Innovative Strategies for Heritage Language Teaching

Heritage language (HL) learning and teaching presents particularly difficult challenges. Melding cutting-edge research with innovations in teaching practice, the contributors in this volume provide practical knowledge and tools that introduce new solutions informed by linguistic, sociolinguistic, and educational research on heritage learners. Scholars address new perspectives and orientations on designing HL programs, assessing progress and proficiency, transferring research knowledge into classroom practice, and the essential question of how to define a heritage learner. Articles offer analysis and answers on multiple languages, and the result is a unique and essential text—the only comprehensive guide for heritage language learning based on the latest theory and research with suggestions for the classroom.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Ana Roca

Introduction: Heritage language education in the United States
Marta Fairclough & Sara Beaudrie

Part I. Foundations in Heritage Language Teaching: Essential Notions in Curricula, Teacher, and Program Development
1. Towards a Prototype Model of the Heritage Language Learner: Understanding Strengths and Needs
Eve Zykik
2. Goals and Beyond in Heritage Language Education: From Competencies to Capabilities
Glenn Martínez
3. Sociolinguistics for Heritage Language Educators and Students: A Model for Critical Translingual Competence
Jennifer Leeman and Ellen J. Serafini
4. Building a Heritage Language Program: Guidelines for a Collaborative Approach
Sara M. Beaudrie
5. Teacher Development in Heritage Language Education
Manel Lacorte

Part II. Strategies, Techniques, and Approaches in Heritage Language Teaching
6. Supporting Heritage Language Learners through Macrobased Teaching: Foundational Principles and Implementation Strategies for Heritage Language and Mixed Classes
Maria Carreira
7. Incorporating Additional Varieties to the Linguistic Repertoires of Heritage Language Learners: A Multidialectal Model
Marta Fairclough
8. Critical Approaches to Heritage Language Instruction: How to Foster Students' Critical Consciousness
María Luisa Parra
9. Designing Meaning in Inherited Languages: A ‘Multiliteracies’ Approach to HL Instruction
Malena Samaniego and Chantelle Warner
10. Heritage Language Learner Assessment: Towards Proficiency Standards
Gabriela Nik. Ilieva & Beth Clark-Gareca
11. Technology-Enhanced Heritage Language Instruction: Best Tools and Best Practices
Florencia Henshaw

Afterword: Curricularizing Language: Implications for Heritage Language Instruction
Guadalupe Valdés

List of Contributors
Index

Reviews

"This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of research and practice in teaching heritage languages in the United States including a wealth of information about recent theoretical and pedagogical innovations that will be useful for teachers and researchers who work with students of various heritage language backgrounds. I highly recommend this book not only to language professionals who want to make a difference in the lives of students from various minority language communities but also to any language professionals committed to improving instructional and assessment practices in language education generally."—Kimi Kondo-Brown, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

"I expect this volume to become a standard reference for researchers, teachers and graduate students interested in heritage language education. Although it is not a textbook, it can be used for courses in language methodology that address the teaching of heritage languages. It is particularly suitable to teaching because the theoretical issues are illustrated by examples, which makes the volume highly readable and beneficial for a diverse audience. The editors should be commended for bringing to the reader this well-integrated and well-executed book that reflects the state of the art in heritage language education."—Olga Kagan, Director, National Heritage Language Resource Center, UCLA

Contributors

Sara M. BeaudrieMaria CarreiraBeth Clark-GarecaMarta FaircloughFlorencia HenshawGabriela IlievaManel LacorteJennifer LeemanGlenn MartínezMaría Luisa ParraAna RocaMalena SamaniegoEllen Johnson SerafiniGuadalupe ValdésChantelle WarnerEve Zyzik

Supplemental Materials

Awards

About the Author

Marta Fairclough is a professor of Spanish linguistics and the director of heritage language education at the University of Houston. She is a coeditor with Sara M. Beaudrie of Spanish and Heritage Language Education in the United States.

Sara M. Beaudrie is an associate professor of Spanish linguistics and the director of the Spanish for heritage learners program in the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University.