Reality Spanish for Supervisors @ Wabash, Lafayette, IN

Paula Wilson, Continuous Improvement Specialist located at the Wabash plant in Lafayette, Indiana, recognized the need to better connect with Spanish-speaking members of the Wabash workforce. She contacted Brooklyn Burton at Ivy Tech Lafayette, who in turn contacted Dr. Melinda Grismer, Community Development Specialist for the Purdue Center for Regional Development and the Director of the Learning Network, who holds the license for a program called Reality Spanish. Ivy Tech hired one of their instructors, Maria Lopez, who was certified as a Reality Spanish trainer in December 2022 by Dr. Grismer. 

This course was offered in response to the need for supervisors to speak basic Spanish and learn about Hispanic culture so they can better relate to a growing Latino workforce, which increased 40% within the state of Indiana since the last decennial census (between 2010 and 2020). In fact, Brookings predicts that the United States will become ‘minority White’ by 2045, and that one in five workers will be Latino (Pew Research). 

Reality Spanish for Supervisors @ Wabash, Lafayette, IN was established in March 2023. 

The initial course was offered to a group of 27 supervisors in the Lafayette plant. Given the success of this pilot effort, a second course is being offered to Human Resource and Environmental Health personnel at the Lafayette plant starting in January 2024. A third course will be opened up to EHS & HR virtually for those that are located all across the US and be broadcast via Zoom (with a recording made for anyone who misses the live session).

Wabash is sponsoring the course for its employees and paying the full cost. The cost per course varies by class size. Contact Ivy Tech for a custom quote.  

Currently, these Reality Spanish courses are only open to Wabash employees, but other companies can adopt this same model by partnering with Ivy Tech and its adjunct faculty members trained to deliver Reality Language courses tailored to meet their needs. 

This course meets once weekly and, in the case of Wabash, is overseen by HR through their Learning & Development department. However, since the logistics are handled by Ivy Tech and the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD), the point person at a company just needs to focus on recruiting employees to register for the course and provide a place to complete the learning. 

There was an opportunity to adapt the training to meet specific industry language and terms. Managers with this training were able to learn not only the language, but also the culture. Instead of having to have an interpreter, this opportunity was able to help bridge connections and assist frontline workers in the process of improvement and overall morale at work. 

The reason Reality Spanish is such a good solution for workforce language training is that there are no word lists, flash cards or verb conjugations. Comprehensible bites of language are taught through a second language acquisition method, called Total Physical Response + Storytelling, which uses mnemonics, interaction and role-play to teach the words and phrases that become spontaneous dialogue.

No tools or software are needed for the course, other than a computer with video capabilities for the virtual session. Interested businesses can contact Ivy Tech to hire one of their adjunct faculty members who are trained and certified in Reality Spanish to instruct a course of up to 30 people. 

One of the greatest benefits of teaching Spanish to monolingual English-speakers how the process impacts their empathy for language learners. Rather than seeing their colleagues as “limited English proficient,” they begin to have respect for them as “emergent bilinguals” who are adding yet another "tool to their toolbox" in the same way the supervisors are striving to do.

It creates opportunities for spontaneous dialogue on the manufacturing floor and in the breakrooms, which fosters a culture of belonging and inclusion that results in employee retention and loyalty.
 
Tangible Outcomes: