María Luisa Parra Velasco, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures and member of the Faculty Committee on Mexico at DRCLAS, has recently published Enseñanza del español y juventud latina (Arco, 2021).
In this book, Parra Velasco shares her experience as a Spanish teacher for young Latinx college students in the United States. The book is an introduction to the themes, discussions, and theoretical and pedagogical frameworks that have been developed in recent years to work with Latinx youth. The author starts from an ecological and dynamic perspective of bilingual development and identity to focus on the psychosocial, affective and sociolinguistic aspects that characterize this population. The book seeks to provide a critical-conceptual scaffolding that, on the one hand, allows to rethink the traditional principles of teaching Spanish to Latinx youth, and, on the other, lays the foundations for the design of innovative curricular and pedagogical practices that respond to the strengths, needs, and specific interests of this student population. Placing particular emphasis on the relation between teacher and students and among peers, the author proposes strategies for working with diverse classes and integrates theoretical insights with concrete and practical proposals for teaching practice. Congratulations, María Luisa!