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?

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.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Exploring goals and motivations of Māori heritage language learners

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awanui Te Huia
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Language Revitalisation

Motivations of Māori heritage language learners are explored within this qualitative study. Te reo Māori (the Māori language) is currently classed as endangered (Reedy et al., 2011), which calls for the exploration of the motivational experiences of Māori heritage language learners. A total of 19 interviews with beginner, intermediate and advanced level learners were conducted. Results demonstrated how Māori heritage learners were motivated to learn due to their cultural heritage connection to the language and to other ingroup members. This study explores some of the motivations why Māori heritage language learners learn te reo Māori. For this group of indigenous language learners, cultural and language revitalisation are tied to language motivation. Furthermore, the ability to participate in cultural practices was central to language motivations.

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.

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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