Maymester in Mexico

Eleven UT undergraduates accompanied Dr. Deborah Palmer this past May and June to Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico for the first study-abroad program sponsored by the College of Education. The course was a Maymester, its credits officially part of the Spring semester, while program dates allowed students to remain on campus until after graduation and to return before the start of the second summer session – a key factor for education students’ extremely busy schedules.

The students, mostly undergraduate EC-4 majors with various interests and specializations, received credit for ALD 325: Second Language Acquisition while they lived with Mexican families, studied Spanish at CETLALIC, a small language school, and experienced first hand the culture and history of this region of Mexico. Included in the experience was an opportunity to visit and spend time in Mexican elementary and secondary schools, both public and private.

Spanish ability among the eleven students ranged from two students who began the program as novices, to one who was bilingual and bicultural. Students were also at all stages of their academic careers, with some who had hardly begun their majors and others on the verge of graduating. There was one Special Education major, two future ESL teachers, two Bilingual Education majors, two psychology majors, and one business major whose area of specialty was marketing!

Yet all students reported having grown tremendously, not solely in their Spanish language skills and in their understanding of the theory and process of Second Language Acquisition (the explicit goals of the course), but also in terms of their ability to empathize with the experiences of immigrants who come into our society and our schools, and their likely ability to work effectively with immigrant children in their future classrooms or workplaces. In the words of the professor’s four-year old daughter (who also came to Mexico and became best friends with many of the students), they also “blasted out on fun!”

Maymester 2008

The Center for Global Educational Opportunities (C-GEO) plans to offer the course again this coming spring, with Dr. Luis Urrieta instructing.

Interested students will need to get their applications in by November 1st. They should contact Dr. Urrieta for more information about the course, or speak to the program coordinator in C-GEO, Steve Bell for more information about the program and application procedures.

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