DEVELOPING SPANISH COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AMONG VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCE STUDENTS AS A MEANS FOR IMPROVING U.S. AGRICULTURE

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: EXTENDED
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1026006
• Grant No.: 2021-70001-34520
• Project No.: TEXW-2020-11294
• Proposal No.: 2020-11294
• Program Code: NLGCA
• Project Start Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Mar 31, 2025
• Grant Year: 2021

Project Director
Garcia, A.

Recipient Organization
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
LUBBOCK,TX 79409

Performing Department
Animal and Food Sciences

Non Technical Summary
The UnitedStates(U.S.)agricultureworkforceis increasinglydiverseinlanguage,culture,andeducation.Immigration laboriscriticalto productionagriculture and sustainability, asapproximatelyhalf ofallfarmlaborersareHispanic.A linguistically diverse workforce makes it challenging for veterinarians and ANSC professionals to communicate effectively with non-English speaking animal caretakers, leading to negative impacts on animal health, welfare, and food safety.Our joint effort proposes to mediate the potential cultural and language barrier with animal caretakers and to supportHigher education in food,Agriculture,Natural resources, andHuman sciences (FANH). Texas Tech University (TTU), Tarleton State University (TSU), North Carolina State University (NCSU), and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) proposeto1) develop and implement three courses (beginner, lower-intermediate and high-intermediate) of Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture (SSPA) in the framework of the current veterinary medicine and ANSC program curriculum using innovative teaching methodsthat enhance students' metacognitive processesand experiential learningactivities integrated into the curriculum,and 2) improve veterinary and ANSC students' communication on-farm with animal caretakers, leading to enhanced animal health, welfare, and food safety.The curricula will be evaluated (through a needs analysis, student, and on-farm surveys, and the impact of the program through on-farm audits before and after student participation), refined, and disseminated. Products generated will include SSPA curricula components, and highly qualified veterinary and ANSC students. The benefits of this project will go beyond the life of the grant as a model for other non-land grant institutions.

Animal Health Component

30%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

0%

Applied

50%

Developmental

50%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
307	3599	3030	100%

Knowledge Area
307 - Animal Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
3599 - Swine, general/other;

Field Of Science
3030 - Information and communication;

Keywords

hispanics

spanish for specific purposes

agriculture

communication

sustainability

Goals / Objectives
1) To develop and implement three courses (beginner, lower-intermediate and higher-intermediate) of Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture (SSPA) in the framework of the current veterinary medicine and ANSC program curriculum using innovative teaching methodsthat enhance students' metacognitive processesand experiential learningactivities integrated into the curriculum2) To improve veterinary and ANSC students' communication on-farm with animal caretakers, leading to enhanced animal health, welfare, and food safety.

