Associate Professor
Gabriel is a seasoned practitioner and researcher in the field of language learning and technology. He created the first community of blogs dedicated to the interchange of languages, back in 2007, and recently founded Team Tandem (Recicle.org), connecting Spanish and English learners in the county of Monterey. His own doctoral dissertation centered on online intercultural exchanges and the use of language learning social networks in the context of hybrid language education.
At MIIS Gabriel teaches content-based Spanish courses focusing on social entrepreneurship and the use of media in the Hispanic world. In the past, he has been a Frontier Market Scout, a recipient of the prestigious AECID Spanish Lectureship, a study abroad coordinator, a journal editor, a web developer, and a reporter who published more than 300 articles in Spanish. His teaching has been recognized with the Excellence in Teaching Year Award from the UC Davis Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the HOPE Award from the Southern Methodist University. He is an active member of the CALICO organization and regularly publishes about language learning in the Huffington Post.
In 2020, he co-authored the third edition of Brave New Digital Classroom (Georgetown University Press), an overview on key concepts and challenges of teaching and learning languages with technology, with a new focus on social Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).
ICCO 8570 Upcoming
Comm in Multicultural SettingsCourse Description
Communication in Multicultural Settings
This course examines the social, cultural and linguistic factors that play a role in how intercultural communication is accomplished in multilingual/ multicultural settings and will enable students to gain the knowledge and tools needed for effective participation in multilingual/multicultural communication. The course is designed for students in all programs (T&I, business, policy, and TESOL/TFL), who will find themselves interacting with people across varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds .
The goals of this course are to:
(1) gain the knowledge needed to understand and interact effectively in multilingual/multicultural settings. This includes knowledge about social, cultural, and linguistic factors in terms of how they interact with each other and how they affect and are affected by interactions in multilingual/multicultural settings;
(2) develop an understanding of the roles linguistic and cultural attitudes play in interactions across multilingual and multicultural settings and how they influence the success of such interactions;
(3) develop the awareness needed to successfully participate in multilingual/multicultural interactions. This addresses not only the knowledge and attitudes discussed above but also how communication/interaction is structured across cultures and languages, how communication is monitored while in interaction, and what factors support or hinder successful interactions;
(4) develop "tools" for understanding our own and others' ways of interacting in order to be able to participate effectively in multilingual/multicultural interactions across a range of languages and cultures.
Terms Taught
IEPG 8593 Upcoming
Sustainable Ag Rural ColombiaCourse Description
This course Exploring Sustainable Agriculture Transitions in Rural Colombia will consist of an 8-day visit to the town of Libano, Colombia, over spring break March 18-25, 2023 with an additional travel day on each end of the trip.
The creation of a sustainable global food system is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. High-input, animal-based, industrial agricultural practices drive land concentration, deplete soils, and generate deforestation, including the loss of soil and forest carbon -In total, the agri-food system accounts for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Promising innovations are emerging, especially around the principles and practices of regenerative agriculture, in both developing and developed countries. The overarching aim of regenerative agriculture is to create farming and grazing systems that are in harmony with nature while generating sustainable livelihoods for farmers. It is a whole-of-ecosystem approach, with soil health at the center. Healthy soils have a high level of biodiversity and capacity to store both water and carbon.
This “exposure tour” in Colombia will provide students an opportunity to explore how an agricultural community in a developing country is grappling with the challenges and opportunities to transition to regenerative agriculture in the context of global and local supply chains, as well as a country engaged in post-conflict reconciliation.
To satisfy the full 2 credits, all students must participate in the pre-departure orientation, the immersive experience in Colombia, and the final showcase during the spring of 2023. Students have the option to apply these credits either to IEP (elective), ICC, or Spanish Language Studies.
