By Stefan DuBois As language instructors, we aim to build practical skills for real-world communication, and nothing helps students realize the extent of the abilities they have developed like an authentic interaction with a native speaker. In spring 2025, the University of Denver’s (DU) first-year Spanish program organized a virtual language exchange for students to do exactly that, and the outcomes for students were nothing short of fantastic. Logistics We implemented

In the fall of 2023, the University of Denver’s first-year Spanish program did away with traditional exams and replaced them with a portfolio-based assessment system. Over a year later, students, instructors, and course learning outcomes are all reaping the benefits. This post will discuss why our program made the switch, what our portfolios consist of, and the benefits we have seen since adopting them. The problem with exams Our program uses a communicative, task-based

Are you struggling to stick to the target language in introductory classes where students have so little knowledge? It may seem difficult, but giving your students lots of rich, meaningful input is one of the best things you can do for their language acquisition, so this post is here to help! Our goal It’s easy to think that students won’t understand us if we use words they’ve never heard before. Shouldn’t we wait to use the target language until students have memorized a co

So it’s the end of another school year and you’re looking to go out with a bang. What to do? The University of Denver’s 1st year Spanish program is planning a special celebration this year in the form of a mock Oscars ceremony. While we haven’t yet executed the plan, we are sharing it below in case it’s of use to other schools looking for inspiration to end the year strong! The idea: With a large program of ~500 students and ~10 instructors per quarter, it’s difficult to prov

Have you ever wasted hours trying to find the perfect article or video to show students so practice their reading or listening comprehension? This quarter—inspired by Mike Peto’s Free Voluntary Reading, which allows students regular, low-stakes opportunities to read books of their choosing—I experimented with restructuring days oriented toward reading and listening comprehension by allowing students the freedom to select their own authentic resources. As a result, I not only

As educators, we can’t imagine why anyone would skip our amazing class. And while we wish that our magnetic instruction alone would fill seats, most institutions require an extrinsic policy to nudge students our way. But how does one strike a balance between incentivizing attendance and recognizing that students simultaneously juggle other classes, jobs, families, health, and all of life’s other competing priorities? Should our instruction always take precedence over all the

Imagine you just finished an inspiring conference/workshop/article which finally convinced you to transition from traditional, grammar-focused instruction to a more communicative, proficiency-based classroom. But, like a rejuvenated vacationer coming home to a burst pipe in the basement, your newfound excitement is immediately doused by the realities of your institution: how can you adopt modern methods while shackled to a textbook written in the Dark Ages? Yet, you don’t hav

Leading a student-centered class can be scary. For an instructor used to being the star of the show in a lecture-style class, relinquishing control to students can feel like letting go of the wheel on the highway. However, dipping your toes in the water can be as easy as starting each class with a dynamic warm-up—that is, a simple, 5 -10 minute activity done at the beginning of class, which obligates students to do three things: 1. Use language to focus on meaning 2.

by Stefan DuBois There are various tempting personas to adopt when teaching culture in the classroom: the “Ben Stein,” droning through a laundry list of “Did-you-knows?”; the “crusty old aunt on the couch,” torturing students with an interminable slideshow of the instructor’s own photo albums; the “projectionist,” playing a tangentially-related movie or video whose primary objective is soaking up time until the bell rings. All of these personas fall into the trap of the Atlas