Project Methods
Objective 1.Development.A needs analysis will be performed to identify communications gaps. Theneeds analysiswill incorporatea survey developed by this research team and administered to current veterinarians and ANSC professionals who are not proficient in Spanish and have been working in Spanish-speaking Hispanic communities. The purpose of the survey is to identify these professionals'communication needs when interacting with Spanish-speaking animal caretakers. Question types in the survey will include a rating scale, Likert scale, and open-ended questions. Data collected in the survey will be analyzed, with theresults and categorized in terms of language needs.Findingswill lead to the selection and specification of course components. Such components willprovidethe input for designing three syllabi for three courses of SSPA (Beginner, Lower-intermediate, and Higher-intermediate). Each of the syllabi will include a course description, learning objectives/communication goals, topics for units, content specification, teaching strategies, learning activities, and evaluation strategies. Finally, in compliance with each syllabus specifications, instructional materials comprising short videos will be developed for their further implementation during the class sessions.To ensure a broad range of agricultural terminology is covered, alltheSSPA coursematerial will be sent to UNAM. The Co-Pi at UNAM will revise the material and include an appendix with synonymsspecific to each animal species.Implementation.Hightly qualifiedinstructors with experience in delivering SSP courses will come from the Department of Animal and Food Sciences and the Language Departments at TTU.All researcherswill be involved in the development of the curriculum.In the framework of semester schedules, each SSPA coursewill be delivered following the pedagogical principles of communicative language teaching (CLT), the constructivist approach, and metacognitive theory. These aspects are expected to contribute to the development of communicative competence in Spanish and to foster learners' autonomy while interacting in the target language. The lecture portion of the courses will be conducted online.Picador Creative Design Center (PCWD) at TTU will help with the graphic design of the course content to make the material appealing to fully engage students. In addition, internship farms will be asked to provide farm protocols and asked what third party audit is used on-farm to expose students to protocols and audit standards specific to their farm (this will be collected upon farm site agreements to collaborate. Both formative and summative evaluation processes shall be conducted to assess students' achievements throughout the various stages of each course and will provide instructors and researchers with qualitative and quantitative data concerning progress in their Spanish proficiency. Formative assessments aim to evaluate the strengths and weaknessesofstudents' performance as they work to achieve the learning objectives set for each course and will provide valuable information that instructors will incorporate into their teaching process torefineand enhance students' learning experience. Summativeandquantitativeassessmentswill be accomplishedbycollectingcourse performance data including, assignment scores, test grades, and activitieswithquantifiable outcomes.Recruitment and Retention.Students will be recruited during their second and third years into their animal science bachelor's program and end of the first year of their veterinary medicine program. Recruiting during these periods will allow students to participate in all three SSPA courses and an internshipbeforefinishing their senior year for ANSC students and, for veterinary students,beforefinishing their second year. The PI and Co-PIs will recruit students by having their departments promote the program whenthey register, announcing the program in their current classes, via university-wide email distribution lists, and through associations, clubsand other means. Retainment will focus on helping students match with amentorbased on their field/species of interest. Mentorswill be assigned to each student, tasked with recruiting, and retaining the students assigned to them throughout the program.Established recruiting and retention programs will be used by theparticipating universities.The acceptance criteria will first give preference to underrepresented groups, first generation college students, have an agricultural backgroundor are from a rural community.Each student will be required to take the CLEP test (with a minimum score of 68)to ensurethat students possess the minimum knowledge to succeed in the SSPA courses. A minimum of a 3.0 GPA will be required to enter the program, as the workload requires dedication.The partner institutions will select a total of 40 veterinary and ANSC students with a background in animal science, interested in industry positions, higher education, or another FANH-related career path. There will be two sections for each SSPA courseto allow for smaller class sizes.Objective 2.Internships.Each farm will have a bi-lingual internship supervisorassigned to the students, who will be the point of contactthroughout the 12 weeks of internship. Each institution will be responsible for placing their students in the internship position. Two students will be placed at each site. The locations will all be within the U.S. Farms will be selected if they meet the following criteria: 1) farm has native Spanish-speaking caretakers currently working on farm and, 2) farm has an active relationship with a veterinarian, 3) farm has written protocols available for students to review, and 4) farm agrees to be audited before and after student internships. Farm audits will determine student impact on the farm's improvement of animal health and welfare. Studentswilltrainin each farms' standard protocols and audit standards during their SSPA coursesbeforestarting their internshiptoensure students are well prepared and understand how the farm operates and in turn, transfer knowledge that will help prepare animal caretakers for audits.On-farmAudits.Audits will be conducted on 20 farms, utilizing standards and methodologies described by Temple and colleagues (2011). Assessments will be conducted at herd level andinclude animal resource and protocol-based measures.The audits will be conducted by a PAACO (Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization) certified auditor (PI: Dr. Garcia) using audit standards (such as the Common Swine Industry Audit, Certified Humane, and other standards) with objective measures that prevent auditor bias. Audit data will incorporate animal health, welfare, and food safety, which is typically part of the audit- under animal benchmarking, caretaker training, facilities management, records, transport, andfood safety section. Audit scores before and after student placement will be analyzed to determine the student's impact on audit scores.On-farm Student Evaluations.The student's communication abilities will be assessed on a bi-weekly basis by the internship supervisor by allowing the students to give a specific presentation on protocols and audit topics. These presentations will allow the students to practice communication with Spanish-speaking animal caretakers and provide specific protocol and audit knowledge to animal caretakers who may not have been properly trained on the topics due to communication gaps. Sudent observations willprovide a complete description of student behavior in a real setting especially focusing on their communication and interaction with animal caretakers. The internship supervisor will fill out three types of surveys, 1) student's communication skills during presentations, 2) animal caretakers rating of student's communication performance, and 3) overall program satisfaction.

Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:In total, we have had 36 students participate in the program. Our final goal for student participation is 40 students. Our goal was also to publishe the first phase of the work in a peer reviewed journal with international reach. We have published the first manuscript (more details under products). In addition, our goal was to present our work at national and international conferences. This work has been presented at the World Pork Expo in Iowa, at the Iverson Bell Midwest Regional Diversity Conference in Minnesota, and will be presented this month at the American Society of Animal Science Conference in Canada. Our goal is to disseminate the work nationwide to stakeholders, academics, and univeristies who seek to bridge the gap in communicaiton with agricultual workers and the Hispanic Workforce. We have accomplished this goal through are various activies. Changes/Problems:We requested an extension because we have encountered disease outbreaks at many farms. The farms did not allow outside personnel to enter the farms. This prevented students from doing thier internships at farms. Thus, we placed several students at veterinary clinics to do thier internships, as many were seniors and close to graduation. Furthermore, we struggled to get students to commit to 12 week internships. To resolve this, the team developed 12 presenations to be given in Spanish at each farm, to ensure the workers were able to learn from the students. This increasedthe rigor of the student internships but ensured that the presence of the students at the farms would be impactful. To ensure that we accomplished objective 2 (improve student communication skills and improve animal health, welfare, food safety) we surveyed workers pre and post student presenations. Our work showed a significant effect on worker knowledge over the period of time the students were on farm presenting the 12 topics. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has gone beyond our initial objectives to provide students with improved communication skills on-farm. We have further developed 12 presentations based on commonalites among multiple animals welfare standards. These presenation are given by students on-farm in Spanish. These presentations have allowed us to objectively measure improvements in Hispanic worker knowledge (through a pre and post survey evalaution of workers). We are training the next generation of students on animal health, welfare, and food safety as well as increasing workers knowlege on-farm that will lead to sustainable agriculutal systems. This work hasallowedstudents to nuse/apply their Spanish skills learned through the program but also has provided them with on the job training through and internship, and also professional skills through presenatations given at the farms. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via poster presentations, conferences, publications, and with collaborations with institutions of veterinary medicine who are wanting to collaborate to get this program at their home institutions. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are actively recruiting farms at conferences to place the last of our students on internships. Our goal is to get all of our students through the program. We plan to publish the next publication by the end of 2024/early 2025. We are presenting the findings of this work at two international conferences. Although we did not request the funds to launch this work on a platform... we are seeking industry sponsorship to further disseminate this work through an nationwide accessbile platform.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have developed and implmented three courses in Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agricultue and thus, acheived our first objective. We are currently working to finish objective 2. We had a little bit of a delay associated to disease outbreaks at farms, which prevented our students from doing their internships and finishing the program. We have requested an extension and have placed them on internships. A total of 36 out of 40 students have completed the program. We are only 4 students away from completing objective 2.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Martinez Aguiriano, A. J., Salazar, L., Pietrosemoli, S., Schmidt, M., Awosile, B., & Garcia, A. (2024). Understanding Communication Barriers: Demographic Variables and Language Needs in the Interaction between English-Speaking Animal Professionals and Spanish-Speaking Animal Caretakers. Animals, 14(4), 624.

Progress 04/01/22 to 03/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience: 1)Veterinary and Animal Science students; 2) Scientists, animal professionals, technicians, and agricultural workers; 3) Other universities; 4) Commercial Livestock Operations/Industry Entities Our main audience and focus will be our students: 1 graduate student (involved with data collection for surveys and tasks associated with SSPA course development) and a total of 40 veterinary/ANSC students (provided with stipends for internships for experiential learning). The course content for Spansih for Specific Purposes 1 was developed and delivered in 2022. We continued to work on the development of the continuing courses. We havebeen refining thembased on the needs that current professionals identifiedas a stuggle in communication with Spanish speaking animal caretakers. The information from these professionals wasrefined and incopoated in to the coursesdirected towards improving communication between the students and farm animal caretakers during their courses and internships. These courseswill lead to improvements in animal agriculture (animal health, food safety, animal welfare and among other aspectrs of animal production). Other audiences will include professionals, technicians and other employees that are on-farm during student internships that are starting this summer 2023. These professionals will be an audienein the sense that they will be able to see the students apply thier learnings and help make a difference by helping educate animal caretakers on thier current farm protocols in their target language. In addition, students will present thier understanding on protocols on-farm to caretakers and supervisors. Lastly, we will post our findings on our university platformorm. Furhtermore,the knowledge generated through this project will be disseminated via the veterinary and animal science colleges association/network. It will be made available to all pertinent organizations via written and electronic media, using digital media and website technology. To share the knowledge gained from this project with the agricultural industry, we will publish the findings in top producer magazines such as Animal World for the general audience and Hoard's Dairymen and Pig Progress for specific agricultural industries. Findings will also contribute to the scientific knowledge of effective communication on farms and translate into at least three peer-reviewed research articles. Outputs will be sustained after the end of the project's conclusion through the TTU-SVM, TTU-AFS, NCSU, and TSU web pages, animal science meetings, and conferences. Finally, the information will be shared with students through TTU and animal Changes/Problems:We have experienced some attrition in students and have struggled with student recuritement. What we have done to ensure that we meet the number of students that we need is that we have allowed students to enter later in the course if they are able to get a higher score on the entrance exam, listen to the class recordings, and pass the quizzes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have developed the first of 3 workbooks that will allow us to provide training to animal science professinals and veterinarians. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have continuously been in contact with animal science professinals and veterinarians to help us recruit farm and have made them aware of this program. The PI has taken part in several nationally known podcasts and has disemminated this USDA funded work. Indusry partners such as pharmaceutical companies are helping recruit farms to host our students on internships- helping us promote and disseminate out work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to have finished delivering all of the 3 courses and have our 3 workbooks developed. We will also have recoded audio material for the workbooks. Our application for the glossary/dictionary should also be up and running. We are also working our our first publication to be submitted in 2023.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 2nd Annual Report of Research Activities (2022-2023) for USDA NIFA - Capacity Building Grant Project Investigator Dr. Arlene Garcia Co-Project Investigators Silvana Pietrosemoli Leonor Salazar Kim Guay Guy Loneragan Alexandra Calle Maria Salud-Rubio Amy Boren-Alpizar Jorge Zamora Research Project Developing Spanish communicative competence among veterinary and animal science students as a means for improving U.S. agriculture Objectives 1) To develop and implement three courses of Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture (SSPA) in the framework of the current veterinary medicine and ANSC program curriculum using innovative teaching methods and experiential learning activities integrated into the curriculum. 2) To improve veterinary and ANSC students' communication on-farm with animal caretakers, leading to enhanced animal health, welfare, and food safety. Research Activities Research team members participated in periodical Zoom meetings to discuss advancements, tasks performed, difficulties encountered and to decide on research plan readjustments and further actions. Advertising campaigns were set up prior to each academic term with the purpose of promoting our Spanish Certificate Program (comprising three Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture workshops [SSPA 1, SSPA 2 and SSPA 3] plus an internship and recruiting participant students from TTU, NCSU and TSU. Candidates completed a Spanish placement test and a Spanish-for-specific-purposes test. Those who fulfilled the entrance requirements were accepted and incorporated into the SSPA 1 (Fall 2022), SSPA 2 (Spring 2023) and SSPA 3 (Maymester 2023) workshops. Syllabi for SSPA 2 and SSPA 3 were designed based on results derived from initial survey that explored language needs in the context of farm settings. Instructional materials to be used in the three Spanish workshops were designed with the collaborative work of experts on different animal species and on linguistics and foreign/second language teaching. A graduate student was hired and has been assisting the PI and Co-PIs, working on student recruitment, farms selection, data collection, and on other project-related tasks. A graphic designer was hired to create the visual concept, the appropriate illustrations and the overall layout of the instructional materials to ensure that they are visually appealing and pedagogically appropriate. Evaluation instruments (quizzes and final tests) were generated to assess students' progress throughout the three Spanish workshops. A glossary of agriculture specialized terminology in Spanish was developed to assist students/interns while communicating and interaction with the Hispanic workforce during the internship. A farm recruiting process is being conducted in Texas and North Carolina states. The selected farms will host our students during their internships in the summer. A survey has been designed for assessing Hispanic workers knowledge of animal welfare. The survey will be administered at the beginning and the end of the internship period and will help determine the impact that student's intervention had on workers awareness and knowledge of animal welfare practices. A series of Power Point presentations on key topics associated to farm operations are currently being developed. These presentations, addressed to Hispanic workers, focus on best management practices and animal welfare and will be presented by students during their internship.

Publications

Progress 04/01/21 to 03/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:***COVID CAUSED A DELAY IN SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES*** TARGET AUDIENCE WERE RESEARCHERS, NATIONAL VETERINARY COMMUNITY, STUDENTS RESEARCH GROUP ACTIVITES AND NATIONAL SURVEY FOR VETERINARY NEEDS Virtual meetings with research team were held on amonthlybasis to discuss progress made by each team member and to plan activities for further stages of research plan. Animal Welfare Standards for farm audits were consulted (Animal welfare approved, AssureWel, DEFRA, Welfare quality ®). Key information deemed relevant to research stated objectives was excerpted. Survey items on animal husbandry and farm operations were drafted. Language theories were revised to support the construction of survey items focused on linguistic features. Preliminary version of survey for analyzing language needs in on-farm settings was created. Survey blended linguistic components with the area of agriculture, which is fully in line with the principles of teaching languages for specific purposes. Content validity was performed by experts' judgement. Changes were made as suggested by experts input to improve survey items and overall design. Survey format was adapted to make it accessible online. Survey was sent to potential target respondents. Data was collected and analyzed. Outcomes were classified in terms of language needs. COURSE DEVELOPMENT FOR SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES IN AGRICULTURE COURSES Results were used for designing syllabus for course 1 (Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture SSPA1), which comprises: general objectives, specific learning objectives, topics, content details and distribution throughout units, teaching methodology, evaluation strategies, technical aspects. Instructional material for SSPA1 is being designed. Farm visits were conducted to gather multimedia content (raw footage and photos) which will be incorporated into instructional materials and videos. Literature review is in progress and initial sections of Article 1 (on needs analysis) are being drafted. SSPA1 is being advertised at TTU, NCSU, and TSU. STUDENTS Students were recruited by all three institutions. Placement exams were taken by students to determine the thier level of Spanish. A graduate student was recruited to help with the graphic designs of the Spanish units. Changes/Problems: The funding for this project did not come in until May of 2021. Furthermore, COVID delayed some of the work, as the linguistic experts visa expired and due to COVID delays was not able to work on the project for over 4 months.This caused a delay in starting the survey work and the devlepment of the first course. We do foresee that there may be a possibleneed for a no cost extension. However, we worked out of order on the timeline to utilize our time wisely- while we waited for the linguistics expert to come back to work. The home institiution has an entrance exam that is more focused towards heritage and non-heritage speakers. The reserach group determined that this would give us a better understanding of the level of Spanish knowledge each student had. Although the exam gave us a better representation of student knowledge, it required a student ID number that can only be assigned after a student enrolls in the home univeristy. We did not expect students to have to enroll in order to take a placement exam. Thus, we had to wait long periods of time for students to apply and then take the exam. This process caused a further delay to the start of the courses. However, this exam did make is clear that our beginner couse was still too advanced for most of the student population. This led to the development of an additional course to prepare students for SSPA 1 What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have made a tremendous amount of progress in a short period of time. In addition, we develped an additional prep course to help the students be successful in the more advanced spanish courses. At this time, we need to ensure that the courses begin in the fall to get back on our timeline. We are currently working on the glossary that will be a tool for students to use during their internship. We foresee that we will be through SSPA 3 by the next reporting period. We alsohave enough data to be able to publish the survey results by the next reporting period.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? ***COVID CAUSED A DELAY IN SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES*** Goal number one is still in progress. We have surveyed the veterinarians to determine the course content we need to cover. We realized that our beginner course is still too advanced for the majority of students. Thus, we developed a very basic spanish course to prepare the students for the SSPA courses. The course content for SSPA one was finished using the survey recommendations and audit tool standards. The content for SSPA 2 is still in progress. Students were recruited and took a placement test to determine their level of Spanish. Students have either been placed in the prep course or SSPA 1 that is set to start fall 2022. The graphic designer helped modify the presentations as needed. The glossary that will be used for internships is more than half way done and we are working on converting it into a phone application for easy access during student internships. Internship sites continue to be recruited. More specific details on activites below. RESEARCH GROUP ACTIVITES AND NATIONAL SURVEY FOR VETERINARY NEEDS Virtual meetings with research team were held on amonthlybasis to discuss progress made by each team member and to plan activities for further stages of research plan. Animal Welfare Standards for farm audits were consulted (Animal welfare approved, AssureWel, DEFRA, Welfare quality ®). Key information deemed relevant to research stated objectives was excerpted. Survey items on animal husbandry and farm operations were drafted. Language theories were revised to support the construction of survey items focused on linguistic features. Preliminary version of survey for analyzing language needs in on-farm settings was created. Survey blended linguistic components with the area of agriculture, which is fully in line with the principles of teaching languages for specific purposes. Content validity was performed by experts' judgement. Changes were made as suggested by experts input to improve survey items and overall design. Survey format was adapted to make it accessible online. Survey was sent to potential target respondents. Data was collected and analyzed. Outcomes were classified in terms of language needs. COURSE DEVELOPMENT FOR SPANISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES IN AGRICULTURE COURSES Results were used for designing syllabus for course 1 (Spanish for Specific Purposes in Agriculture SSPA1), which comprises: general objectives, specific learning objectives, topics, content details and distribution throughout units, teaching methodology, evaluation strategies, technical aspects. Instructional material for SSPA1 is being designed. Farm visits were conducted to gather multimedia content (raw footage and photos) which will be incorporated into instructional materials and videos. Literature review is in progress and initial sections of Article 1 (on needs analysis) are being drafted. SSPA1 wasadvertised at TTU, NCSU, and TSU. STUDENTS Students were recruited by all three institutions. Placement exams were taken by students to determine the thier level of Spanish. A graduate student was recruited to help with the graphic designs of the Spanish units.

Publications