The National Heritage Language Resource Center: A Locus of Activity in the Field of Heritage Languages in the USA

2017 ◽  
pp. 355-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Carreira ◽  
Arturo Díaz ◽  
Olga E. Kagan
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
The Usa

The Administration of Heritage Language Programs: Challenges and Opportunities

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-293
Author(s):  
Elabbas Benmamoun ◽  
Olga Kagan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

This paper grew out of a presentation given by Elabbas Benmamoun at the Sixth Heritage Language Research Institute held at UCLA in June, 2012. On the last day of the institute, Benmamoun participated in a panel entitled Lessons Learned: The Implications for Flagship Programs. The Language Flagship, which co-sponsored the 2012 institute together with the National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC), aims to prepare a cohort of university graduates who have studied a language deemed critical to U.S. competitiveness and security in sufficient depth such that they achieve an advanced level of mastery. An “advanced level” is usually defined with reference to proficiency level descriptors used by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), namely ACTFL Advanced or ILR 2. The question then arises: outside the 26 Flagship programs established in American universities, how can the general population of language learners be supported and motivated to achieve this level of proficiency?

Using Materials in Refugee and Immigrant Adults' Heritage Languages in Instruction

2020 ◽  
pp. 422-447
Author(s):  
Fernanda Minuz ◽  
Belma Haznedar ◽  
Joy Kreeft Peyton ◽  
Martha Young-Scholten
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Reading Materials ◽  
Adult Immigrants ◽  
Community Access

There has been a shift in receiving countries and their education programs for adult immigrants around the world. A complete focus on immigrants' cultural integration and learning of the language of the country has shifted to an understanding that supporting heritage language maintenance benefits adults with little or no formal schooling in that language, including a more nuanced sense of identity, stronger second language (L2) and literacy learning, and confidence in supporting the schooling of the younger members of their communities. Teachers and tutors need, but lack, professional development focused on implementing instructional approaches that incorporate this new focus and on using reading materials in learners' languages. This chapter describes a new Online Heritage Language Resource Hub, which gives teachers, tutors, adult learners, and younger members of the community access to materials in hundreds of immigrants' languages. It also provides teachers ways to use the reading materials in the Hub in their classes with adult learners.

Assessing the Oral Proficiency of Heritage Speakers According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Speaking

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Martin ◽  
Elvira Swender ◽  
Mildred Rivera-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
American Council ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

The article discusses the preliminary findings of a joint National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC)/American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) project conducted in 2010-11, Exploring Linguistic Profiles of Heritage Speakers of Spanish and Russian, that used the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 –Speaking (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2012b) to assess and analyze the oral proficiency of heritage speakers. The discussion of these findings follows a general discussion of what a rating based on an official ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) actually does and does not tell us about speakers, including heritage or native speakers, who fall into various ACTFL rating ranges. The joint NHLRC/ACTFL research project analyzed which features typically characteristic of heritage speakers of Spanish and Russian prevent them from receiving higher ratings on an official ACTFL OPI, and these findings are the focus of this article. Finally, some general recommendations related to instructional implications of these findings are discussed.

Using Materials in Refugee and Immigrant Adults' Heritage Languages in Instruction

2021 ◽  
pp. 680-705
Author(s):  
Fernanda Minuz ◽  
Belma Haznedar ◽  
Joy Kreeft Peyton ◽  
Martha Young-Scholten
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Reading Materials ◽  
Adult Immigrants ◽  
Community Access

There has been a shift in receiving countries and their education programs for adult immigrants around the world. A complete focus on immigrants' cultural integration and learning of the language of the country has shifted to an understanding that supporting heritage language maintenance benefits adults with little or no formal schooling in that language, including a more nuanced sense of identity, stronger second language (L2) and literacy learning, and confidence in supporting the schooling of the younger members of their communities. Teachers and tutors need, but lack, professional development focused on implementing instructional approaches that incorporate this new focus and on using reading materials in learners' languages. This chapter describes a new Online Heritage Language Resource Hub, which gives teachers, tutors, adult learners, and younger members of the community access to materials in hundreds of immigrants' languages. It also provides teachers ways to use the reading materials in the Hub in their classes with adult learners.

Front-line Healthcare Workers in COVID-19: The Way from Elbow-Bump Greeting to Closing Body Bags

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bittmann
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Angiotensin Ii Receptor ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa

COVID-19 is a serious coronavirus disease that is spreading all over the world. As of the date of this publication, 2.834.134 people have been infected with COVID-19 and 197.924 deaths have been recorded in 185 countries (John Hopkins Corona Resource Center, 25th April 2020) [1]. This overwhelming mortality rate requires intensive research activities around the world. To date, the number of deaths per day in the United States is still killing, indicating an uncontrollable state of infection spread. SARS-CoV-2 binds to the angiotensin II receptor in various tissues of the human body, particularly in the oral cavity and tongue. SARS-CoV-2 requires the cheerful TMPRSS2 to activate this inertia. SARS-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 receptor as a gateway to the lungs. The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds with the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor. COVID-19 is more common among African Americans in the USA (Science 10th April 2020). The comfort and the emotional loading capacity of the employees in the health service are key components for the maintenance of the essential health services during the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus) [2,3]. Hence, it will be important to anticipate the charges linked with this work and to release support for employees in the health service. The supervision and assessment of the psychic health and the well-being of the employees in the health service will be important, just as the efforts to guarantee a successful reunion with colleagues if they are infected.

Language Variation in Mandarin as a Heritage Language: Subject Personal Pronouns

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Xinye Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Usage Pattern ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
First Languages ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Because of limited language input, different dominant languages, and learners’ differing backgrounds, the acquisition of heritage languages is distinguished from the acquisition of L1 and L2. Few studies of Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) have explored whether students can acquire native-like sociolinguistic competence and language-specific variables with educational input. Based on a sociolinguistic variationist perspective, this study investigates the acquisition of variation between null and overt subject personal pronouns (SPP s) by heritage learners in an undergraduate-level Mandarin program. A total of 11,970 tokens were collected through classroom observation, sociolinguistic interviews, and narratives. Measuring mixed-effects logistic regression with Rbrul (Johnson, 2009), results show that the overall usage pattern of SPP s by CHL students largely resembled that in the input provided by the language program. Results also demonstrate that linguistic constraints including coreference, person and number, and verb type, and social factors such as discourse context, first languages, course level, and age of arrival had a significant effect on SPP expression by CHL learners. Implications for CHL development and variationist studies in heritage languages are discussed.

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