Curricular Innovations: Teaching a Multidisciplinary Module on Climate-driven Migration in an Advanced Spanish Course

Authors

  • Silvia M Peart United States Naval Academy
  • Bradford S. Barrett United States Naval Academy
  • Sharika Crawford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26378/rnlael1428385

Keywords:

multidisciplinary approaches to teach L2, content-based instruction (CBI), climate-driven migration

Abstract

In the past decade, both the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) called for curricular changes that better integrate languages and cultures, advocating for multidisciplinary work with the intent to broaden learners’ linguistic and cultural skills as well as regional expertise. It is in this spirit, and to engage language through content, that the authors embarked on the design of a multidisciplinary teaching module in an advanced Spanish course to explore the links between climate shocks and human migration in México and Central America. At the beginning of the article, the authors discuss the theoretical and pedagogical frameworks of this curricular redesign. Afterward, a description of the curricular components is presented. Results from both quantitative and qualitative data indicate that students were able to advance content knowledge from other disciplines while developing their linguistic skills in Spanish.

Author Biographies

Silvia M Peart, United States Naval Academy

She is a Professor of Spanish/Second Language Acquisition at the United States Naval Academy. Her research interest includes two focus areas: (1) second language acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy; and (2) identity construction in second generation migrants. She has published her research in Journal of Culture, Language and International Security, Lenguaje y Textos, Estudios de Linguística Aplicada, Diálogo de la Lengua. Revista de Investigación en Filología y Lingüística, and Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies.

Bradford S. Barrett, United States Naval Academy

Associate Professor of Meteorology at the United States Naval Academy. His research focuses on precipitation and climate-weather interactions. He has published in several of the leading journals in meteorology, including Journal of Climate, Monthly Weather Review, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, and International Journal of Climatology. He has also led groups of students on short-term culture and science learning trips to countries in the southern Andes and Southeast Asia.

Sharika Crawford

Associate Professor of Latin American history at the United States Naval Academy. Her research focuses on migration, the circum-Caribbean, and the experiences of Afro-Latin Americans. She has published in the Historia Critica, New West Indian Guide, The Global South, International Journal of Maritime History, and World History Connected. Her book The Last Turtlemen of the Caribbean: Waterscapes of Labor, Conservation, and Boundary Making in the Maritime Caribbean is a forthcoming publication with the University of North Carolina Press.

portada del número 28

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Published

2020-04-16

How to Cite

Peart, S. M., Barrett, B. S., & Crawford, S. (2020). Curricular Innovations: Teaching a Multidisciplinary Module on Climate-driven Migration in an Advanced Spanish Course. Nebrija Journal of Applied Linguistics to Language Teaching, 14(28), 113–131. https://doi.org/10.26378/rnlael1428385

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 28 (2020): Issue 28

Section

Thematic section "Computer Learners Corpora..."

License

The copyright holder(s) consent to the distribution of their article under the license CC BY ND.

Creative Commons License