Challenges and advances in teaching Spanish to foreigners at a Mexican university

Abstract

Spanish has recently become a prominent language in the world. According to the 2020 report of the Cervantes Institute, more than 585 million people speak Spanish as their mother tongue and as second or foreign language. Native speakers reach almost 489 million. This language is the second most spoken mother tongue by number of speakers, and in the global population there are 7.5% of Spanish speakers. Today more than 22 million students study it as a foreign language. However, there are several factors which limit foreigners from coming to Mexico to learn the language. At the heart of the matter lies the fact that Mexican Spanish our variant is not a variety widely recognized in other countries. Other examples are the lack of materials to teach our variant, but also the situation of teaching Spanish to foreigners in Mexican universities. The aim of the present article is threefold. First, it describes the current situation of Spanish teaching for foreigners in a university in central Mexico. Second, it evaluates some of the language policies to promote the teaching and learning of this language. It finally explores the challenges that the stakeholders have perceived in this context, concerning teaching, and learning practices with a view to strengthening the teaching of Spanish at this institution.