EVALUATING AUTHENTIC BUSINESS SPANISH TASKS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN DIFFERENT TEACHING MODALITIES

The present study delves into the field of Spanish for specific purposes (SSP) by assessing a series of authentic tasks implemented in two Business Spanish courses at distinct institutions in the United States with differing modalities: 1) a small private university on the East coast (n=18) with a face-to-face teaching modality and 2) a large public university in the Midwest (n=9) with an online asynchronous modality. The tasks, previously identified through a Needs analysis (author, 2017), included finding a real job offer in a Spanish-speaking country, preparing a Curriculum Vitae, writing a cover letter, and performing a mock job interview. These tasks required individual and collaborative work throughout the semester. At the end of the term, students completed an anonymous survey consisting of nineteen quantitative and qualitative questions evaluating the tasks’ relevance, usefulness, and difficulty. Overall, results revealed that participants from both institutions and modalities valued the usefulness of this task sequence, often rating it as equally or more useful than the rest of the course content, while identifying the job interview as the most challenging task. Furthermore, notable differences between teaching modalities emerged, with online asynchronous students expressing a desire for additional peer interaction compared to the face-to-face counterparts. These findings shed light on the importance of developing, implementing, and adapting SSP authentic tasks to closely resemble real-world job expectations upon graduation while also considering the unique needs of diverse educational settings and modalities. This study provides valuable insights for instructors and program directors in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) to develop curricula that better prepare students for globalized workplaces.