such programs or what factors may predict growth and improvement in such areas. This study…

This study explores how grammar instruction is conceptualized and applied in published Spanish materials. It sought to answer the following questions: What are the approaches to grammar instruction in current, college-level, beginning Spanish textbooks? How do they reflect current perspectives on grammar teaching? Six widely adopted Spanish…

This pilot study examines the face work in two students' e-mail requests for letters of recommendation, to investigate whether and how the type and amount of face work differs in requests written in English and Spanish by native speakers of each language. The results do not conform to those of previous comparisons of requestive behavior between…

This study investigates children's attitudes and technology use for learning Spanish, and examines the type of technology-enhanced learning activities they enjoy. A survey with two versions was developed to gather attitudes and opinions of 2,220 children in grades K-2 and 3-8 in eight small rural school districts in the Midwest of the United…

Throughout his life, Alejo Carpentier was a tireless collector of paintings, sculpture, musical recordings, and folklore objects. In light of Carpentier's Swiss birth and many years of residence outside of Cuba, the act of collecting plays a crucial role in defining the relationship between the author and Latin American culture in his life and…

This pilot study investigates whether requiring participation in community-based learning can motivate intermediate level Spanish learners to engage in more frequent interaction in Spanish outside of the classroom and course requirements. Using the theoretical framework of willingness to communicate in a second language, this study combines both…

The teaching of the Spanish noun gender system to students is based on a set of generalizations that the last phoneme, or sound, of a noun is an excellent predictor of the gender of that noun (Bull 1965). These generalized norms have been refined over the years and can be found in most textbooks. The norms are taught to students who then apply…

In the past two years, several Latin American nations have begun celebrating their bicentennials of independence, turning attention to questions of national identity and the legacy of independence in the twenty-first century. This reflection is sure to continue into the coming decade. This article offers a few practical suggestions for bringing…

In Antonio Machado's collection "Soledades", the poet's search for identity guides an introspective quest where context, body, and mind form an intricate and inseparable connection. By extending cognitive capabilities to his natural environment, the poet, through embodied cognition and Theory of Mind, reads other people's and nature's minds to…

An analysis of three eulogies (1876-1916) given for Miguel de Cervantes to commemorate the day of his death demonstrates the ways in which the discursive qualities of the eulogy--mourning, celebration, and resurrection--align with regenerative discourses regarding the Nation at particular moments in Spanish history. The eulogized depictions of…