Under current geo-political conditions of social, environmental, and economic fragility and instability, the need for education to cultivate empathy, heighten attentiveness to the biosphere, and augment commitment to civic engagement imposes itself with urgency (Rifkin, 2012). As fundamentally social-relational phenomena, semiotic agility and critical language awareness serve as critical resources for ameliorating and transforming selves, communities, and societies. These points suggest that instructed language education would benefit from greater integration with a variety of real world contexts and communities. In response to this need, contributions to this volume propose approaches to pedagogically mediated second language learning that link classroom activities with relevant social practices occurring outside of instructional settings.

R {P} TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments.
Editorial Board.
Annual Volume of Issues in Language Program Direction.
Abstracts.
Introduction: Social Pedagogies and Entwining Language with the World.
PART I: THE LEARNER IN THE ENVIRONMENT: INHABITING THE CITY, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, AND SERVICE LEARNING.
1. Engaging the City: Language, Space, and Identity in Urban Environments.
2. “Encuentros con el Español:” A Case Study of Critical Service Learning in the Latino Community.
3. Lessons from the CruCES Project: Community Service Learning and Intercultural S ensitivity in the Foreign Language Classroom.
4. Abriendo caminos: Breaking New Ground in Community-Engaged Language Learning.
PART II: LITERACY, SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS, AND THE LEARNER AS SOCIAL ACTOR.
5. Social-Pedagogical Life Imitates Art: Scaffolding the Voices of L2 Fans and Critics.
6. Becoming Social Actors: Designing a Global Simulation for Situated Language and Culture Learning.
7. Networked Learning: Students as Producers, Curators, and Consumers of Authentic Resources on Campus and Abroad.
8. Beyond Participation: Symbolic Struggles with(in) Digital Social Media in the L2 Classroom.
9. “What makes this so complicated?” On the Value of Disorienting Dilemmas in Language Instruction.
PART III: SOCIAL PEDAGOGICAL INTERVENTIONS: A VIEW FROM THE TERRAIN.
10. A Socio-Constructivist Approach to Developing Cross-Cultural Empathy.
11. Of Cookies And Saints: Deconstructing L2 Learners’ Myths Of The Target Culture.
12. Engaging Students in Intentional Cultural Learning during Study Abroad.
13. L’incubateur: Increasing Student Engagement through Global Simulation and Gaming Pedagogy in the L2 Classroom.

Under current geo-political conditions of social, environmental, and economic fragility and instability, the need for education to cultivate empathy, heighten attentiveness to the biosphere, and augment commitment to civic engagement imposes itself with urgency (Rifkin, 2012). As fundamentally social-relational phenomena, semiotic agility and critical language awareness serve as critical resources for ameliorating and transforming selves, communities, and societies. These points suggest that instructed language education would benefit from greater integration with a variety of real world contexts and communities. In response to this need, contributions to this volume propose approaches to pedagogically mediated second language learning that link classroom activities with relevant social practices occurring outside of instructional settings. This volume on social pedagogies, broadly described, helps us to reimagine language education by providing pedagogical frameworks for the integration of instructional settings with community engaged learning. Some of the contributions to this volume showcase a particular course while others propose pedagogical initiatives that span language programs or curricula. All contributors include explicit suggestions for expanding curricula and language learning opportunities in ecologically embedded ways.