scholarly journals Assessment in Spanish heritage language programs

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Clara Burgo
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Language Brokers ◽  
Variation Assessment

Spanish heritage language learners (HLLs) are heterogeneous in nature. Thus, how can we assess these students? Most of the literature on this has been on placement exams (Polinsky & Kagan, 2017, among others), but the focus of this article is on assessment in Spanish heritage courses. Placement test results should be indicators of what should be included in the curriculum. One of the main challenges is the lack of the following components: specific proficiency indicators for HLLs, consensus in defining key concepts, understanding dialect variation, assessment for measuring linguistic skills, and finally research on HLLs’ assessment (Malone, Kreeft Peyton, & Kim, 2014). Thus, assessment is the biggest challenge in HL education due to the dominant monolingual ideologies, so formative assessment practices are recommended to confront them by allowing HLLs to negotiate their linguistic identities via multilingual perspectives (King, Liu, & Schwedhelm, 2018). What are specific tools or activities to negotiate these? Personal narratives of US Latinos were collected by Carreira and Beeman (2014) for the sake of reflections of HLLs as language brokers. González-Davies (2004, 2018) also mentions the importance of peer-to-peer strategies for translation competence. These projects can also become group projects, like the manifestos implemented by Moreno and MacGregor-Mendoza (2019) in a course in which language, culture, and community are the goals. All these activities are examples of the kinds of assessment that may be effective in the heritage classroom and may guide their instructors. The goal of this article is to suggest activities to connect HLLs with their communities at the same time that their learning gains are assessed in terms of language proficiency.

Spanish as a Heritage Language Assessment: Successes, Failures, Lessons Learned

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Patricia MacGregor-Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
State University ◽  
New Mexico State University

From its origins over three decades ago, interest in the field of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) has grown and has produced a wealth of research. While our understanding of the sociolinguistic profile of Spanish heritage language learners has increased and we have advanced in our knowledge of the linguistic abilities and strategies Spanish heritage language learners bring to bear on specific language tasks, we are just beginning to apply this knowledge in meaningful ways for the purposes of assessment. The present paper describes the evaluation of the efficacy of the Spanish Placement Test (SPT) that has been used for over 15 years to evaluate students initiating their Spanish language study at New Mexico State University (NMSU). The SPT is intended to distinguish between students who would be best served by either the SHL sequence or the Spanish as a Second Language sequence and, further, to suggest which course within the appropriate sequence would best allow their skills to grow. An examination of the SPT was warranted as the population for which the SPT was originally designed did not appear to match that of NMSU’s population of SHL learners. Additionally, at first glance, the items on the SPT did not appear to be a good fit with the goals of the courses in the SHL sequence. The present paper discusses the findings of our evaluation of the SPT in light of its ability to assess the skills of learners of Spanish as a heritage language and place them accurately in the sequence of SHL courses.

Measuring metasyntactic ability among heritage language children

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAPHNÉE SIMARD ◽  
VÉRONIQUE FORTIER ◽  
DENIS FOUCAMBERT
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
Language Background ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Repetition Task

Metasyntactic Ability (MSA) refers to the conscious reflection about syntactic aspects of language and the deliberate control of these aspects (Gombert, 1992). It appears from previous studies that heritage-language learners tend to demonstrate lower MSA than their monolingual counterparts (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003). In the present study, we verified whether the same results would be obtained among Portuguese heritage children living in a French-speaking environment when their MSA is measured using two different tasks. The participants were 22 Portuguese heritage children and 22 French monolingual elementary school children (mean age = 10.9 years). Five measurement instruments were used: a reading comprehension task; a language proficiency task; two metasyntactic tasks: a replication task in which the children had to identify and reproduce an error, and a repetition task, in which they had to repeat sentences containing syntactic errors; and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The results showed that when reading comprehension and language proficiency were controlled for, no effect of language background could be observed. However, reading comprehension and language proficiency differently influenced performances on MSA tasks.

