“It’s Not Fair”: Discourses of Deficit, Equity, and Effort in Mixed Heritage and Second Language Spanish Classes

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study used peer-led focus groups to investigate heritage language (HL) and second language (L2) students’ language ideologies and identities in “mixed” Spanish courses. We analyzed students’ perceptions of themselves and each other, their understandings of fairness in mixed classes, and the relationship of such perceptions to language ideologies and broader educational discourses of belonging in Spanish language education. Our analysis revealed that L2 participants reproduced the standard language ideology as well as an essentialist ideology that frames Spanish as being natural and easy for HL students. HL participants largely resisted these ideologies while also portraying L2 students as deficient speakers who “artificially” slow the class, thus challenging the dominant construction of L2 students as the default student type. Participants deployed competing conceptions of fairness to construct and perform identities as hard working students. Our findings highlight the need to incorporate the critical analysis of ideologies in mixed HL/L2 settings and beyond.