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Empowering Spanish heritage learners through a community informed, online medical Spanish curriculum
Get PDFThe lack of standardized medical Spanish curriculum leads to variable content and quality, often neglecting heritage language learners. Also, community engagement efforts seldom extend to curriculum development. Learn about a collaboration between Spanish faculty and a physician to create an innovative, virtual Spanish for healthcare curriculum that addresses these challenges
Spanish as a heritage language in Ñuu Savi children in rural northwest Oregon: Identity, attitudes, usage domains, and maintenance
No full textSpanish as a heritage language in Ñuu Savi children in rural northwest Oregon: Identity, attitudes, usage domains, and maintenance
Immigrants from Mexico and the rest of Latin America in the US who are monolingual in an indigenous language face challenges that have received some attention from scholars (Geyman et al., 2012) and in the popular press (Cengel 2013; DeCoursey 2015; Fox & Rivera-Salgado 2005 among many others) in the last 15 years. To date, little to no research exists on who the heritage speakers (TRI) of Spanish in rural Oregon with parents (OMS) who speak a Mexican Indigenous language are. Because OMS are not native speakers of Spanish, they constitute the contact generation (Villa & Rivera-Mills, 2009) for both English and Spanish, having learned these languages as adults in Mexico and the US. The present study focuses on the children of Mixtecos (Ñuu Savi) in rural northwest Oregon. Through 42 oral, dialogic sociolinguistic interviews with OMS and TRI of both genders, ages 6-55 conducted mostly in Spanish, data on how Spanish may shape their cultural and linguistic identity, what their attitudes about the use of Spanish are, their usage domains for this language, and their thoughts on Spanish language maintenance were collected. Results show that TRI take the use of Spanish for granted, since it is the lingua franca of the immigrant community, despite it not being the native language of their parents. Results also revealed that it is the language used at home with parents but not with siblings, that Spanish helps both TRI and OMS connect with the larger Mexican Spanish-speaking community, and that given how pervasive Spanish is where they live, and how few TRI learn their parents’ native languages, children learn Spanish naturalistically very well in this area of rural northwest Oregon. This type of research should help inform educators and administrators in making decisions about programs of Spanish as a heritage or second language to benefit these and other similar communities.
Keywords Indigenous speakers, Mixteco, Tu’un Savi, immigration, sociolinguistics, language maintenance, linguistic attitudes, linguistic identity, cultural identity, usage domains, bilingualism, trilingualism
References
Cengel, K. (2013). The other Mexicans. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130624-mexico-mixteco-indigenous-immigration-spanish-culture/
DeCoursey, D. (2015). Indigenous languages and the courts: Challenges in providing language access to indigenous immigrants. The American Translators Association Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.atanet.org/chronicle‑online/wp‑content/uploads/4405_10_decoursey.pdf
Fox, J. & Rivera-Salgado, G. (2005). Building civil society among indigenous migrants. U. S.-Mexico Policy Bulletin, 7. Retrieved from https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Building%20Civil%20Society.Fox%2526Rivera.Eng1.pdf
Geyman, M., Schmitt, A. L., Leyrer, S., Ford, D. G., Smith, R., and Adams, M. (2012).Indigenous Guatemalan and Mexican workers in Washington State: Living conditions and legal issues. Mexican Law Review, 5. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870‑05782012000200002
Villa, D. J. & Rivera-Mills, S. V. (2009). An integrated multi-generational model for language maintenance and shift. Spanish in Context, 6(1), 26-42
Experiencias de estudiantes latines en la educación superior estadounidense: Navegando espacios y pertenencia en una universidad privada de población predominantemente blanca
No full textThe African Settlement of San Mateo de Cangrejos and its Historical and Cultural Influence on Puerto Rican Society
No full textIn 1493 Christopher Columbus left Spain on his second voyage to the West Indies and arrived on the Caribbean Island of Boriken, populated by the native Tainos. He claimed the land for Spain and renamed the Island San Juan Bautista. In 1508 Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon was named Governor and changed the name to Puerto Rico. Spain realized by the mid-1500’s that workers were needed to develop a strong economy and forts to protect the gold and silver coming from South America headed to Spain. The slave trade was used to populate Puerto Rico. Between 1659-1842, 26,881 African slaves from the region of West Africa, Nigeria were brought to Puerto Rico. The impact of west African slaves over four centuries left a legacy that developed into modern day Afro-Caribbean culture in Puerto Rico, and it began in the free Black colony of Cangrejos, outside the capital of San Juan
Bingocize®: Enhancing Physical and Cognitive Health for Nursing Home Residents
No full textMore than 1,800 nursing home residents die each year due to injuries sustained from falls. Many Certified Nursing Facility (CNF) residents also lack social engagement and physical activity, which contributes to a decline in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), cognition and functional performance, as well as a serious increase in fall risk. We highlight lessons learned implementing Bingocize®, a three-year multidisciplinary project to enhance quality of life and functional status among residents in CNFs in the San Antonio area. Bingocize® combines bingo with gentle range-of-motion exercises to provide a fun, evidence-based program shown to increase older adults\u27 quality of life in community settings. We report experiences and data from resident participation and focus groups to assess Bingocize®. Undergraduates in psychology and kinesiology have developed skills, empathy, and a thorough understanding of complex issues related to aging and long-term care
Job Satisfaction, Stress, and Verbal Praise
No full textJob Satisfaction Research has consistently supported a negative correlation between job satisfaction and job stress. The current study explores potential factors to mitigate stress for the dual purpose of increasing employee satisfaction and achieving higher productivity within organizations. To obtain authentic results, we identified stress as our covariate and examined the relationship between job satisfaction and verbal praise, partialling out stress. Results showed that job satisfaction was correlated both with verbal praise and employee benefits, even when stress was partialled out (r=.503,
A Call to Duty: Supporting Military Families Raising Children with Disabilities
Get PDFMilitary families raising children with disabilities face many challenges locating and accessing support and services from a local school district following a redeployment. Proper and adequate support from education agencies can help facilitate smooth school transitions for military children and their families. Therefore, it is critical to explore various supports and services offered by school systems and learn about military families’ experiences when attempting to access those resources. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the extant research related to supports and services offered to military families, explore parental experiences with accessibility, and guide future research on the topic. This scoping review was conducted using Arksey & O’Malley five-step structured process. The identified studies described a range of public school-based services and supports provided to military families and their experiences with accessing needed services and supports. Implications are associated with possible solutions, research gaps, and future directions
Utilizing Educational Technology for Financial Literacy Learning Outcomes
Get PDFUndergraduate college students were surveyed during education courses at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Texas A&M University- San Antonio, to investigate whether there is a difference in learning objectives of financial literacy between two types of instructional methods: a simple slide show and a more interactive form of instructional technology. The results of the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups, however, the control group fared slightly better on the posttest. Possible explanations for these findings include limitations in the quasi-experimental design and factors related to the sample characteristics. Nonetheless, the study provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of instructional methods in asynchronous and blended learning environments, informing instructional practices and guiding future research in educational technology