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Spanish 4350, Spanish in the Community was developed as a service-learning course
to promote and develop the relationship between the University of North Texas at Dallas
and the surrounding Spanish-speaking community. Spanish 4350 promotes social justice
by providing a pathway for UNT Dallas students studying Spanish to apply their communication
skills in order to assist members of the Spanish-speaking community to achieve their
educational, economic, and/or social aspirations.
Spanish in the Community is a citizenship preparation course geared toward helping Spanish-speaking U.S. residents achieve their dream.
* All instruction and materials are free of charge for community participants.
For more information: citizenship@untdallas.edu
Authentic interaction with native speakers of Spanish
Practice of formal oral and written communication
Active community involvement
Service hours going toward graduation with honors
Extensive knowledge of the Social Studies components for teacher candidates
Immigration process awareness
Bilingual experience teaching adults
Spanish 4350, Spanish in the Community was piloted as a service-learning in the Spring
of 2017 by Dr. Mara Queiroz Vaughn, current USCIS Citizenship Ambassador, and Dr.
Sheryl Santos-Hatchett in partnership with Rey de los Santos, Executive Director of
the Dallas League of United Latin American Citizens National Education Service Center
(LULAC – LNESC) at their Edgefield location. The objective of the US Citizenship Course
was to help adult Spanish -speakers to learn the history, geography, culture and government
system of the United States. The purpose of the developed partnership was to help
the members of the community with limited-English proficiency prepare for the citizenship
exam, administered by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).
Spanish in the Community has a unique structure. Each class meeting offers whole
class instruction by a professor followed by break- out groups led by teams of UNT
Dallas enrolled students. Due to the overwhelming success of the pilot semester, the
course was moved to campus in Fall, 2017 to provide space for more participants.
The course continues to be held free of charge to aspiring Spanish-speaking U.S. resident community members at the UNT Dallas Campus.