Abstract
Spanish language teaching in US higher education is today generally divided between ‘foreign language’ courses for novice learners and ‘heritage language’ courses for Hispanic/Latinx students with some knowledge of the language. However, ‘heritage’ students are a linguistically diverse group, and are also often enrolled at institutions where heritage courses are not offered. Little research to date has studied ‘heritage’ speakers enrolled in ‘foreign’ language courses. For this study I conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the affective and ideological characteristics of bilingual students enrolled in elementary Spanish courses. As the literature suggests, I find that these students have a generally low opinion of their own performance in Spanish and a strong bias in favor of the standard language. Finally, in hopes of combating these notions and bridging the divide between heritage and novice learners, I contemplate ways in which students of diverse backgrounds can be included in the same language classroom.
Highlights
In this article I consider questions of language-learning motivation, access to language education, language ideologies and attitudes, and pedagogical approaches as concerns bilingual/heritage1 speakers enrolled in Spanish as a ‘foreign’ or ‘second’ language classes
This study is based on the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with four New York Latinx students of varying ages, national backgrounds, and proficiencies in Spanish, enrolled in an elementary
The course was selected to participate in the Futures Initiative (FI), a Graduate Center (GC)-based program that reaches throughout City University of New York (CUNY) and advocates greater equity and innovation in higher education
Summary
In this article I consider questions of language-learning motivation, access to language education, language ideologies and attitudes, and pedagogical approaches as concerns bilingual/heritage speakers enrolled in Spanish as a ‘foreign’ or ‘second’ language classes. This study is based on the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with four New York Latinx students of varying ages, national backgrounds, and proficiencies in Spanish, enrolled in an elementary. Spanish course at Brooklyn College, a large public university in New York City. The final consideration is how to approach teaching when Spanish-English bilinguals and novice learners are placed together in the same classes. This study grew out of a PhD course in Global Language Policies in Education at the Graduate Center (GC) of the City University of New York (CUNY). The Academic Year 2015-2016 theme is Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature. 9.2 (May-June 2016) ISSN 2013-6196
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