Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings presented a talk titled “Open Educational Resources for Spanish for Healthcare Professions” at the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) annual conference, held June 26-29 in Panama City, Panama. The presentation highlighted strategies for incorporating open educational resources (OER) into medical Spanish curricula to enhance accessibility, build communicative competence, and promote cultural humility.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings published “Pedagogical Approaches to VE” with co-author Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Lynchburg. The chapter, which appears in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, edited by Lee McCallum and Dara Tafazoli, explores the use of virtual exchanges in second language teaching as a means to enhance the learning experience by providing opportunities to interact and communicate with speakers of the target language. More information on the volume can be found here.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings and co-author Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Lynchburg presented a talk, titled “Study Abroad as a Safe Place for Heritage Speakers to Practice Speaking,” at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo held November 22–24 in Philadelphia, PA.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings and coauthor Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Lynchburg presented a talk titled “The study abroad experiences of heritage Spanish speakers” at the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT) in Washington, D.C., March 1-3, 2024. This year’s theme was “Education Abroad: Language, Learners, and Communities.”

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings and coauthor Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Lynchburg presented a talk titled “Language Variation and Standard Language Ideologies in Spanish Classrooms” at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo held November 17–19 in Chicago, Illinois.