Creating Community and Making Connections in the Third‐Year Spanish Course: A Content‐Based Approach

In response to advances in second language acquisition (SLA) research and the establishment of national standards for foreign language study, considerable experimentation has taken place in the design of third‐year courses during the past five years. However, several practical issues warrant further study and discussion. These include (1) developing courses that facilitate progress toward ACTFL advanced proficiency and (2) redesigning programs to meet the diverse career needs of students. In this article, the author addresses the first issue by discussing a third‐year composition and conversation course designed to increase students' communicative skills and the second issue by suggesting links to other subject matter. Areas for future research on the design of the language course sequence are suggested.