Spanish Heritage Learners' Emerging Literacy

Empirical Research and Classroom Practice

Flavia Belpoliti, Encarna Bermejo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781317295440
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Spanish Heritage Learners' Emerging Literacy: Empirical Research and Classroom Practice introduces a comprehensive, multi-level empirical study on the writing abilities of Spanish Heritage Learners at the beginner level; the findings guide a broad selection of instructional activities and pedagogical resources to support writing development in the heritage language classroom.

This is the first book dealing exclusively with writing competence among Spanish Heritage Language Learners through the integration of empirical evidence and instructional perspectives to address core questions on heritage language literacy. In addition to the in-depth analysis of Spanish production—spelling, verb usage, grammatical features, vocabulary, and discourse organization—the volume revises the latest perspectives within the Heritage Language Education field, and provides effective teaching approaches, innovative classroom implementations, and up-to-date resources.

This versatile volume, designed for researchers and practitioners in the fields of Bilingual Education, Language Teaching Methods, and Heritage Language Pedagogy, integrates empirical evidence, global perspectives on heritage language teaching, and suggestions for further research.

1

HERITAGE LANGUAGES AND SPANISH HERITAGE LANGUAGE SPEAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

1 A review of issues in heritage language research

In the past two decades, research has increased our understanding of the social, cultural, and linguistic uniqueness of SHL. Researchers have also made major progress toward identifying the overall proficiency of heritage speakers based on the language practices at home and in heritage language communities, access to schooling in the HL, and societal perceptions and attitudes toward the heritage language (Zyzik 2016). The following overview provides a helpful starting point to discuss the range of issues involved in HL research, from linguistics to language pedagogy (Benmamoun, Montrul, and Polinsky 2010). In 1994 Silva-Corvalán published a comprehensive description of the variety of Spanish spoken in Los Angeles, explaining various degrees of grammatical attrition and restructuring among Spanish-English bilinguals (Silva-Corvalán 1994). Since this seminal study, a large number of scholars have continued to investigate how the HL system differs from those of second language learners and native speakers, as well as differences between heritage speakers at diverse points in the bilingual continuum. HL morphosyntax is possibly the most active area of research in the field: agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and case have all been considered in experimental and naturalistic studies of diverse heritage languages. For instance, a case study by Montrul and colleagues (2008) reported differences between heritage and L2 learners of Spanish and concluded that the maintenance of gender agreement in adult heritage speakers shows age-of-acquisition effects. With regard to aspect, tense, and mood, Montrul (2009) compared native and heritage speakers of Spanish, finding significant differences between the two groups on various morphological measures; she confirmed that heritage speakers have difficulties with verbal morphology marking grammatical aspect and tense in both written and oral production. Whereas mood distinctions are subject to significant attrition, simple tenses seem to be quite robust and show fewer attrition effects. Similarly, Martínez Mira (2009) concludes that, generally speaking, mood simplification is taking place in heritage speakers’ Spanish. Regarding case morphology, Montrul and Bowles (2009, 2010) documented the effects of explicit classroom instruction on heritage speakers’ control of differential object marking and the use of dative subjects with experiencer verbs, concluding that explicit instruction leads to significant improvement in both production and comprehension. The most commonly studied syntactic characteristics include word order and binding. Keating and colleagues (2011) showed that Spanish HL speakers rely on grammatical cues to resolve anaphoric dependencies more heavily than L2 Spanish learners do, but both groups differ from the native speaker control group.

Turning to studies on lexical acquisition and knowledge, there has been progress in researching SHL lexical access and use in the past two decades. Although L2 Spanish vocabulary has been widely researched in several contexts (e.g., Larsen-Freeman 2011; Bulté and Housen 2014; Zheng 2015), many questions still remain regarding the lexicon of US Spanish-English bilinguals (Fairclough 2011; Fairclough and Belpoliti 2015). In a study of vocabulary types, Garza (2013) found a gradual decrease in selection of colloquial and stigmatized forms as speakers’ educational level increased, along with a steady increase in the use of academic words, supporting the relevance and impact of formal schooling of vocabulary expansion. From a different perspective, a study of a group of calques, which is a literal translation, commonly used by SHL speakers shows that these items (i.e., colegio for universidad, English ‘college’; aplicación for solicitud, English ‘application’) are in fact undergoing a process of lexicalization and becoming regular items in the local Spanish variety (Fairclough 2013; Moreno-Fernández 2018).

Finally, in the subarea of SHL writing, the research has mostly focused on learners’ progress toward advanced literacy by analyzing written production at relatively advanced stages of the bilingual continuum (Colombi 2002, 2003, 2009; Chevalier 2004; Spicer-Escalante 2002, 2005; Martínez 2007; Sánchez-Muñoz 2007; Achugar and Colombi 2008, among others). Most studies have compared and contrasted the linguistic and rhetorical features found in SHLLs’ writing (in both English and Spanish) to the writing production of L2 learners and native speakers. Other studies have described learners’ progression toward mastery of Spanish academic registers and the role that different types of formal instruction in SHL courses have played therein (Potowski, Jegerski, and Morgan-Short 2009; Colombi and Harrington 2012; Beaudrie, Ducar, and Potowski 2014; Torres 2016). There has, however, been limited research regarding heritage learners whose linguistic and communicative abilities place them at the low end of the continuum, and it is in this specific domain that this volume brings needed perspectives.

