Academic Title: Instructor, Spanish

Office: EA3015
Phone: 403.440.5975
Email: pzehner@mtroyal.ca

Scholarly Interests:
My teaching interest is to investigate the role of culture in the second language (L2) classroom. My underlying goal is not only to develop second language ability among a mostly monolingual population, but also to foster an understanding of and appreciation for other cultures. I consider the cultural element essential, and to engage students in a meaningful reflection of culture, be it one’s own or the target culture (TC). I don’t believe in presenting students with cultural “facts” that need to be memorized for testing purposes. I value culture as an essential fifth component of the language classroom if I am to move away from promoting potentially dangerous stereotypes.

A real exploration of the human condition as it relates not only to the TC but also the students’ own culture is essential for language programs to achieve their stated cross-cultural awareness objectives.

Teaching Statement:
Since the year 2000, I teach a variety of beginners, intermediate and advance level undergraduate courses in Spanish language. In the past, I had also taught, courses of Mediterranean Culture (Spain). My role of teaching is to create acquisition-rich conditions in the classroom that would optimize the students’ ability to assimilate the new language. For it I advocate the Communicative Language Teaching based on a set of principles such as:

• -Students learn a language through using it to communicate,
• -Meaningful communication is the goal of classroom activities, -
• Fluency is an important dimension of communication,
• -Communication involves the integration of different language skills,
• -Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error.

Students also receive a training in listening, speaking, reading and writing of Spanish in its cultural context.

Selected Publications:
The Role of Literature and Culture in the L2 Classroom. V International Congress – FIAPE: The International Federation of Associations of Spanish. Cuenca, Spain, June 25-28, 2014

The Spanish Conference: VI Encuentro de Profesores de Español de Alberta Mount Royal University. May 02, 2015. Contribuciones de la pragmática en la L2: cuestiones de cómo enseñar la pragmática a los estudiantes de L2

The Role and Treatment of Errors in SLA VII Encuentro de Profesores de Español de Alberta- Spanish Conference Languages Centre at Woodcroft Edmonton, AB, May 7, 2016

100th Annual AATSP Conference Salamanca, Spain June 25–28, 2018 - Salamanca, Spain Recall protocol and L2 Reading Comprehension. Does the language of recall make a difference?

LVI Congreso International de la Asociación Europea de Profesores de Español AEPE Úbeda, 25-29 de Julio de 2022. El Role de la Literatura y Cultura en la L2.