"Advancing Second Language Proficiency and Intercultural Competence in Postsecondary Education"
LRC Signature Speaker
LeAnne Spino
Associate Professor of Spanish, Proficiency Coordinator, and Director of International Studies and Diplomacy, University of Rhode Island

This is a pivotal moment for language programs. Enrollments in languages other than English are plummeting across the United States. Also in flux is the landscape of higher education more generally. In this climate of uncertainty, language programs must be able to clearly and convincingly articulate their value. Yet how can we effectively make these arguments?

There are, of course, many possible strategies for demonstrating and communicating the value of language programs. In this talk, I will detail one possible approach, resulting from a deep realignment across six degree-granting language programs at the University of Rhode Island that sought to advance students' language proficiency and intercultural competence. We will explore what these constructs are, the extent to which they develop in postsecondary studies, and how they can be framed to university leadership, faculty, and students to successfully communicate at least part of the value of a postsecondary language education.

Bio: Dr. Spino (Spino-Seijas) received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Second Language Studies. She is currently an Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Rhode Island and the Proficiency Coordinator for the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, where she spearheads the Department’s Proficiency Initiative. This initiative seeks to increase students' language proficiency through faculty training, large-scale proficiency testing, and evidence-based curricular revamping. Dr. Spino is also the Director of the International Studies and Diplomacy program, a dual degree program in which students major in International Studies and a language, study abroad for at least a semester, and reach a high proficiency benchmark in the language they study before graduation.
Dr. Spino specializes in second language acquisition. Much of her research focuses on issues that impact language teaching directly. She is particularly interested in the development of second language proficiency and the sociopolitics of language acquisition and pedagogy, especially as it pertains to heritage language speakers of Spanish.

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom (registration required). Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Join Einaudi Center experts for World in Focus Talks on global events in the news and on your mind. Our faculty's research and policy insights put the world in focus.

This year we’re hosting informal campus discussions on many Tuesday afternoons. This week’s topic:

In the United States and around the world, strict immigration enforcement and violence are being wielded as political tools. Recent U.S. actions include surveillance of communities, indiscriminate detainment, and violence against protestors. Despite being framed as necessary for the safety of citizens, these tactics are rooted in histories of slavery, the prison industrial complex, and xenophobia.

Does this type of enforcement infringe on rights? How can we understand current events through the lens of global and historical contexts? Do present-day immigration policies make communities safer?

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Featured Faculty

Shannon Gleeson (Migrations) | Industrial and Labor RelationsTristan Ivory (EAP, IAD) | International and Comparative LaborJaclyn Kelley-Widmer | LawNatasha Raheja (SAP) | AnthropologyIan Kysel | Law

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Conversations Matter at Einaudi

This conversation is hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and its regional and thematic programs. Find out what's in store for students at Einaudi!

Join us for a Chats in the Stacks book talk with Alex Nading, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, as he discusses his latest book, The Kidney and the Cane: Planetary Health and Plantation Labor in Nicaragua (Duke University Press, 2025). Nading follows activists, scientists, and residents in the sugarcane zone who wrestle with the consequences of plantation life. Along the way, he raises critical questions about the capacity of corporations and states to care for people and ecosystems; the ability of citizens and experts to regulate toxic substances; and the future of work on a warming planet.

To attend the talk virtually, please register here: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CZSHaSwXQsm_ZP2dRbc5fg

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Join us on Zoom to practice your Portuguese skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think. Conversation Hours are open to any learner, including the public.

Join Portuguese Conversation Hour on Zoom!

Join Einaudi Center experts for World in Focus Talks on global events in the news and on your mind. Our faculty's research and policy insights put the world in focus.

This year we’re hosting informal campus discussions on many Tuesday afternoons. This week’s topic:

The United States helped create the United Nations to protect the sovereignty of independent countries. Now the Trump administration is setting the tone for superpowers with imperial ambitions by waging economic war against democratic allies, violating long-standing treaties, and holding out the possibility of using military force.

What do these unprecedented actions mean for the rest of the world? How are states and peoples in different regions responding? And what may happen if tensions continue to escalate?

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Featured Faculty

Agnieszka Nimark (PACS) | Affiliated ScholarMagnus Fiskesjö (EAP, PACS, SEAP) | AnthropologyAlexandra Blackman (SWANA) | GovernmentSeema Golestaneh (SWANA) | Near Eastern StudiesIrina Troconis (LACS) | Romance StudiesKenneth Roberts (LACS) | GovernmentPeter Katzenstein (IES, PACS) | Government

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Conversations Matter at Einaudi

This conversation is hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and its regional and thematic programs. Find out what's in store for students at Einaudi!

This talk examines the history of the environmental clauses in Chile’s constitution. That constitution was imposed at gunpoint by the Pinochet dictatorship and has been widely assailed for preserving the “guardrails” of Chile’s neoliberal economic model. Surprisingly, the 1980 constitution, designed in a secretive and anti-democratic process by conservative legal scholars and politicians, included surprisingly innovative language on environmental rights. And, as this paper demonstrates, this language was not toothless. It established the basis for two landmark legal cases in the Supreme Court over water and water rights while Chile was still ruled by Pinochet during the 1980s. These cases signified major victories for Chile’s robust environmentalist and indigenous rights movements.

Thomas Klubock is John C. Coleman Professor of History, University of Virginia. He is the author of three books on Chile, Ránquil: Rural Rebellion, Political Violence, and Historical Memory in Chile, La Frontera: Forests and Ecological Conflict in Chile’s Frontier Territory, Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile’s El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904-1951, and a co-editor of The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics.