Reconstituting U.S. Spanish language education: U.S. Latinx occupying classrooms

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to redefine Spanish language education in the U.S. by showing how the increased presence of Latinx Spanish-speakers in classrooms brings into question the traditional way in which Spanish language teaching is divided into three, separate fields: as a foreign language, in bilingual education, and as a heritage language. It proposes that Spanish language education focuses on the ways in which the numerous U.S. Latinx perform language, and the reasons for their ways of languaging. The article explores the linked histories of Spanish language education in the U.S and racialization of the U.S. Latinx community. A review of how Spanish language education has constituted itself as three separate fields is then presented, as the cracks in the divisions today are analyzed. The article then proposes a reconstitution of Spanish language teaching by appropriating two concepts that have been increasingly making inroads in the education of minoritized bilingual students: undoing raciolinguistic ideologies and leveraging the translanguaging of Latinx bilingual communities. It concludes with a series of practical recommendations for Spanish language teachers.