Language, Culture, and Spanish Heritage Language Learners: Reframing Old Paradigms.

Abstract

Traditionally, the curriculum guiding many language programs has centered on the teaching of a “foreign” language to an audience of primarily second language learners (e.g. del Valle, 2014). Such a philosophy has relied on the belief in the existence of a single linguistic standard and an idealized community of native speakers from other countries. The increasing enrollment of Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners requires educators to reconsider the efficacy of such an approach in order to better address the needs of today’s student populations. A shift in classroom practices, however, requires a critical evaluation of the ideas that underpin the system of beliefs on which a traditional curriculum was built. Only after such an assessment can educators begin to acknowledge, value, and embrace the legitimacy of the diverse U.S. Spanish-speaking population and work to bridge the knowledge of classroom to that of the communities in which SHL learners live. The present article criticizes some of the firmly held opinions that sustain outdated perspectives and impede a reorientation of a traditional Spanish language curriculum. In doing so, the article offers a path to reorienting a program of study around the perspectives and needs of Spanish Heritage Language learners.

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