Core Didactic Thematics and Methodology in Business Spanish: Developing Leadership with Integrity as a Priority for Language for the Professions and Specific Purposes

Abstract

Business Spanish typically teaches the vocabulary, content, and context of the functional areas of business, and how to conduct business in a cultural setting. But it should do more than just that. Leadership with integrity should be primed and personalized as a signature and integrative core value that frameworks any ensuing learning of the business Spanish content per se. In terms of core didactic thematics and methodology, what is the greater-good point of LPSP-Business Language Studies if it does not prepare learners to help make the world a better place in which to live and work? The article provides an adaptable example of the leadership-with-integrity methodology in a business Spanish course; it presents some preliminary findings based on a final exam prompt regarding leadership with integrity; and it proposes beginning- and end-of-course surveys for data to be mined in follow-up research. The article is intended as a contribution to the methodology of infusing the teaching of leadership with integrity in business language courses as well as throughout LPSP, and to helping to further establish the related scholarly baseline literature.