Computer Mediated Communication: Tools for Instructing Russian Heritage Language Learners

Abstract

The unique needs, goals, and constraints of heritage language learners in U.S. higher education and the multiple ways that they differ from those of second and foreign language (L2) learners have been well documented (Brisk, 2000; Chevalier, 2004; Grosjean, 1982; Kagan & Dillon, 2003). Each population uses its two languages in diverse ways, for differing purposes and with vastly dissimilar levels of proficiency. Shaping these distinctions are the contexts and purposes in which and for which learners are and/or become fluent. In the mother tongue, these contexts and purposes are most often interpersonal and involve home and family. By contrast, the contexts and purposes in which and for which a ‘school educated’ learner tends to master the foreign language are public and academic. This study examines Russian heritage learners in a U.S. university Russian language course and how computer mediated communication (CMC) was used to support their acquisition of academic literacy in the mother tongue. The CMC approaches reported can serve as models for accommodating heritage learners in post-secondary foreign language classes in ways that benefit all learners.

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