Heritage, Identity, and Learning at Stake

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Goulette
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
School Context ◽  
Classroom Community ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Class ◽  
American Schools ◽  
The One

A surge of diverse heritage language learners in American schools has contradicted the longstanding ideology that this population is monolithic. Previous theories about separating foreign language learners (FLLs) and heritage language learners (HLLs) are problematic because they fail to address the diversity of the HLLs that end up in schools today. This research report lends support for the claim that less proficient HLLs are more suitable for a heterogeneous beginning language class than those that are highly proficient. Placing a highly proficient HLL in a beginning level language course can actually be detrimental to both emergent learners' development and the educational outcomes of the entire classroom community. Moreover, the monumental task of teaching a heterogeneous class like the one analyzed here complicates and is complicated by an already-problematic school context. This study exhibits how the classroom talk privileged certain classmates while marginalizing others, halting educational progress.

College Chinese Heritage Language Learners’ Implicit Knowledge of Compound Sentences

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

This preliminary study investigates beginning college Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs)’ implicit knowledge of compound sentences with pairs of correlatives. Drawing on Valdés’s (2005) categorization of HLLs as L1 speakers and HLLs as L1/L2 users, the study examines CHLLs’ ability to comprehend compound sentences with pairs of correlatives, as well as their comprehension level as compared to native Chinese language speakers and Chinese foreign language learners (CFLLs). The study also examines the characteristics of CHLLs’ implicit knowledge of compound sentences. The data was collected using an acceptability judgment task. The CHL subjects’ overall performance was somewhere between that of native speakers and CFLLs who had studied Chinese for two years. Their performance shows that their comprehension of compound sentences acquired before the onset of learning English at the age of 4 or 5 was retained and even somewhat developed. This is because CHL subjects still received some amount of input from home and community Chinese schools even though they favored English over Chinese. The findings on CHLLs’ linguistic habitus can inform and frame CHLLappropriate pedagogies that exploit their implicit knowledge and systematically build on it.

scholarly journals STRATEGIE UCZENIA SIĘ SŁOWNICTWA – OBCOKRAJOWCY VS. UŻYTKOWNICY JĘZYKA ODZIEDZICZONEGO

Neofilolog ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Anna Seretny
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Vocabulary Learning Strategies ◽  
Class Level ◽  
Polish Language

In an average Polish language intermediate class (level B1/B2) there are two types of learners; namely, heritage language learners (HLLs) and foreign language learners (FLLs). HLLs are of Polish origin and have gained partial knowledge of the language in a natural environment, unlike FLLs who have learnt Polish in a formal institutional setting and have no Polish roots whatsoever.Teachers of Polish as a foreign/second language claim (in anecdotal evidence), that HLLs speak more fluently, particularly when talking about everyday topics, and that their production sounds more native like, as it is more formulaic. HLLs are, however, perceived as poorer vocabulary learners than FLLs. The aim of the research described in this article was to find out if this phenomenon can be ascribed to the different number and/or type of vocabulary learning strategies used by learners from the two groups.

Misplaced Heritage Language Learners of Japanese in Secondary Schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-221
Author(s):  
Susan Oguro ◽  
Robyn Moloney
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Formal Program

While heritage language learners are becoming visible in the research literature as a distinct group of language learners with specific needs, existing curriculum structures in secondary schools often focus on programs either for foreign language learners or for first language learners. The study reported here examines the experiences of heritage learners of Japanese who have been inappropriately placed in courses designed for native speakers and as a result, in some cases, have withdrawn from taking any formal program of Japanese language study. Focusing on the situation of Australian senior secondary Japanese students, this article reports the findings of questionnaire and interview data, featuring the voices of both teachers and heritage learners of Japanese. The data identify the issues that delineate heritage language learners from native speakers and highlight, through the experiences of misplaced learners, the need for appropriate placement, pedagogy and curriculum

Hindi Heritage Language Learners’ Performance during OPIs: Characteristics and Pedagogical Implications

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-174
Author(s):  
Gabriela Nik. Ilieva
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
New York University ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interviews ◽  
High Level

The present paper examines the oral performance of Hindi language learners during practice Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI) conducted during workshops hosted by New York University and sponsored by STARTALK. The most salient characteristics of the heritage language learners’ output are compared with the output of foreign language learners who are rated similarly at the Intermediate Mid or Intermediate High level on the ACTFL scale. The paper’s focus is on patterns of grammar and discourse strengths and deficiencies, as well as elaboration of topics and code-mixing in relation to students’ background. Pedagogical implications are discussed with reference to teaching strategies that address the differences in the language abilities of the heritage versus foreign language learners of Hindi.

