Author: Mary Risner

Thanks to all who supported the formation of the ACTFL SIG for Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP).  We welcome and thanks the LSP SIG officers: Natalia Santamaria Laorden, Chair, Ramapo College of New Jersey;  Julie Wilhem as vice-chair, Iowa State University; and Maria Macias as secretary, University of Florida. We look forward to creative and innovative advances with an ACTFL LSP SIG supoorting the field of LSP. https://www.actfl.org/connect/special-interest-groups/languages-specific-purposes

  Spanish for Health Care and Human Services: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Intermediate and Advanced Speakers underscores the importance of the integration of the arts and intercultural communication within medical training and well prepares students to competently and compassionately serve Spanish-speaking clients and patients.The book prioritizes students’ development of intercultural communication, recognizing that the ability to mediate between a patient and health practitioner is at the core of the health care fields. Rather than grouping content into lists of words and expressions grouped by semantic fields, it employs a more systematic, research-based approach, using communicative tasks to actively engage students with spoken and written texts, while promoting their linguistic and intercultural skills. Student projects, based and inspired by authentic materials, give learners the opportunity to explore topics of interest while also…

Summary from the CATAPULT website:  "CATAPULT  is a three-year project co-funded by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union. It aims to offer training and tools to language teachers teaching Languages for Specific Purposes (LSPs) in adult and higher education, and to therefore make sure they are equipped with the necessary professional skills to train LSP learners in the digital era. This objective will be reached through a collaborative European project undertaken by Higher Education Institutions, an international language association involved in the promotion of quality assurance in language learning and teaching, and independent partners in 6 different countries, which strive to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the teaching and learning of Languages for Specific Purposes in Europe. The consortium’s collaborative work will lead to the provision…

In order to encourage faculty, lecturers and graduate students in foreign language departments to add a business-language dimension to their research and teaching, the 17 Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs) have pledged a portion of their Title VI CIBER grant funding to support the Business Language Research and Teaching (BLRT) Awards. In 2017, grants will be awarded to three language professionals at U.S. colleges or universities. One grant of $3,000 will be awarded to a project in a critical or less commonly taught foreign language and two awards of $2,000 will be awarded to research or teaching projects in other foreign languages (excluding ESL and ASL). 2017 BLRT winners will present their research findings at the 2018 International Symposium on Language for Specific Purposes to be hosted…

By Beatriz Sedano, PhD Student, Open University of Spain My first contact with NOBLE was less than one year ago in CIEFE, International Congress of Spanish for Specific Purposes. Since I connected with the NOBLE team, other graduates and phd students like Carolina, I have found so many benefits of connecting. DISCUSSING AND LEARNING First of all, NOBLE is a professional learning community. Therefore, as students and teachers of LSP, the most important thing is to learn and discuss specialized language education. In our virtual meetings, personal meetings in conferences, webinars and continuous contact through NOBLE social networks and personal email, we have been discussing a lot of issues related to my research field such as: LSP Teaching, Teacher Training, Language and Globalisation, IT Language Teaching and E-Learning, last Tendencies like…