Tapping a National Resource: Heritage Languages in the United States

Richard D. Brecht · Catherine W. Ingold

104 citations0/0 files stored

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Multilingual Education and Policy EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS • ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS • 4646 40TH ST NW • WASHINGTON DC 20016-1859 • 202-362-0700 The United States has an unprecedented need for individuals with highly developed language competencies not only in English, our societal language, but also in many other languages. In fact, the need for individuals with proficiency in languages other than English for use in social, economic, diplomatic, and geopolitical arenas has never been higher (Brecht & Rivers, 2000). Even before the events of September 11, 2001, congressional hearings had begun to document a shortage of professionals with the language proficiencies required to carry out a wide range of federal government activities. More than 70 government agencies reported a need for individuals with foreign language expertise. Since September, the General Accounting Office has suggested that shortages of staff with foreign language expertise at several agencies “have adversely affected agency operations and hindered U. S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, counter terrorism, and diplomatic efforts” (Barr, 2002). Over 175 languages are used in the United States (SIL International, 2002), many of which are taught in U. S. colleges and universities. However, developing the high levels of proficiency needed for professional purposes can require many years and far more hours of instruction than a typical college curriculum provides. There exists, however, a largely untapped reservoir of linguistic competence in this country, namely heritage language speakers—the millions of indigenous, immigrant, and refugee individuals who are proficient in English and also have skills in other languages that were developed at home, in schools, in their countries of origin, or in language programs provided by their communities in the United States (see Peyton, Ranard, & McGinnis, 2001). This digest outlines the reasons for and challenges of developing the language skills of heritage language speakers and describes one effort to carry this out, the Heritage Languages Initiative.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 104 citations exist upstream.

References

2003Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource 1996Literacy and Language Diversity in the United States

Cited by

2005Differences in Language Skills: Heritage Language Learner Subgroups and Foreign Language Learners 2009Foreign Language Anxiety and Heritage Students of Spanish: A Quantitative Study 2014The Rediscovery of Heritage and Community Language Education in the United States 2000Validating and Promoting Spanish in the United States: Lessons from Linguistic Science 2016Heritage language education: valuing the languages, literacies, and cultural competencies of immigrant youth 2005Heritage/Community Language Education: US and Australian Perspectives 2005Through the Learners' Eyes: Reconceptualizing the Heritage and Non-Heritage Learner of the Less Commonly Taught Languages 2001Heritage Language Research Priorities Conference Report

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.