FROM IDENTITY TO COMMODITY: IDEOLOGIES OF SPANISH IN HERITAGE LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of language ideologies in the instructional discourse of Spanish for heritage speakers in the United States. We focus on the discourse present in prefaces and introductions to Spanish for heritage speakers textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. Whereas previous research on language ideologies in heritage language instruction has tended to focus on standard language ideologies, in our analysis we broaden the perspective to examine a wider range of ideologies that are part of an institutionally entrenched and socially pervasive politics of knowledge. Our analysis revealed that the intertextual discourse emerging in Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) textbooks correlates with broader ideologies regarding the societal role of the university, the positioning of ethnic studies programs, and the portrayal of cultural and linguistic diversity within academia and society at large. Further, mirroring the evolution of these ideologies, we found that discourses of textbooks from the 1970s and 1980s tend to underscore access, inclusion, and representation for minority Spanish language students while textbooks published in the 1990s emphasize economic competitiveness and globalization. In our discussion of this move from the portrayal of Spanish as linked to student identity to the commodification of linguistic and cultural diversity, we underscore the multifaceted and often contradictory implications of these two ideological constructions.

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