It is one of the most important meetings in the United States for teachers, coordinators and programme managers in the field of language teaching and learning.

The University of Cadiz (UCA) has participated, through its University School of Modern Languages (CSLM), in the 2022 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo, organised by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), in Massachusetts (Boston- USA). The purpose of this association is to improve and expand the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction.

The international exhibition, one of the most important in the United States in its sector, brings together language teachers, coordinators, administrators and managers of academic programmes and professionals from the publishing world related to language teaching and learning, with the aim of providing a comprehensive professional development experience with an impact for language educators in all areas of teaching. Spanish has a privileged place in it. In the USA there is a Spanish-speaking population of almost 42 million speakers and more than eight million learners of Spanish at all levels of education.

The CSLM was represented by the General Director for Language Policy of the UCA, Javier de Cos, and the heads of International Programmes of the centre, M.ª Carmen Fernández and Arkaitz Errazkin. The UCA stand was part of a space organised by ICEX Spain Export and Investment. Currently, the University School of Modern Language offers Spanish courses to more than 20 North American universities and teaching centres. Specifically, the University of Cadiz has welcomed 467 students from this country this year.

UCA team with the president of ACTFL

This event, which is one of the main North American showcases for the academic offer of Spanish courses, was attended by 6,300 participants, after two years of absence due to the pandemic. In fact, the President of ACTFL, Victoria Russell, was a student of the UCA’s Spanish courses almost 20 years ago, in a summer programme run by the Spanish Embassy in Washington for teachers from the USA and Canada. She referred to this fact, and to her particular connection with the centre and the city, in a moving speech at the opening of the convention.

The CSLM has achieved the proposed objectives of consolidating and reinforcing some of the existing agreements and attracting new academic programmes for students and faculty in training. Meetings have been held with the coordinators of universities that work with the centre, such as Valdosta State, Penn State, Monmouth, Tufts and Massachusetts in Lowell. At the latter university, which has a decade-long relationship with the UCA, a workshop on Spanish culture and a workshop on beginning Spanish have been held.

The University of Cadiz has also worked on the creation of new agreements with Weber State University and has held other institutional meetings, specifically with the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) and with the Department of Education of the Spanish Embassy in Washington, with which it is trying to revive the summer programme that was developed at the University of Cadiz.