Guelph prof co-authors first Spanish textbook designed for Canadian university classrooms
BY REBECCA KENDALL
Canadian students taking Spanish courses will now be able to use a textbook that's written with them in mind, thanks in part to Prof. Stephen Henighan, Languages and Literatures.
Two years in the making, the newly published Intercambios: Spanish for Global Communication is the only Spanish-language textbook that asks Canadian-based questions and engages students in discussion of the Hispanic-Canadian experience, says Henighan.
He already has eight books to his credit, including When Words Deny the World, which was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award in 2002, but this is the first textbook he's had published.
Co-authored with McMaster University professor Antonio Velásquez, who taught at Guelph from 1999 to 2003, the book will advance the way Spanish is taught in Canada, says Henighan.
“It's the first time we've had a Spanish textbook designed for Canadian students and universities that uses Canadian cultural references, and I think this is a breakthrough. We have Canadian marketing textbooks, we have Canadian economics textbooks, but we've never had a Canadian Spanish textbook. ”
He notes that enrolment in Spanish courses at Guelph used to be low, but today there are more than 70 majors and minors and a total of more than 700 students per semester. As a result, Spanish is now the most widely studied language after French. It's a trend being echoed at universities across the country since the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed in 1993, he says.
“At the moment, introductory Spanish enrolment in Canadian universities is about 28,000. Ten years ago, it might have been 5,000, and with 5,000, you don't get your own textbook. Our numbers are big enough now to warrant a Canadian-based book, and we're really excited about getting Intercambios into the hands of students.”
All the Spanish-language textbooks currently being used in Canadian classrooms are written and published in the United States, says Henighan, who's been teaching Spanish since 1999. The cultural, historical and common references used in everyday dialogue in those books pose a challenge for Canadian students who aren't well-versed in those areas, he says.
As a result, one of the challenges professors have faced is having to preface their lessons with short sessions on the United States, covering such topics as holidays, weather and whatever other casual references students need to understand to complete the questions and dialogue the lessons require.
“I don't know if that's our job as Spanish professors,” he says.
To rectify that, he and Velásquez collaborated to create a Canadian version of an existing American textbook. “The publisher thought we'd just change a little, but we tore it to shreds,” Henighan laughs.
Fourth-year student Amy Huras, who's been studying Spanish for six years, believes the new book will be a good learning tool not just because of the Canadian references, but also because it teaches students how to pronounce and spell things as basic as the Canadian provinces. “This is something I've had to look up in a dictionary until now.”
The book also acknowledges the challenge that Canadian students, with years of French-language classes under their belt, may face, she says. “When I first started taking Spanish, I confused a lot of things with French and had difficulty pronouncing Spanish words.”
In U.S. Spanish textbooks, the standard formula is to focus on the life of one central character from the American Midwest, says Henighan. His book, however, has three characters: Sara Chang from Vancouver, Lisa Turner from Toronto and Pierre Lemieux from Montreal.
“We've made it a much more multicultural book than any of the American books, and at the same time, we've worked to balance the regions of Canada,” he says, adding that Turner's family is Italian-Canadian and Lemieux's mother is a Chilean immigrant.
The experience of Chileans is unique in the Canadian cultural fabric, says Henighan. In the 1970s, a major influx of highly educated Chilean immigrants arrived in Montreal after fleeing Augusto Pinochet's regime. Today, Canada is home to immigrants from many Spanish-speaking countries.
“I think it's important to learn about the Hispanic communities living in our country as well as the issues that affect them,” says Huras. “The American textbooks focus just on Cuban-Americans and Mexican-Americans. Having a variety of perspectives generates a lot more discussion, and we get to practise speaking more. It's a much more interesting way to learn.”
The history and politics of Hispanic-Canadians are something Velásquez spent a lot of time working into the text, says Henighan, who notes that the cultural components of each chapter are larger than in any other Spanish textbook currently available.
