Sabrina Laroussi is an associate professor at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA, USA. She has many years’ experience teaching Spanish conversation and composition classes, which include topics related to language, culture, literature and civilisation. Her students are taking Spanish at various levels from beginner through to advanced.
Sabrina has been using Newsdle in her classes since September 2022. In this interview, she tells us about her experiences with the platform.
What did you initially like about Newsdle that made you interested?
I’ve taught this course, Spanish conversation and composition, for many years, but it’s been hard to find a good textbook for that class that combined both. So when I received information about Newsdle, I thought I’d try it out. In previous years when I taught this course without a textbook, I would ask students to research news articles and then bring them to class the first session of the week, so we can discuss them. I provided them with different Spanish news websites such as BBC in Spanish, CNN in Spanish, El País in Spain, and Clarín in Argentina, so they would just pick a piece of news and then come to class and talk about it.
When I saw that Newsdle had actually this same concept – and with activities! – I thought, this is much better. And the best thing is that you could choose the level and the activities. Not only they just read, but I also love that it has this feature where they look up words; if they don’t understand a word, they look it up. So it was very convenient.
What challenges do Spanish language instructors in the US face nowadays that Newsdle helps solve?
Sometimes it’s hard to find a textbook that fulfills all of your needs. There are fantastic textbooks, but you always have in your mind: I wish this textbook had this and that. So in that sense, it’s a challenge, especially for a conversation and composition class.
The first time I taught this class, I used a textbook, but it was more grammar-focused. Students obviously need to know the grammar, but the class is more conversation-focused rather than grammar, and it’s also a writing class. At VMI, each student is required to take a minimum of two upper-level courses that are officially designated as writing-intensive "W", as well as two Civilizations and Cultures courses, which are designated with an "X". My course fulfills both requirements. That’s why I thought Newsdle was a great tool, because the platform covers conversation, writing, and specially culture. Students are very well exposed to culture.
Could you share some best practices on how you integrate Newsdle in your daily work in the classroom?
Since it’s a culture class, we cover different Spanish speaking countries, such as Colombia. I also try to show at least one film throughout the semester, and this semester I showed Encanto, the Disney movie about Colombian culture and history. Before showing the movie, I found an article about it on Newsdle, and it talked about all the traditions and food and everything related to culture that we see in the movie. I asked students to read the article and answer the questions first to prepare them for the movie. So they came really prepared, and they knew quite a lot about Colombia before coming to class, and then we watched the film. I thought that was perfect – it was a great introduction to the movie.
Also, we covered a lot of Hispanic food throughout the semester. There were a lot of Newsdle articles about food, like food festivals in different Hispanic countries, as well as in the US. So that was very good too.
What is the most useful feature of Newsdle, in your opinion?
I like that I could choose articles by level, that’s perfect. I started the semester assigning articles at the beginner level, and then slowly I started assigning harder ones, and it’s a good way to challenge students.
How do your students use Newsdle, and what Newsdle features do they like?
I give them three attempts to complete the activities, and they really like that, because it’s challenging. The first time, they find the activity very hard, especially when it’s a higher-level activity, but then they try again. I like that they take advantage of the three attempts, not just one attempt and then “I’m done.” They all want to receive 100% in the activity, so they like that. Students also appreciate the feature that lets them look up the vocabulary and how to pronounce the word.
In your opinion, what would be the top benefits of using Newsdle in US schools and universities?
If you want to expose students to Hispanic culture and current events in the Hispanic world, I’d say this is perfect. Also, not only current events in the Hispanic world, but also all of the world. Students read a piece of news – maybe it’s about Canada, but they read about it in Spanish – and maybe they have already heard about this news, like football or whatever, so it’s a good way to expose them again to it in Spanish.
How has Newsdle improved the efficiency of the language teaching process – for example, do you spend less time searching for Spanish materials?
Absolutely, yes, especially as it comes with listening and reading activities. It’s definitely a useful tool in Spanish classes, and it saves teachers time.
