Investigating and Sustaining Postsecondary World Language Education Enrollment and Learning Outcomes: Challenges, Initiatives, and Opportunities (Table 9)

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

In response to declining postsecondary world language enrollment and the widespread concern for language programs’ vitality, understanding students’ enrollment decisions and learning experiences is more important than ever. This symposium contributes to ongoing scholarly discussion by bringing together language education researchers from different institutional contexts to examine challenges, initiatives, and opportunities related to investigating and sustaining world language education enrollment and learning outcomes. The presentations in this symposium examine language education policy, curricular opportunities, and discourses about the value of language study by focusing on students’ language learning experiences and decisions to (dis)continue language study, empirically investigating programmatic outcomes, and highlighting affordances of specific curricular models of language education.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Second Language Research

Chair

• Matt Coss, Michigan State University

Papers

• Critical (Dis)junctures in the Secondary–Postsecondary Language Education Pipeline: Evidence From Undergraduate Learners of Arabic - Elizabeth Huntley, University of Colorado - Denver

• Why Do University Students Not Want To Study a World Language? Let’s Ask Them! - Scott Sterling, Indiana State University; Melanie D'Amico, Indiana State University

• Investment in Studying Spanish at a U.S. University: Linguistic Identities and Discourses About Language Study - Carlo Cinaglia, Michigan State University

• Task-Based Language Teaching in a Postsecondary Language Program: Pedagogical Implementation and Learning Outcomes - Matt Coss, Michigan State University

• Supporting Multilingual Undergraduate and Graduate Students by Bridging Disciplinary Study and Critical Applied Linguistics - Angelika Kraemer, Cornell University