Terms Taught
SPAN 3301
Adv Intermed SP:Comm in ContxtCourse Description
Advanced Intermed Spanish: Resources for Communication in Context
This course will stress the expansion of the student's active vocabulary and language skills at the third-year level. Classroom activities will center on a thorough review of the most important aspects of Spanish grammar, as well as active oral use of the language. The oral exercises will expose students to extended discourse and will develop content and context as appropriate for students moving from the intermediate to the advanced proficiency levels. The grammar explanations will be complemented by extensive oral and written exercises in contextualized and communication-based activities. This approach, together with the other courses taught at the third-year level as well as the linguistic experiences the student has outside of the classroom, will provide immediate reinforcement of new structures and are intended to maximize the student's linguistic competence. This course meets for two hours each day. (1 unit)
Terms Taught
SPLA 8243 Current Upcoming
Spanish in the CommunityCourse Description
This course allows learner to develop intercultural communicative competence in Spanish. Each Friday, students will travel to Salinas and interact with English learners who are speakers of their target language. Through a sequence of tasks and projects, learners will develop language skills, creativity, critical thinking, community awareness, intercultural competence, language confidence, and learning autonomy.
Terms Taught
SPLA 8293 Upcoming
ColombianSustain:VivirSabrosoCourse Description
Colombian Sustainability: Vivir Sabroso
Colombians are reshaping the national narrative and the slogan “vivir sabroso” (to live joyfully) encapsulates a new way of being in the world, living without fear and with dignity, guaranteed rights, and in harmony with the environment. This course will allow Spanish students at the intermediate level and above to explore the topic of Colombian Sustainability from a multidimensional perspective, considering recent events, the natural complexity of this nation, and the case of Norte Nativo, a non-profit organization in Líbano, Colombia, working on sustainable agricultural practices.
Terms Taught
SPLA 8321 Current Upcoming
Spanish in the CommunityCourse Description
This course allows learner to develop intercultural communicative competence in Spanish. Each Friday, students will travel to Salinas and interact with English learners who are speakers of their target language. Through a sequence of tasks and projects, learners will develop language skills, creativity, critical thinking, community awareness, intercultural competence, language confidence, and learning autonomy.
Terms Taught
SPLA 8322 Current
Spanish in theGlobal CommunityCourse Description
This Team Tandem course will be an opportunity for Spanish students to participate in an online exchange program, allowing them to develop intercultural communicative competence, learning autonomy, global citizenship skills, and proficiency at the intermediate high/advanced levels. Students will be collaborating with Spanish speakers in English and Spanish and work together on a relevant advocacy project.
Terms Taught
SPLA 8387
Spanish Digital ProjectsCourse Description
This Spanish course offers you a space to develop a professional digital project in Spanish, addressing an individual or collective need in your area of expertise. This project will allow you to develop research competence and critical digital fluency, while working on interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational skills in Spanish at the continuum of the advanced level.
Terms Taught
SPLA 8421 Current Upcoming
Spanish in the CommunityCourse Description
This course allows learner to develop intercultural communicative competence in Spanish. Each Friday, students will travel to Salinas and interact with English learners who are speakers of their target language. Through a sequence of tasks and projects, learners will develop language skills, creativity, critical thinking, community awareness, intercultural competence, language confidence, and learning autonomy.
Terms Taught
Gabriel is passionate about genuine social impact, language learning in the community, general linguistics, social media, viral communication, international cinema, meaningful photography, and traveling with a purpose. As a practitioner, he is relentlessly willing to improve and develop spaces and resources for online and face-to-face second language learning, such as Onda Global and Recicle. For more information, please see his personal blog.
Professor Guillen has been teaching at the Institute since 2014.
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| by Eva Gudbergsdottir
What is the social impact of language learning apps? What is the role of technology in the classroom? Middlebury Institute Professor Gabriel Guillén publishes research on challenges and benefits of incorporating the digital world into the language class.
| by Eva Gudbergsdottir
The Middlebury Institute community found meaningful ways to celebrate the very real accomplishments of graduates through a series of virtual events, even starting a few new traditions.
Three Middlebury Institute professors traveled to Vermont to present research September 27, 2019 as part of an annual faculty forum there.
