Writing in tongues

The University of Texas at El Paso is offering a unique bilingual creative writing program, and Carnegie Mellon's Mariana Achugar has spent more than three years studying the program's design and implementation. The MFA program requires that students be able to read and converse in Spanish and English, even if they only write in one language. Achugar, an assistant professor of Hispanic studies and second language acquisition, said the program introduces students to the different perspectives afforded by Spanish-language and English-language literature, and exposes the diversity of Spanish-language cultures.

"I think an interesting thing is that bilingualism is seen as a positive trait, and that it is defined more in cultural terms than in linguistic terms," Achugar said.

Achugar also spends time working with the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning, where she focuses on disciplinary literacy; specifically, developing strategies for teaching history to English-language learners. 

Jonathan Potts