Hispanic Faces

Abstract

Immigration and globalization have dramatically changed the ethnic landscape of the United States, yet stereotypes about race continue to exist. Foreign language classrooms are at the heart of teaching about diversity. We investigated whether undergraduates (with varying exposure to Spanish language education) could accurately identify the race of Hispanic people depicted in photographs. The amount of Spanish courses was unrelated to participants’ accuracy; however, the number of courses was inversely related to confidence. The findings from this exploratory study suggest that the more Spanish language education one has, the more one realizes that appearances can be deceiving; as a result, individuals may be less likely to adhere to societally conditioned stereotypes of specific groups of people. At a time when foreign language programs are at risk of being eliminated from colleges and universities, these findings should serve as a message to educators and administrators alike about the importance of foreign language education.