Conference Presentations

Abstract:

In Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) classrooms, instruction often centers on the personal and local Spanish varieties familiar to the students – rightfully positioning these varieties at the heart of the curriculum. In contrast, second language (L2) Spanish classrooms often focus on prestigious global Spanish varieties, frequently at the expense of less prestigious local varieties. For example, DeFeo (2015) found that heritage learners (HLs) in L2 Spanish classes perceived Spanish as a language for travel and tourism in their classes because their own linguistic realities were not explored. This project outlines how bringing global perspectives into the SHL classroom, without sidelining local and personal varieties, can foster Critical Language Awareness (CLA) in a way that does not make Spanish seem “foreign.” 

In Spring 2025, a third-level SHL course at a large Hispanic-serving institution in New Mexico underwent curricular changes aimed at further enhancing CLA in the course. Of the 20 students enrolled in the course, 11 agreed to participate in interviews reflecting on course content and pedagogical changes. The SHL program uses a broad definition of HLs (Beaudrie and Ducar, 2005; Koshiba, 2022; Wilson and Martinez, 2011), meaning that not all students were “Hispanic” or grew up speaking Spanish, but rather, had acquired Spanish primarily in naturalistic settings. This resulted in a diverse class with varied backgrounds and perspectives.    

The course objectives were crafted following Beaudrie and Wilson’s (2021) instructional goals for CLA development in SHL classrooms, which prioritize validating personal linguistic varieties, expanding bilingual range, expanding awareness of and acceptance of linguistic variation, and developing a prestige variety. Throughout the course, students engaged in in-depth self-identity exploration, reflected on social and linguistic practices and traditions of communities in New Mexico, and reflected on social and linguistic practices in other Spanish-speaking places, all while improving upon oral and written communication and metalinguistic awareness. 

To explore their personal cultural and linguistic context, students completed a semester-long portfolio project in which they reflected on their own cultural and linguistic identity and an interview that they conducted with a family member or friend. For the local Spanish context, students examined the history of Spanish in New Mexico, especially in relation to MacGregor Mendoza’s (2000) work detailing corporal punishment and Spanish use in schools and how this has impacted language maintenance. Finally, for a more global perspective on Spanish, students participated in a week-long unit on Equatoguinean Spanish speakers and created individual presentations on different Spanish-speaking countries or communities. 

Interview data revealed that exploring familiar and unfamiliar sociolinguistic contexts expanded students’ CLA. Many students demonstrated a robust understanding of linguistic prestige, language ideologies, and marginalization of Spanish speakers across contexts that would not have emerged if the class focused solely on personal and local varieties of Spanish. 

References: 

Báez Montero, I. C., & López Vázquez, L. (2017). El español de África: Guinea Ecuatorial en el aula de ELE. Panhispanismo y Variedades En La Enseñanza Del Español L2-LE, 141–149.

Beaudrie, S. M., & Wilson, D. V. (2021). Reimagining the goals of HL pedagogy through Critical Language Awareness. In S. Loza & S. M. Beaudrie (Eds.), Heritage Language Teaching: Critical Language Awareness Perspectives for Research and Pedagogy (pp. 63–79). Taylor and Francis.

Buck, M., del Bosque, B. & Zavala, E. (forthcoming). Beyond the confines of a definition: How heritage speakers understand, define, and live “inherited” multilingualism

DeFeo, D. J. (2015). Spanish Is Foreign: Heritage Speakers’ Interpretations of the Introductory Spanish Language Curriculum. International Multilingual Research Journal, 9(2), 108–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2015.1016828

Del Carpio, L. (2022). Heritage Language Learners’ Attitudes Towards Familiar Varieties of Spanish. Spanish Portuguese Review, 7, 105–118.

Foulis, E., & Gillen, K. (2024). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy at Hispanic Serving Institutions: The Case for Centering Heritage Language Learners’ Experiences in Spanish Programs. Journal of Latinos and Education, 23(3), 1254–1265. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2023.2256852

García, O. (2019). Decolonizing foreign, second, heritage, and first languages: Implications for education. In D. Macedo (Ed.), Decolonizing foreign language education (pp. 152–168). Routledge.

Lacorte, M., & Magro, J. L. (2021). Foundations for critical and antiracist heritage language teaching. In S. Loza & S. M. Beaudrie (Eds.), Heritage Language Teaching: Critical Language Awareness Perspectives for Research and Pedagogy (pp. 23–43). Taylor and Francis.

