Blog 1: What will I do?

As of now, the research assignment at hand is a big question mark, mainly in the sense that I am having trouble nailing down a particular topic in Foreign Language Education, specifically Spanish, that I want to study over the next few months. I am consumed by what is truly realistic and practical, and so I am continue to ponder over themes and research topics that will create a feasible research project that will not only be beneficial to me, but for colleagues in the field. Not being a particularly creative person, adding a twist to an older study, as in replicating it, sounds attractive. But that seems to be a cop out at this point. Thinking back to my days in the middle school and high school Spanish classroom, I remember the days of hands-on cultural activities, such as art projects, cultural presentations, sampling of food, etc. Those were the fun Spanish days, but not necessarily the most useful in teaching students the actual history and culture of different Spanish-speaking countries. In what ways can those activities be structured so that foreign language learners are able to take away significant knowledge of Spanish, Mexican, or Peruvian culture? This is one idea I have been looking into. At this point, it seems most useful to me to continue to browse ERIC, ACTFL, and other Foreign Language journals to gather ideas. I am confident that an article out their will spark an idea in my head. With that idea in place, I am not too concerned about the actual gathering of research. Studying the different kinds of qualitative research has been very helpful in realizing that research is more than just numbers and percentages. Conversations can be meaningful, useful data, along with observations and interviews. This kind of personal interaction is very appealing. I am ready and eager to get into the schools, see how they have changed and remained the same, and then learn from them.