2 Defining heritage languages and heritage language learners

The definition of heritage language (HL) has been hotly debated. The term originated in Canada to refer to languages other than English or French, and it was initially defined as “languages other than the national language(s)” (Duff and Li 2009). Synonyms for heritage language that are in use in other countries and the US include community language (Baker and Jones 1998; De Bot and Gorter 2005) and home language (Yeung, Marsh, and Suliman 2000). An HL is by definition a non-hegemonic minority language used in a majority-language environment. It is commonly the family language and is spoken and heard in restricted environments (Rothman 2007). In broader terms, an HL also refers to a language and culture with which individuals have a personal and meaningful connection (Fishman 2001a). Farsi, for example, would be considered an HL for American students of Persian ancestry, even if they were English-speaking monolinguals. These students would be seen as having a personal connection with that heritage language and culture, and their motivations for learning Farsi would differentiate them from the typical foreign language student.

The definitions of not only heritage language but also heritage language learner and heritage language speaker have been debated and contested among scholars. The various definitions differ in their criteria regarding a speaker’s (1) proficiency or linguistic competence in the HL; (2) connection/ascription to the minority culture and community; (3) self-identification with and self-ascription to the HL; and (4) socio-affective and familiar connection to the HL (Fishman 2001a, 2001b; Valdés 2001; Carreira 2003; Potowski and Lynch 2014). The term was first officially introduced in the National Standards in Foreign Language Education (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages 1996), and ever since, researchers have been trying to settle on a more definitive definition. For example, in the United States, English is the dominant language, languages other than English are considered world languages, and their students typically are considered second language learners. Some of these learners may however have a connection to the language they are studying through their family, which would make them heritage language learners. Additionally, any member of a Latino community, (e.g., Mexican, Salvadoran) studying Spanish could be considered a heritage language learner regardless of his or her proficiency level in the language. Draper and Hicks offer a very general definition of the term:

someone who has had exposure to a non-English language outside the formal education system. It most often refers to someone with a home background in the language but may refer to anyone who has had in-depth exposure to another language. Other terms used to describe this population include “native speaker,” “bilingual,” and “home background.”

(Draper and Hicks 2000, 19)

Nevertheless, Valdés’s seminal definition provides a valuable description that integrates language competence as the definitory variable. Considering our focus on literacy, her definition is the basis for our classification of learners in this book: “The term ‘heritage language learner’ is used to refer to a student who is raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or merely understands the language, and who is to some degree bilingual in that language and in English” (Valdés 2000c, 1). The following historical review of the heritage speaker/learner concept from three different perspectives facilitates refining the term.

2.1 A matrix-based definition

The matrix definition recognizes that SHL speakers’ demographic characteristics, along with the extent and nature of heritage language usage in the family and the community, clearly impact their language proficiency. Research has also highlighted other variables that clearly impact language proficiency, including age of acquisition, birth order, origin of parents, and self-confidence in HL skills (see Silva-Corvalán 1994, 2004; Zentella 1997a): “a single group of HL [heritage learners] enrolling in a heritage language class will include students who are quite dissimilar from each other and who are involved in very different processes of L1 re-acquisition/development” (Valdés et al. 2008, 22). Table 1.1 defines different types of HL students considering linguistic, demographic, and educational characteristics. Individual students may not exactly fit this inventory, due to their unique backgrounds, but still the inventory captures the complex nature of their language abilities, and the close relationship between language abilities and language use. “Whether a speaker will become dominant in one or the other language at a point in time or attain a ‘balanced bilingualism’ depends significantly on social context, motivation, schooling in the language, and opportunities for actual use” (Colombi 2009, 40).

Table 1.1 Characteristics of students who enroll in Spanish for Native Speakers courses

Student Type	Characteristics
Newly arrived Type A	Well-schooled in Spanish-speaking countrySpeaker of prestige variety of Spanish
Newly arrived Type B	Poorly or partially schooled in Spanish-speaking countrySpeaker of stigmatized variety of Spanish
Bilingual Type A	Access to bilingual instruction in USBasic academic skills in SpanishGood academic skills in EnglishFluent, functional speaker of contact variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual Type B	No academic skills in SpanishGood academic skills in EnglishFluent but limited speaker of contact variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual Type C	No academic skills in SpanishGood academic skills in EnglishFluent but limited speaker of prestige variety of SpanishSome contact phenomena present
Bilingual Type D	No academic skills in SpanishPoor academic skills in EnglishFluent but limited speaker of contact variety /rural Spanish
Bilingual Type E	No academic skills in SpanishPoor academic skills in EnglishVery limited speaker of contact variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual Type F	No academic skills in SpanishPoor academic skills in EnglishReceptive bilingual in contact variety of rural Spanish

(Source: Valdés 1997, 14)

In our experience, most HL learners of Spanish who attend college-level classes acquired their Spanish ability at home or in familiar contexts; very few have rece...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of boxes
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Heritage languages and Spanish heritage language speakers in the United States
• 2. Spanish orthography in heritage language writing
• 3. Spanish verbs in emerging heritage language writing
• 4. Building sentences in Spanish: Complexity, fluency and accuracy
• 5. Spanish vocabulary knowledge in action
• 6. Discourse competence and emergent argumentative writing
• 7. Towards a signature curriculum for Spanish as a heritage language
• 8. Teaching and learning heritage languages: New directions, enduring questions
• References
• Index