Service-Learning, an Integral Part of Heritage Language Education: A Case Study of an Advanced-level Korean Language Class

2016 ◽  
pp. 354-381
Author(s):  
Soyeon , Kim ◽  
Sung-Ock Sohn
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Korean Language ◽  
Heritage Language Education ◽  
Language Class

While a growing body of literature testifies to the effects of service-learning in language education, little empirical research has examined the implementation of service-learning courses in minority heritage languages. This chapter discusses the first implementation and effects of Korean service-learning course for Korean heritage language learners at an institution of higher education. Participants engaged in service activities at one of four community sites with different missions. By analyzing students’ post-service surveys and course assignments, as well as the community partners’ post-service surveys, we were able to demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of the service-learning course for Korean heritage language students. Conducting service-learning at authentic work contexts in Koreatown in Los Angeles was found to enhance the language learners’ linguistic and socio-cultural awareness and develop their social responsibility and sense of kinship in a multicultural and multilingual metropolitan area such as Los Angeles. Moreover, by working on projects requiring Korean language skills, Korean heritage language learners developed their academic-professional proficiency, such as the use of formal speech styles, and realized other linguistic subtleties in Korean. The results from this study contribute to the current body of work on service-learning by adding a perspective from a population that has barely been represented in previous research.

“It’s Not Real, It’s Just A Story to Just Learn Spanish”: Understanding Heritage Language Learner Resistance in a Southwest Charter High School

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-206
Author(s):  
Kimberly Adilia Helmer
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Meaningful Activity

The current critical ethnography examines some causes of “strike-like” behavior observed in a Spanish heritage language class in a Southwest charter high school. Fundamental to student resistance was the lack of meaningful activity and authentic materials that connected curriculum to students’ linguistic strengths, target-culture knowledge, and the communities from which they came. The native Spanish-speaking teacher taught the course as if the Mexican-origin students were foreign language learners without certain native-like language proficiencies and insider cultural knowledge gained from actual experience. In turn, the instructor did not fully access his own linguistic and cultural repertoire, but instead relied on published foreign language materials that failed to engage students and constructed them as linguistic and cultural outsiders. A pueblobased pedagogical framework is proposed to make curriculum more culturally relevant, authentic, and engaging.

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.

scholarly journals Crosslinguistic influence in development of reference realization: A comparison of foreign language learners and heritage language learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-257
Author(s):  
Shu-Ling Wu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

AbstractRecent developments in the study of crosslinguistic influence have started to account for how the dynamic interaction between language and cognition influences transfer phenomena. This study examined the acquisition and use of referring expressions in narratives produced by 80 English-dominant learners of Chinese representing two proficiency levels (Low vs. High) and two linguistic backgrounds (Foreign Language vs. Heritage Language), as compared to two baseline groups of 40 Chinese native speakers (NSs) and 40 English NSs. Results showed that, while heritage language learners (HLLs) demonstrated a more idiomatic use of referential forms to introduce new characters and maintain reference to them than did foreign language learners (FLLs) at the same low-proficiency level, the advantage of early language exposure diminished at the high-proficiency level when HLLs were compared to High FLLs who had prolonged in-country experience. Meanwhile, three types of production errors persisted, including (i) failing to use definite reference when obligatory for simple bare nouns, (ii) struggling to supply item-specific classifiers, and (iii) avoidance of zero anaphora, when discourse coherence would prefer such a strategy. All three of these features involve the restructuring of L1 preferences to accommodate L2-specific patterns due to L1-L2 typological differences.

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