Experiencias Beginning Spanish - PROGRAM SAMPLER

ABOUT THE AUTHORS ix GREGORY L . THOMPSON, PhD I am the son of a teacher, the brother of a teacher, the nephew of several teachers, and likely the father of future teachers as my daughters are interested in following in my footsteps. I always wanted to be a teacher growing up and received my bachelors with a double major in math and Spanish teaching in 1999. I then decided to continue my education receiving an MA in Spanish Pedagogy from Brigham Young University (2001) and then a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona (2006). I have taught classes in language pedagogy, bilingualism, Spanish phonetics, applied linguistics, as well as classes on the development of language skills. I have published articles in areas including code-switching in the foreign language classroom; heritage language learners; service-learning and language acquisition; bilingualism and languages in contact; and placement exams and language testing. I have also published three books titled Intersection of Service and Learning: Research and Practice in the Second Language Classroom; Spanish in Bilingual and Multilingual Settings around the World; and The Changing Landscape of Spanish Language Curricula: Designing Higher Education Programs for Diverse Students . Currently I am working at Brigham Young University in the pedagogy section of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. I have had the opportunity to supervise intermediate Spanish since 2012. I feel strongly that the training I have received, my research experience, and my 20+ years of teaching experience have helped me in working on this extensive textbook project of Experiencias . Working with this author team on Experiencias has helped not only as a professional in the field but also as a professor and as a supervisor of instructors. I dedicate this work to my family for their loving support, to my students who teach me every day, and to all of those educators who have changedmy life and continue to inspireme. AL AN V. BROWN, PhD I was raised in Southern California by a Spanish teacher though I rarely got to see my father in the classroom. I knew he was rather well liked by his students and his colleagues, and a bit loony in the classroomas compared to how he was at home. It never crossed my mind as a child and teenager that I might follow a similar path as my dad. But when I got my first taste of teaching Spanish in 1995 working as a part-time instructor of small groups of volunteer missionaries during college, I fell in love. It was then that I realized that language teaching, specifically Spanish language teaching brought out the parts of my personality that I enjoyed most. I then became certified as a secondary Spanish teacher at Brigham Young University, received a Master’s in Spanish Pedagogy from the same university, and subsequently completed a doctorate in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. All during this time I taught Spanish, and ESL at times, at the post-secondary level. I am currently on faculty at the University of Kentucky as a member of the Hispanic Studies Department and enjoy teaching and learning about all things related to Spanish applied linguistics, Spanish language teaching and learning, and Spanish second language acquisition. I have published my research in a variety of journals on language pedagogy, curriculum development, and assessment. I also co-authored a book with Greg entitled The Changing Landscape of Spanish Language Curricula: Designing Higher Education Programs for Diverse Students . I want to thank my co-authors for inviting me to form part of the teamand for their patience withme as I learned, at times hesitantly, the rigors of writing a language textbook. I dedicate this work to those tireless, underpaid Spanish teachers, regardless of level, who truly believe in the transformative power of multi-lingualism.