Designing and implementing a macro-approaches-based curriculum for heritage language learners

Abstract

Researchers have argued that macro-approaches to heritage language (HL) teaching that take into account heritage language learners' (HLLs) global knowledge of the HL are particularly effective; such macro-approaches are often characterized as discourse-based, content-based, genre-based, task-based, or experiential (Kagan and Dillon 2001, 2008, 2009). This paper describes a set of Mandarin HL curriculum and instructional methods that utilized the notion of macro-approaches to teach secondary students in a STARTALK summer program in 2009. The curriculum built on learners' prior strengths in speaking and listening to improve their writing and reading abilities and validated their hybrid identities as Chinese Americans. Class topics included the Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese immigration, history and personal memories of Chinatown, intergenerational relationships, personal border-crossing experiences, and pop music in Mandarin-speaking regions. A class blog was used to further enhance HLLs' motivation and language production. Through the camp, students eventually took active ownership of their learning, dispelling the image of adolescent HLLs as lacking motivation to learn about their cultural roots and HLs, as portrayed in the literature. It is hoped that this paper will initiate more interest in developing research-based HL curricula and pedagogies.