Gabriel Guillén Named Director of Middlebury School of Spanish
Middlebury has named Gabriel Guillén as the next director of the School of Spanish, one of 12 Middlebury Language Schools, known internationally for their full-immersion approach to language teaching and the Language Pledge. He begins his new position on September 1, succeeding Jacobo Sefamí, who has led the School for 18 years.
Guillén is currently a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He teaches language education, intercultural competence (ICC), computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and content and community-based Spanish courses. Professor Guillén has taught at the Middlebury Language Schools for 5 consecutive summers and also worked for the Middlebury School in Spain as a coordinator of student affairs.
Recently, Guillén led the creation of language specialization for professional purposes across six languages, produced the ICC curriculum adopted across all McGraw Hill Spanish textbooks, and served as editor and co-author of Sabor y Amor, the first OER Spanish textbook at the Middlebury Language Schools. He holds a PhD in Spanish Linguistics with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of California, Davis and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics for the Teaching of Spanish from Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain.
The School of Spanish, founded in 1917, offers a seven-week summer immersion program with beginner through advanced levels. The graduate programs include the Master in Spanish, Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) with a Secondary Teaching License, and Doctor of Modern Languages (DML). The graduate programs are offered in the summer in Vermont, and have options in Argentina, Spain, and online
“I join the Language Schools faculty and staff in welcoming Gabriel Guillén in his new role at the School of Spanish. He brings expertise in the field and a great energy to the Language Schools,” said Steve Snyder, dean of Language Schools. “It’s been an enormous pleasure working with Jacobo Sefamí and we thank him for many years of leadership.”
Guillén said, “The School of Spanish has always felt like a magical space, a vibrant ecosystem for language growth, a community of diverse, empathetic interlocutors bound by intellectual discovery and human connection. I take on this role with deep commitment to its joy, diversity, and purpose, reenvisioning our work in the humanities, intercultural competence, and the art and science of language education in an era of rapid technological change.”
More information about the Middlebury Language Schools is available on the Language Schools website or by contacting the Language Schools at 802-443-5510 or languages@middlebury.edu.