Lipski, J. (2000). The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea: Research on la hispanidad’s best-kept secret. Afro-Hispanic Review, 11–38.

MacGregor-Mendoza, P. (2000). Aquí No Se Habla Español: Stories of Linguistic Repression in Southwest Schools. Bilingual Research Journal, 24(4), 355–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2000.10162772

Rosa, J. (2019). Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. Oxford University Press.

Schlumpf, S. (2016). Hacia el reconocimiento del español de Guinea Ecuatorial. Estudios de Lingüística Del Español, 37, 217–233.

Schlumpf-Thurnherr, S. (2019). Guineoecuatorianos en Madrid: Actitudes hacia su propio español y el español madrileño. Lengua y Migración/Language and Migration, 10(2), 7–31.

Wilson, D. V. (2022). Incorporating our own traditions and our own ways of trying to learn the language: Beginning-level Spanish as a heritage language students’ perception of their SHL learning experience. In M. A. Bowles (Ed.), Outcomes of university Spanish heritage language instruction in the United States (pp. 129–147). Georgetown University Press.

Wilson, D. V., & Martínez, R. (2011). Diversity in definition: Integrating history and student attitudes in understanding heritage learners of Spanish in New Mexico. Heritage Language Journal, 8(2), 270–288.

Abstract:

Durante el otoño de 2024, entrevistamos a 55 estudiantes de cuatro niveles de cursos de español para hablantes de herencia (EHH). En nuestra universidad, los criterios de inclusión en el programa de EHH no se basan en las definiciones más tradicionales de tener solamente una conexión familiar con el español (e.g., Valdés, 2000) ni en las definiciones que prescriben ciertos niveles de competencia en español (e.g., Benmamoun et al, 2013). Se incluyen a los estudiantes según una definición más abierta como las de (e.g., Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005; Wilson & Martinez, 2011), que permite que cualquier estudiante que tenga relación familiar, comunitaria o histórica con el español pueda entrar a estas clases.

         Con esta diversidad de identidades viene cierta variación dialectal en el aula. Muchos estudiantes expresaron que el dialecto que se habla o el que hablan las personas que conocen más, son los que son preferidos por ellos. Otros estudiantes eligieron dialectos más prestigiosos como el español peninsular que demuestra cierto eurocentrismo que sigue vivo para algunos estudiantes (Carter & Callesano, 2018).

         La mayoría de los estudiantes identificaron sus dialectos más/menos preferidos, pero unos estudiantes tenían dificultad aún con entender qué significa “dialecto” o “variedad” de español cuando los investigadores les preguntaron sus opiniones.

         Por eso, dado que hubo estudiantes que ni pudieron identificar qué son los dialectos y otros que tenían actitudes muy fuertes en contra de algunos dialectos, hemos decidido delegar más tiempo a la variación dialectal dentro del aula para poder expandir el conocimiento dialectal de nuestros estudiantes y promover una vista más holística del español munidal.

References: 

Beaudrie, S., & Ducar, C. (2005). Beginning level university heritage programs: Creating a space 

    for all heritage language learners. Heritage Language Journal, 3(1), 1–26.

Beaudrie, S. M., & Wilson, D. V. (2021). Reimagining the goals of HL pedagogy through Critical Language Awareness. In S. Loza & S. M. Beaudrie (Eds.), Heritage Language Teaching: Critical Language Awareness Perspectives for Research and Pedagogy (pp. 63–79). Taylor and Francis.

Carter, P. M., & Callesano, S. (2018). The social meaning of Spanish in Miami: Dialect perceptions and implications for socioeconomic class, income, and employment. Latino Studies, 16, 65–90.

Henderson, M. H., Wilson, D. V., & Woods, M. R. (2020). How course level, gender, and ethnic identity labels interact with language attitudes towards Spanish as a heritage language. Hispania, 103(1), 27–42.

Koshiba, K. (2022). Between Inheritance and Commodity: The Discourse of Japanese Ethnolinguistic Identity among Youths in a Heritage Language Class in Australia. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 21(5), 316–329. 

Leeman, J. (2012). Investigating language ideologies in Spanish as a heritage language. In S. Beaudrie & M. Fairclough (Eds.), Spanish as a heritage language in the United States: The state of the field (pp. 43–59). Georgetown University Press.

