scholarly journals Challenges and opportunities for heritage language learners in interpreting courses in the U.S. context

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (101) ◽  
pp. 950-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Mellinger ◽  
Laura Gasca-Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The U.S

"There is no space for being German": Portraits of Willing and Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roswita Dressler
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
German Speaking Country

Some heritage language learners (HLLs) are comfortable identifying themselves as such, while others are decidedly reluctant to adopt this term (Piño & Piño, 2000). HLLs in this paper are defined as those students having a parent or grandparent who speaks German or those who have spent a significant part of their childhood in a German-speaking country (as suggested in Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005, p. 13). This paper highlights case studies of six HLLs of German at the post-secondary level who are participants in a motivation study (Dressler, 2008). Three students are ‘willing’ HLLs. The additional three case studies are of students that I will call ‘reluctant’ HLLs of German, and this paper explores the reasons behind their reluctance and the components of self-identification, which include language identity (Block, 2007; Pierce, 1995); language expertise; affiliation and inheritance (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997); cultural artifacts (Bartlett, 2007) and positioning (Block, 2007).

scholarly journals Salinlahi III: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Filipino Heritage Language Learners

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Vincent Regalado ◽  
Michael Louie Boñon ◽  
Nadine Chua ◽  
Rene Rose Piñera ◽  
Shannen Rose Dela Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Intelligent Tutoring ◽  
Intelligent Tutoring System ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Tutoring System

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.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document