Diversifying GenEds: Integrating Spanish into CMST 102 (Public Speaking)

Communication courses like public speaking are standard in US education, often required both for high school graduation and as part of the general education curriculum at most colleges/universities. There is, however, an invisible and unspoken caveat on such courses; they don’t teach public speaking generally but public speaking in English. We believe that by offering sections of core communication courses, like public speaking, in Language Other Than English (LOTE) we will be able to offer innovative course options that are attractive to many students, including native English speakers who want to develop conversational speaking ability in a LOTE and to students for whom English is not a first language. While the need for communication courses in LOTE is widely acknowledged, and the benefits of such courses to both native and non-native speakers tremendous in terms of language acquisition and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) the barrier to offering such courses is the lack of curriculum development and total lack of teaching materials.