Let's Talk LGBTQIA+: Strategies and Activities for Teaching Diversity and Inclusion in the Foreign Language Classroom at the College Level

In this presentation, the author explores strategies and activities that create a welcoming and nurturing environment for LGBTQIA+ foreign language students at the college level in the United States. Indeed, as it is commonly stated, there is a clear lack of visibility, acceptance/tolerance, and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ voices (active and proactive) in foreign language teaching and learning (pedagogical material as well as in-class attitudes and delivery). The reasons for this deficiency are diverse since they cover not only outward discrimination against and/or indifference (passive-aggressive behavior) toward the LGBTQIA+ community and its plight, but they also illustrate the sheer, physical inexistence of quality material that can be used to create, present, and foster a welcoming and all-encompassing classroom environment that addresses the diverse spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ community while its members try to learn a foreign language and (positively) negotiate how to express their very identity in their new language of choice. Moreover, the scant material that is available in the United States as well as in other Western countries where the LGBTQIA+ community by and large is accepted—at least from the legal point of view—hardly represents and covers the subject matter in a satisfactory way. To address this gap, the author will provide some examples in European Portuguese (EP) and Italian (IT), followed by a courtesy translation in English, to illustrate some positive activities and strategies for including LGBTQIA+-related subject matter in the foreign language classroom at the college level. It is his desire that instructors of other foreign languages duplicate in their respective vernaculars the strategies and activities herein presented in order to create a welcoming and safe classroom environment that embraces the LGBTQIA+ community as it goes through the enjoyable journey of learning a new language and culture.

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