scholarly journals Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Heritage Speakers in Four Major U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Resources for the Attainment of Full Professional Linguistic Proficiency

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Danko Šipka
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Linguistic Proficiency ◽  
Design And Testing

The present study analyzes heritage learners of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) from four major U.S. metropolitan areas. The focus is on the prospects of their attaining full professional language proficiency. Several major factors in language maintenance and the possibility of attaining full professional proficiency in the language are identified. The design and testing of a syllabus for heritage language speakers is provided and discussed. The author concludes with a call for the creation of a BCS heritage language centre as a durable solution for providing heritage language learners a path toward full professional proficiency.

scholarly journals Slavic and East European Language Programs and Heritage Language Communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Susan Kresin
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
College Level ◽  
European Language ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
East European ◽  
European Heritage ◽  
Language Schools

Among Slavic and East European heritage communities, the post-1989 geopolitical situation in Central and Eastern Europe has changed both emigration patterns and core aspects of the relationship between speakers in the homeland and abroad. Many speakers have both an enhanced motivation to maintain their heritage languages and greater resources to do so. As a reflection of this increased interest in Slavic and East European heritage languages, recent years have witnessed a rise in the number and scope of community language schools, established primarily by parents who wish to ensure that their children maintain active use of their heritage languages. At the same time, many Slavic and East European language programs at the college level have increasingly come under threat, due to the combination of reduced enrollments, greater administrative focus on class sizes, and a loss of federal funding. In this paper, using Czech as the base language, I suggest that by placing a greater emphasis on connections with heritage communities, we may be able to enhance the viability of Slavic and East European programs at the college level. This potential is supported by a marked increase in research on heritage language learners over the past two decades, which provides a foundation for curricular adjustments that address the specific needs of heritage language learners.

What does the analysis of C-test gaps tell us about the construct of a C-test? A comparison of foreign and heritage language learners’ performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Anastasia Drackert ◽  
Anna Timukova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Scoring Method ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Dichotomous Scoring ◽  
The Right

In view of the ubiquitous increase in the use of C-tests, which are almost unanimously believed to measure general language proficiency, this study investigates whether the aspects of language proficiency tapped into by the C-test format are the same when the test is taken by a learner population other than that of foreign language learners. Specifically, we conducted a differential functioning analysis and compared the types of mistakes that 113 foreign language learners of Russian made when completing C-test gaps, with the performance of 89 heritage language learners on the same C-test. The results showed that almost half of the C-test gaps are biased towards either learner group. In addition, the error analysis for a number of the biased items demonstrated that, although heritage language learners seem to have an advantage in reconstructing the meaning of C-test gaps, they fail to translate their recognition skills into producing the right form. Furthermore, the study reveals a possible sensitivity of the C-test construct to the traditionally used dichotomous scoring method. We conclude with a discussion that includes the implications of the results regarding the construct measured by the C-test and the possible consequences for its actual use.

scholarly journals Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Review of Literature Analyzing Their Preference of the English Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. p56
Author(s):  
Hilda Guillen-Ramos ◽  
Tonya Huber
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Transitional Bilingual ◽  
Transitional Bilingual Education ◽  
American Schools ◽  
New Research

The increased number of Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) speakers in American schools has called for the need of new research focused on SHL students, their parents, their teachers, and a profound analysis of best instructional practices for this individualized group of students. The purpose of this thorough analysis of peer-reviewed literature is to evaluate language programs for the growing SHL student population in elementary schools. A careful look into this growing population will help evaluate the educational programs provided to SHL students such as the Dual Language (DL) immersion program and the Transitional Bilingual Education program (TBE). This review addresses why students walk into an elementary classroom as an SHL and English language bilingual and subsequently become monolinguals as they progress in their elementary school years. Recognizing the factors that lead to a student’s language preference can assist parents, teachers, and the education system in developing an academic structure that will promote bilingualism and biliteracy for SHL learners.

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