Fostering translingual and transcultural competence through interdisciplinarity Gillian Lord glord@ufl.edu

1. Fostering translingual
and transcultural
competence through
interdisciplinarity
Gillian Lord
glord@ufl.edu

2. Context: Language enrollments

3. Context: Language enrollments

4. Context: MLA 2007 report

5. Goal
• Establish interdisciplinary endeavors to:
– generate interest in language study and
increase enrollments
– broaden the view of what language study
entails at the university level
– promote multilingualism across campus

6. Projects reported here
1. Profession-specific courses
2. Study abroad program
3. Interdisciplinary course
• BONUS: internationalizing the campus
with beacon technology

7. 1. Profession-specific courses
[“Spanish for …”]
• Lower level:
– Building
Construction
– (Agriculture)
• Upper level:
– Business
– Advertising
– Health Professions
– Legal Professions
– Education
– Translation
– (Journalism)

8. • Certificate in
Spanish for the
Professions
– 12 credits
• Conversation
• Service Learning
• Culture
• ONE professional
course

9. 2. Study abroad program
• Partnership with
Biology Department
• Designed for pre-
health students
– Biology 2
prerequisite
– Intermediate Spanish
prerequisite

10. • Host family homestays
• Two courses:
– Emerging Disease in the Americas [English]
– Experiential learning [Spanish]
• 6-8 weekly hours as volunteers:
– Hospitals; Medical clinics; Pharmacies;
Dental clinics; Pet stores; Alpaca farm
• Workshops/Guest lectures
• Excursions

11. 3. Interdisciplinary course
• Chemistry in the
cocina latina
• Co-taught:
– Spanish professor
– Chemistry professor
from Argentina
• Taught in English
• No prerequisites

12. • Sample units
CULTURE
(in classroom)
CHEMISTRY
(in chemistry laboratory)
COCINA
(in campus test kitchen)
CULTURE, HISTORY,
VOCABULARY,
PRONUNCIATION
CONCEPTS,
EXPERIMENTS
RECIPES,
FOOD PREP
seafood denaturing proteins ceviche
potatoes breaking down carbohydrates causa peruana
peppers
measuring capsaicin
concentrations
with uv spectroscopy
chiles rellenos
sugar, sweets carmelizing sugars
dulce de leche;
alfajores; flan

14. CAMPUS-WIDE PROJECT:
Beacons and internationalization
Project PIs: Spanish and Portuguese Studies; UF Libraries
App development: Computer Science and Engineering students
Text: UF Cicerones student group; Office of the President
Translations of text: Students in language classes at UF

15. Assessment of initiatives

16. Thank you.
glord@ufl.edu
http://www.spanishandportuguese.ufl.edu