Shaping the vision for service‐learning in language education

Abstract

Language education has mobilized community‐based service‐learning's (CBSL) experiential paradigm in the United States and in international settings over the past 20 years, with the goal of enhancing the linguistic and communicative competence of language learners and advancing the intercultural competence that is necessary for global citizens to engage with a diverse world. This integration of language learning with local and online community projects has become an area of innovation that critically and reflectively engages diverse language speakers through collaboration. In this article, we take a holistic and critical approach to advance a language education agenda that emphasizes reflective capacity and translingual and transcultural competence, ultimately to build relationships. We begin by contextualizing this progression within the traditions of communal activity and activism for language rights. Since language use is increasingly intertwined with and shaped by migration and immigration, as well as the availability of technology, we also highlight new possibilities for community engagement through language. We discuss these implementations of CBSL, their convergences with ACTFL initiatives for prioritizing language education, and future directions for research.