Two Divergent Views of Language Teaching in the U.S.

Exploring Ideological and Applied Meanings in Spanish and Portuguese

Abstract

This article explores two influential positions regarding the appropriate contemporary agenda for foreign language teaching (FLT) at the college level: firstly, the humanities and literature-centered viewpoint of the Modern Languages Association (MLA); secondly, that of the Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) movement. The two models diverge as philosophies and value-systems, centering respectively on the intellectual primacy of language itself versus language as a medium for the educational engagement of social justice. Beyond Spanish, the MLA-SNS dichotomy illustrates tensions which obtain to varying degrees with most FLs, and in the cross-disciplinary relations between humanities and social sciences. The background includes two key developments: (i), qualitatively, the evolution of FLT methodology debates towards social issues and stakeholder identities, first in TESOL and then in Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL); (ii), quantitatively, the long-term decline in FLT enrollments. Prospective agends for Spanish, in terms of teh SNS and MLA frameworks, demographics, and other considerations aer compared and contrasted. The divergent circumstances for Portuguese provide a separate counterpoint, and potentially a third way, marked by cross-disciplinary eclecticism rather than language-centric or stakeholder-centric values.