Gabriel Guillén
Office
400 Pacific Street D207
Tel
(831) 647-3085
Email
gabi@middlebury.edu

Gabriel is a seasoned practitioner and researcher in the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). He created the first community of blogs dedicated to the interchange of languages (2007), co-founded Team Tandem (2015), connecting Spanish and English learners in Salinas, California, and co-authored the third edition of Brave New Digital Classroom (2020), an overview on key concepts and challenges of teaching and learning languages with technology, with a new focus on social CALL. His own doctoral dissertation centered on virtual exchanges and the use of language learning social networks in the context of hybrid language education. Gabriel is currently working on the intersection of virtual exchanges and project-based language learning and created the Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) curriculum for all McGraw Hill Spanish textbooks (2022). 

At the Institute, Gabriel teaches language education, ICC, and content-based Spanish courses. He was also Director (2019-2020) and Spanish Coordinator (2017-2019) for the Summer Intensive Language Program and recently led the creation of a language specialization for professional purposes.

In the past, he has been a recipient of the prestigious AECID Spanish Lectureship, a study abroad coordinator, 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. For more information, please see his personal site.

Courses Taught

Course Description

Communication in Multicultural Settings

When we talk about language, we are not merely referring to the spoken or written word. Instead, we are delving into a social, complex, and adaptive system that encompasses verbal and non-verbal communication, the context in which language is used, and our collective and individual identities, life experiences, biases, and agendas. Through relevant materials, reflections, discussions, and projects, we will explore the multifaceted dimensions of communication in multicultural settings, honing our skills as global professionals.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022 - MIIS, Spring 2023 - MIIS, Spring 2024 - MIIS

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Course 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 16-24, 2024 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.

Terms Taught

Spring 2023 - MIIS, MIIS Workshop, Spring 2024 - MIIS, MIIS Workshop

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Course Description

Serves as an introduction to linguistic analysis. Includes projects based on fieldwork in phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse, and pragmatics. Discusses importance of language awareness. Includes pedagogical strategies for consciousness-raising.

Terms Taught

Summer 2023 - MIIS, MIIS Second Half of Term, Fall 2023 - MIIS

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Course Description

This course is designed to provide teachers of different languages with opportunities to investigate and practice pedagogical subject matter knowledge and grammar teaching strategies in the language that they teach. There will be a number of different languages represented in the class, which will afford multiple opportunities to explore, investigate, and share a variety of pedagogical perspectives and linguistic experiences.

The course will combine a focus on recent theoretical approaches to grammar (cognitive grammar, construction grammar, systemic – functional grammar) with innovative and practical approaches to teaching and learning in an authentic, action-based and interaction-rich setting.

Terms Taught

Spring 2024 - MIIS

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Course Description

Terms Taught

Summer 2023 - MIIS

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Course Description

Terms Taught

Fall 2022 - MIIS

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Course Description

Pedagogical Grammar in FLT
"This course is designed to provide teachers of different languages with opportunities to investigate and practice pedagogical subject matter knowledge and grammar teaching strategies in the language that they teach. There will be a number of different languages represented in the class, which will afford multiple opportunities to explore, investigate, and share a variety of pedagogical perspectives and linguistic experiences.
The course will combine a focus on recent theoretical approaches to grammar (cognitive grammar, construction grammar, systemic – functional grammar) with innovative and practical approaches to teaching and learning in an authentic, action-based and interaction-rich setting." (Open to Junior and Seniors only) (Open to students who have taken Language Analysis or equivalent, you must contact Kathi Bailey from Monterey (kb@middlebury.edu) for review of MIDD course background.) ​The dates of this course are JANUARY 31 through MAY 20. Registering for this course signals your interest in taking the course.

Terms Taught

Spring 2024, MIIS courses in College Term

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Course 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

Summer 2022 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session, Summer 2023 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session

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Course 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

Spring 2022 - MIIS, Fall 2022 - MIIS, Spring 2023 - MIIS, Fall 2023 - MIIS

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Course 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

Spring 2023 - MIIS

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Course 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

Spring 2022 - MIIS, Fall 2022 - MIIS, Spring 2023 - MIIS, Fall 2023 - MIIS

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Course 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

Fall 2022 - MIIS

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Course 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

Spring 2022 - MIIS, Fall 2022 - MIIS, Spring 2023 - MIIS, Fall 2023 - MIIS

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Course Description

Terms Taught

Summer 2021 Language Programs

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Areas of Interest

Gabriel is passionate about Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), project-based language learning (PBLL), service-learning, and film studies. 

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D. Spanish Linguistics & SLA, University of California, Davis 
  • M.A. Applied Linguistics, Antonio de Nebrija University, Spain 
  • Certificate in Social Enterprise Management and Impact Investing, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey 

Professor Guillen has been teaching at the Institute since 2014.

Publications

  • Guillén, G., T. Sawin, & Avineri, N. (2020). Zooming out of the crisis: Language and human collaboration. Foreign Language Annals 53, 320– 328.
  • Blake. R. & Guillén, G. (2020). Brave New Digital Classroom. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  • Guillén, G. (2018) Aspiración rasgada: Representación del habla de la calle en el cine realista de España. Hispania 101(2), 267-277.
  • Guillén, G., T. Sawin & Springer, S. (2018). The Lingo of Language Learning Startups: Congruency between Claims, Affordances, and SLA Theory. In S. Link & J. Li (Eds.) Assessment Across Online Language Education (198-218). CALICO Book Series. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
  • Guillén, G. & Blake R. (2017). Can you repeat, please? L2 complexity, awareness, and fluency development in the hybrid “classroom”. In: Sanz-Sánchez, I, Rivera-Mills, S V and Morin, R. (eds.) Online Language Teaching Research: Pedagogical, Academic and Institutional Issues (55-77). Corvallis: Trysting Tree Books.
  • Guillén, G. (2017). La represión del deseo en el cine cubano. Ética & Cine Journal, 7(3) 51-56.
  • Guillén, G. (2016). Intercultural Exchanges Assessment: Heating the Warm Little Pond. In J.  Dai (Ed.), Innovative Pedagogy and Ecological Perspective (161-173). Taipei: Sharing Publisher.
  • Guillén, G. (2016). Awareness and Corrective Feedback in Social CALL, Tandems, and E-Tandems. IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies, 44(2) 1-42.

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