Research Behind the Textbook
Our own experiences as teachers and learners of Spanish and other languages (English, German) have inspired this textbook. We also worked closely with a dedicated group of teachers of Spanish who not only designed and provided feedback but also tried out the activities in the book with their classes.
An extensive body of research has also inspired this textbook. Below we shared some key works specifically related to teaching languages with summaries and links in the hope they further inspire our readers.
Teachers behind the textbook
Image Credit: LinkedIn
Jack Treby
Image Credit: MLTAQ
Beatriz Gil
Image Credit: AdobeFirefly
Jacinta Johnson
Image credit: Adobe Firefly
Kate Chappell
Research we love that has informed the textbook
Danielle H. Heinrichs
Why we love Danielle’s work
- Partly because we have to (she came up with the research project behind this textbook!)
- This study was meant to be her PhD research that wasn’t able to take place due to COVID-19
- Despite not being able to conduct the original research, the added time before returning to this topic allowed her to develop her thinking further and she has now published on the intersection of Spanish, affect and decolonial theory extensively
- Along with Dr. Adriana Díaz and A/Prof. Leonardo Veliz, she co-edited a special issue of the journal Critical Multilingualism Studies on Pluriversalising the teaching of Spanish
Works
Heinrichs. D.H. (2024). Untamed tongues, wild affects and Spanish as a world(ing) languaging. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
Special issue of Pluriversalising the teaching of Spanish from the journal Critical Studies in Multilingualism
Abstract
Decolonial and affective turns in language education have brought to light a number of problematic dichotomies including reason/emotion, personal/professional and positive/negative. Yet challenging such dichotomies in language education research is a complex process requiring discussions of both language/linguistics and (often) imperceptible, potentially unnamed affects. This paper seeks to engage with the challenge of rupturing the coloniality of affect and languaging by (re)imagining wild affects as generative responses to Spanish as a world language. Drawing on multimodal critical discourse analysis, this paper also attempts to make use of linguistic research methods to explore such wild affects as Sprachschadenfreude, inundación and trickiness and question why these matter for Spanish as a world language. Inspired by both Gloría Anzaldúa and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui´s work, this paper also works with borderland and Indigenous to antagonise the coloniality of languaging and affect in order to pluriversalise thinking about Spanish as a world(ing) languaging.
Watch
This presentation video was part of the 2023 International Association for Applied Linguistics Conference held in Lyon, France. Danielle gives an overview of the research project associated with this text. You can see how things developed to produce the textbook we have today. Also, apologies for the section on the TikTok videos – all 15 are talking over Danielle.
Gabriela Veronelli – The Coloniality of Languaging
Why we love Gabriela’s research
- She explores the links between coloniality, race, power and language
- She unpacks the role of the standardisation of Spanish in linguistic hierarchies
Read
Abstract
This article analyzes the lasting consequences of linguistic domination that
began with the Conquest. The author looks at colonization in terms of what it meant for
language and race. The “coloniality of language” theorizes the process by which racial
and linguistic hierarchies were tied together as both were imposed through colonization.
Watch
“Dr. Gabriela Veronelli asserts that, for Latinx peoples, language is inseparable from race and, thus, language justice should be treated as a central aspect of building equity and true inclusion within higher education. In this presentation, “Power and Solidarity in Language”, Dr. Veronelli introduces the framework of “coloniality of language” to understand the language-based discrimination facing Latinx communities in education, law, healthcare, popular culture, and politics”.
Vijay Ramjattan – Accent and race; anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy
Why we love Vijay’s research
- He notes in particular how accent is not a neutral construct
- He emphasises the link between accent and appearance to deconstruct how this link results in discrimination
- He has developed guidelines for anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy drawing on common concepts in second language acquisition research
Read
Abstract
This paper concerns how speech accent accents or reinforces racism in the context of labour migration to the English-speaking Global North. It specifically outlines three functions of accent in racial capitalist systems that require the labour of migrants and their acceptance of their “linguistic deficiencies.” First, accent functions as a labour control mechanism that pushes racially minoritised migrants into low-paying work. Second, as evidenced by the language training of transnational call centre workers, accent also reinforces colonial relations between migrant workers and customers. Last, by acting as a credential that can be purchased for professional success, accent distracts from the institutional racism that truly hinders migrants’ employment opportunities. The piece concludes with some thoughts on how combatting racism in labour migration requires another type of accenting.
Watch
Dr. Vijay Ramjattan shares principles for anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy including recognising that pronunciation is embodied, rethinking intelligibility and fighting against institutionalised racism.
Macarena Ortiz-Jiménez
Why we love Macarena’s research
- She has explored perceptions of various Spanish accents in the Australian context
- She decentres the idea of a standard Spanish acccent
Read
Ortiz-Jiménez, M. (2024). Problematising Accents in Pluricentric Languages: The case of Teachers of Spanish as a World Language in Australia. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 11.
Abstract
Spanish is a pluricentric language with nearly 500 million native speakers spread across twenty-one countries. Paradoxically, and despite the cultural and linguistic diversity that such a vast geographical distribution entails, approaches to teaching Spanish as a world language (SWL) remain largely monocentric, upholding Castilian Spanish as the “standard” norm and reproducing and perpetuating asymmetrical power relations among speakers of other Spanish varieties differing from it. Such linguistic hierarchies, which originated in colonial times, have given rise to accentism, a form of discrimination that, at first, might be understood as merely based on accent, but which entails a more complex set of interwoven factors. This paper aims to problematise the absence of accents in the teaching of SWL and to critically examine the roots of such linguistic discrimination as well as the long-lasting effects of the colonial legacy on teachers. To this end, the paper draws on empirical data from a study investigating the perceptions of university-level teachers of Spanish in Australia (n=38) towards normative geographical varieties of Spanish.
Adriana Díaz
Why we love Adriana’s work
- She is not only an experienced academic but also an experienced teacher of Spanish living in Australia
- She draws on decolonial theories in her work to consider how Spanish language education could be done differently
- She developed a series of textbooks as alternatives to commercially available textbooks (see links to them below)
- Along with Dr. Danielle H. Heinrichs and A/Prof. Leonardo Veliz, she co-edited a special issue of the journal Critical Multilingualism Studies on Pluriversalising the teaching of Spanish
Works
Díaz, A.R. (2021). JUNTXS: Introductory Spanish. PressBooks.
Díaz, A.R. (2021). JUNTXS: Intermediate Spanish. PressBooks.
Abstract
JUNTXS is an open access educational resource which can be used in conjunction with a variety of approaches to support beginning learners of Spanish. This media-rich learning resource is designed to guide learners in their Spanish language learning journey through a critical and intercultural lens and to provide regular opportunities to explore, practise and improve their ability to read, speak, and understand this language as it is used across the Spanish-speaking world.
In this article, we question the presumed presence of the textbook as sine qua non in languages education. Contextualising our discussion within Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) in higher education, we illuminate the overlapping ideological, historical and economic forces that frame and shape language practice through textbooks. In a field in which decolonial and poststructuralist approaches to language and languages education are gaining traction, the textbook thwarts theoretical and practical complexification of language beyond monolingual depictions of languages as ahistorical and context-free systems which unproblematically transport meaning across time and space. Furthermore, the status of the textbook as a producible and consumable item cannot be overlooked. On the basis of our critique, we conclude that the use of textbooks generates serious tensions in practice for those wishing to pursue emergent, emancipatory linguistic frameworks in languages education.
