Transgressing Standard Language Ideologies in the Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) Classroom

Abstract

This study examines language ideologies within the Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) classroom. Involving six SHL instructors from a four-year university in the U.S. Southwest, the study’s data collection instruments included a questionnaire, an interview, and a written correction task. Thematic analysis of the data suggests the instructors upheld counterhegemonic ideologies that challenged notions of standard Spanish and accepted SHL leaners’ non-standard varieties within the classroom. Instructors also encouraged students to enrichen their linguistic repertoires in both their standard and non-standard varieties. The results also indicated that some instructors reproduced standard language ideologies in defining and explaining what the “standard” language is and when making decisions at the moment of editing students’ written work. Additionally, the corrective task indicated that the instructors deployed distinct strategies for providing corrective feedback, and conveyed no clear distinctions between standard and non-standard varieties. The pedagogical implications of this study are discussed, including the need to strengthen SHL instructor training programs so that instructors are able to operationalize counter-hegemonic ideologies and extend these practices to their written feedback to students.

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