Who Needs Linguistics? Service-Learning and Linguistics for Spanish Heritage Language Learners

Abstract

In recent years, the World Languages field has witnessed an increased interest in service-learning (SL) initiatives. Many SL projects focus on the potential that Spanish-speaking communities offer students of Spanish, as a foreign language, to increase their language skills and cultural understanding of these communities. Some authors, however, have expressed reservations about the instrumentalist perspective of the community that some SL initiatives adopt. In addition, the presence of Spanish heritage language learners (HLL) in Spanish classrooms has driven researchers and instructors to rethink the learning objectives of SL. In recent years, some SL proposals have appeared around the critical examination of the social construction of language issues and dominant language ideologies. Despite the benefits for the linguistic, sociolinguistic, and cultural self-esteem and empowerment of Spanish HLL, one of the main challenges and limitations that has been identified in SL courses is the reinforcement of critical attitudes about the Latino community and the resilience of standard language ideologies. The goal of this study was to explore the ways Spanish HLL interact with language issues in their own community and to examine how students negotiate the critical perspective of language acquired in the classroom with language ideologies generally assumed and expressed by the community.