Prospective Bilingual Teachers’ Perceptions of the Importance of their Heritage Language

This article describes the results of a study of future bilingual teachers’ perspectives on the importance of Spanish, their heritage language, in their careers. The study examined the participants’ experiences with Spanish throughout their education, their perceptions of the role of Spanish instruction in their teacher preparation program, and their anticipation of its importance in their teaching careers. The results show that prospective bilingual teachers have developed varying levels of academic Spanish proficiency before entering the university, and that they consider the academic Spanish instruction in their teacher preparation program to be adequate. The participants expect to benefit from this instruction as they pursue their teaching careers.