OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF SPANISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION: AN EXPERIENCE REPORT AT THE UNILAB LANGUAGE CENTER

Abstract

This article presents an experience report on the opportunities and challenges of Spanish language education at the Language Center (NUCLI) of the University for International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB). The study emerges from the first author’s experience as a Spanish language scholarship teacher at NUCLI/UNILAB, in dialogue with academic supervision within the Institute of Languages and Literatures. The aim is to analyze how Spanish teaching in a university context marked by internationalization, the presence of Brazilian and international students, and linguistic-cultural diversity contributes both to students’ education and to the pedagogical development of the scholarship teacher. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, descriptive and reflective experience report supported by a literature review on language teaching, interculturality, learner autonomy and teacher education. The experiential corpus consisted of classroom observations, lesson planning, student support, the use of printed and digital resources, tutorial sessions, and interactions in face-to-face and virtual spaces. The results indicate that Spanish teaching at NUCLI/UNILAB promotes linguistic and cultural repertoires, but also faces challenges related to heterogeneous proficiency levels, limited workload, dropout rates, schedule conflicts and the need for greater institutional support for scholarship holders. The article concludes that Spanish teaching at NUCLI goes beyond grammatical content transmission, constituting a formative, intercultural and academic experience capable of strengthening learner autonomy, university internationalization and initial teacher education.