Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom: Engaging Mexican-origin Students by Adilia K. Helmer

Abstract

Reviewed by: Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom: Engaging Mexican-origin Students by Adilia K. Helmer Sarah Kersten Albrecht Helmer, Adilia K. Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom: Engaging Mexican-origin Students. Multilingual Matters, 2020. Pp. 251. ISBN 978-1-78892-762-8. Helmer’s recently published book, Learning and not learning in the heritage language classroom: Engaging Mexican-origin students, is an ethnographic work set in a charter high school in the southwestern United States. Helmer, a Teaching Professor in the Writing Program at UC Santa Cruz with interests in Latinx engagement and related pedagogies, continues in the style of Valdés’s (2001) Learning and not learning English: Latino students in American schools and fills a research gap as few studies on heritage language learners (HLLs) focus on the high school level. Additionally, her study builds on prior research on HLL motivation, using narrative, interviews, and analysis in each chapter to evocatively lay out the immediate causes and longer term effects of HLL disengagement, the need for teacher and administrative training, and the need for administrative vision and commitment. The book’s seven chapters are organized with chapter 1 as an introduction to the ethno-graphic setting, chapter 2 as an orientation to the study, and chapters 3, 4, and 5 as analyses of classroom observations. Chapter 6 offers recommendations for heritage language (HL) teaching, and chapter 7 places the study into the current context of the school and schooling. The first chapter briefly introduces the study’s inception, its desert southwest and new charter school setting, some of the school’s key HLL, teacher, and administrative participants, and the book’s organization. Chapter 2 begins with observations of the school’s first days and details how these observations led to research questions about HLL engagement. These questions are grounded by a thorough explanation of the ethnographic contexts, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks used throughout the book, including its successful blend of microethnography, which describes the charter school’s institutional culture and language practices, and critical ethnography, which problematizes power imbalances in the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language to Mexican-origen students. [End Page 140] Chapter 3 focuses on the resistance of 16 HLLs in a class with a non-native Spanish-speaking teacher. The chapter begins with discursive examples to show the students’ non-participation in class based on their lack of respect for the teacher’s perceived language ability and the teacher’s cultural disconnect with her students. This results in significant tension between the teacher and students, some inappropriate course material, and student unwillingness to engage when content is relevant. Explorations of the larger language context in which students are resisting and of the theoretical frameworks of imagined (rather than authentic) communities and student performance strikes follow. These frameworks are then used to explain student rejection of their teacher as not part of their community and their refusal to engage. Chapter 4 also focuses on the resistance of six original and six new students in an HLL class, this time with a native Spanish speaking teacher who connects with students’ language and culture but who is not trained as a teacher and who cannot manage the class or select appropriate material. The larger context of HLL characteristics is then explored, including identity insecurity and language. Theory therefore centers on the complex intersection of HLL language and identity, with ethnic identity construction being used effectively as a framework to examine the relationship between positive identity development and HL acquisition. Given the complexity of this learning environment, the author claims that systematic language policies must be implemented at school and district levels in order for HLLs to succeed. In chapter 5, Helmer observes a Humanities class with most of the same cohort of students. In this class, the students participate, are respectful to the teacher, and find the content relevant. This behavior is in contrast to the student responses in the HLL classroom. Helmer finds that student engagement is first based on respect for the teacher, then on perceived relevance of course content. She supports these findings with theoretical investigation of teacher ethos and experiential learning. Chapter 6 examines language...