Martínez, G. A. (2003). Classroom based dialect awareness in heritage language instruction: A critical applied linguistic approach. Heritage Language Journal, 1(1), 44–57.

Park, M. Y. (2022). Language ideologies, heritage language use, and identity construction among 1.5-generation Korean immigrants in New Zealand. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(7), 2469–2481. 

Valdés, G. (2000). The teaching of heritage languages: An introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals. The Learning and Teaching of Slavic Languages and Cultures, 375–403.

Vana, R. F. (2020). Learning with an Attitude⁈: Heritage and L2 Students’ Language Attitudes toward Spanish Language Varieties in the Advanced Mixed Class [Doctoral Dissertation]. Arizona State University.

Wilson, D. V., & Ibarra, C. E. (2015). Understanding the inheritors: The perception of beginning level students toward their Spanish as a Heritage Language program. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 2(2), 85–101.

Wilson, D. V., & Martínez, R. (2011). Diversity in definition: Integrating history and student attitudes in understanding heritage learners of Spanish in New Mexico. Heritage Language Journal, 8(2), 270–288.

Abstract:

We explored the relationship between the locations of the new DLI programs and population changes between 2010 and 2020 in a large Midwestern US city. Results indicate that 63% of new DLI schools opened in neighborhoods with significantly increasing population of White households and decreasing Latinx households.

References: 

American Councils Research Center. (2021). Canvass of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in the U.S public schools.  Retrieved from https://www.americancouncils.org/sites/default/files/documents/pages/2021-10/Canvass%20DLI%20-%20October%202021-2_ac.pdf

Cardona-Maguigad, A. (2020, October 12). More Than 70% Of CPS Bilingual Programs Fall Short. National Public Radio: WBEZ Chicago. https://www.wbez.org/stories/more-than-70-of-cps-bilingual-programs-fall-short/835b5876-98ea-4a4b-b082-3b92c298f8a6

Center for Applied Linguistics. (2016). Directory of two- way immersion programs in the U.S. Retrieved March 23, 2016 from http://www.cal.org/twi/directory.

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. (2021). 2020 Census Supplement: Chicago Community Areas [Data file]. Retrieved from https://datahub.cmap.illinois.gov/dataset/community-data-snapshots-raw-data/resource/0916f1de-ae37-4476-bf4e-6485ba08c975

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. (2015). 2010 Census Data Summarized to Chicago Community Area. Retrieved from https://datahub.cmap.illinois.gov/dataset/2010-census-data-summarized-to-chicago-community-areas/resource/b30b47bf-bb0d-46b6-853b-47270fb7f626

Chicago Public Schools. (2022). Budget (FY 2023). Retrieved from  https://www.cps.edu/about/finance/budget/budget-2023/

Chicago Public Schools. (2022). Demographics. Retrieved from https://www.cps.edu/about/district-data/demographics/

Chicago Public Schools. (2015-2022).  Press Releases.  Retrieved from https://www.cps.edu/press-releases/

García, O., Zakharia, Z. and Otcu, B. (2013). Bilingual Community Education for American Children: Beyond Heritage Languages in a Global City. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Potowski, K (2004). Student Spanish Use and Investment in a Dual Immersion Classroom: Implications for Second Language Acquisition and Heritage Language Maintenance. The Modern Language Journal, 88, 1, pp. 75-101.

Potowski, K (2013, April). No child left monolingual [Video}. TEDX  Conferences. https://hip.uic.edu/news-stories/kim-potowskis-tedx-talk-no-child-left-in-monolingual/

Thomas, W. P., & Collier, V. (1997). School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students. NCBE Resource Collection Series, No. 9. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED436087

U.S. Census Bureau (2021). Quickfacts Chicago City Illinois. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/chicagocityillinois

U.S. Census Bureau (2021). Quickfacts Illinois. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/IL

USA Facts. (2021).  Our changing Population: Illinois. Retrieved from https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/population-and-demographics/our-changing-population/state/illinois?endDate=2020-01-01&startDate=2010-01-01&gclid=CjwKCAjwqauVBhBGEiwAXOepkZhtyuquHrns3lbPtx1lAM1MmL5GGEaRCM6mIEIieIRBTzVdMLUsjRoC6RQQAvD_BwE