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Teaching the Speakers: Heritage Language Learners and the C Teaching the Speakers: Heritage Language Learners and the C

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Texas Language Center Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies The University of Texas at Austin Saturday April 9 th 2011 Teaching Heritage Speakers in the Foreign Language Classroom ID: 543814

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Slide1

Teaching the Speakers: Heritage Language Learners and the Classroom

Texas Language Center

Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

The University of Texas at Austin

Saturday, April 9

th

, 2011Slide2

Teaching Heritage Speakers in the Foreign Language Classroom –

Focusing on t

he Least Commonly Taught Languages

Maggie Harrison, Ph.D.

Slide3

Presentation Topics

Definition of a Heritage Language

Who are Heritage

Speakers

– Definitions of a Heritage Language Learner

Characteristics of Typical Heritage Language Learners

Heritage Language Speakers: Big and Small Minority Groups – how it translates into language course availability at the university level

Heritage Language Speakers in University Foreign Language CoursesSlide4

Presentation Topics – Cont.

Heritage Language Speakers and Their Impact on Classroom Instruction in a Foreign Language Classroom

Disadvantages

Advantages

What’s Next? – Proposed Solutions:

Ideal Scenario

Making the Best of What We Have

The Importance of Collaboration Slide5

What is Heritage Language?

Broad sense: the

term ‘

heritage language

’ can describe linguistic acquisition

in many

different

contexts;

Importance of

social circumstances

as in variables

differentiating heritage speakers from other naturalistic

bilinguals;

Naturalistic exposure to

the heritage language; however, this language is by definition a

nonhegemonic minority

language

within a majority-language

environment;

Heritage language is

the family

language used

and heard in restricted

environments

;

(Rothman, 2007)

Heritage

language

learner

need not be a fluent speaker

of the heritage

language; however,

it

is assumed

that a heritage speaker has, to a greater or lesser degree, acquired some

level of proficiency.

(Valdés, 2001

)

Slide6

Who are Heritage Speakers?

Definitions:

“Individuals

who speak their first language, which is not English, in the home, or are

foreign-born”

– this definition

links individuals to their home language and includes both native and foreign born

. /

Campbell & Peyton, 1998,

p. 38

/

“…

someone who

has

had exposure to a non-English language outside the formal education system. It most often refers to someone with a home background in the language, but may refer to anyone who has had in-depth exposure to another language. Other terms used to describe this

population

include

‘native

speaker

,’ ‘bilingual,’

and

‘home

background

.’

While these terms are often used interchangeably, they can have very different

interpretations

.”

/Draper

and

Hicks, 2000, p. 19/

Individuals

having historical or personal connection to a language such as an endangered indigenous language or immigrant language that is not normally taught in school;

Individuals

who appear in a foreign language classroom, who are raised in homes where a non-English language is spoken, speak or merely understand the HL, and are to some degree bilingual in English and the

HL.

/Valdés, 2001,

p. 37-38

/Slide7

Definitions – Cont.

1)

Simultaneous

bilinguals who speak a family and a societal majority languages well as adults (maybe even better

)

2)

Simultaneous

bilinguals who are clearly dominant in the majority language, but have some (maybe good) knowledge of the family

language

3)

Simultaneous / early

sequential bilinguals who speak a minority community

language

(not from their family) to some degree (perhaps well) and are natives of the majority

languageSlide8

4 )

Sequential

bilinguals who acquire the majority language L2 as young children, retaining their L1 well and speaking the L2 well

5)

Sequential

bilinguals who acquire the majority language L2 as young children, losing most of their L1 (perhaps entirely), but speak the L2 well

6)

Sequential

bilinguals who acquire the majority language L2 as adolescent/young adults, retaining their L1 well and speaking the L2 well

7)

Sequential

bilinguals who acquire the majority language L2 as adolescent/young adults, retaining their L1 well and speaking their L2 okay

8)

Sequential

bilinguals who acquire the majority language L2 as adolescent/young adults, losing some proficiency in their L1 and speaking the L2 wellSlide9

9)

Monolingual child acquirers

of the majority language who have parents or grandparents who are speakers of a heritage language and they have strong cultural/emotional ties to the family language, but do not speak the family language at all

10)

Monolingual child acquirers

of the majority language who have parents or grandparents who are speakers of a heritage language, but they have little (perhaps no) overt connections to the heritage language/culture

/Rothman, 2009/Slide10

Two Main Types of HL

Given the heterogeneous nature of the HL speaker population and the resulting difficulty

establishing one clear definition for heritage language, a simple

dichotomous

comparison of HL

versus FL students is not appropriate for comparing the language use and skills of these

learners.

Therefore, the primary purpose of Kondo-Brown’s (2005) study was to explore which subgroups

within the HL population demonstrated language behaviors that are distinctively different from

any of the remaining groups. Results of the study suggested that only students with at least one

parent speaking the HL were significantly different from any of the remaining groups.

Competent

(parent group)

Identity

(grandparent and descent group)

FL

/Kondo-Brown, 2005/ Slide11

Characteristics of Typical Heritage Language Learners

(Competent HLL)

HL students have acquired

nearly 90% of the

phonological system

of a prestige dialect of their ancestral language

.

They have acquired

80% to 90% of the

grammatical rules

that govern word, phrase, sentence, and discourse production and

recognition.

They

have acquired extensive

vocabularies

; however, the semantic range of their vocabulary is limited to just a few socio-cultural

domains.

They

have typically acquired

sociolinguistic rules

that govern the choice of registers appropriate for verbal interaction with different members of their families and others with whom they converse

.Slide12

5) They have learned and adopted many of the

customs

,

values

, and

traditions

(collectively “culture”) that define the ethnolinguistic community into which they were born.

6) They

rarely have opportunities

– Saturday and after-school programs notwithstanding – to gain

literacy skills

in their ancestral languages.

7) They present

a wide range of reasons for wanting to study their ancestral languages

.

/Campbell & Rosenthal, 2000, p. 167-168

/Slide13

Heritage Language Speakers:

Big and Small Minority Groups

commonly-taught languages (i.e. Spanish

)

less commonly taught languages (i.e. Russian

)

truly less commonly taught languages (the least commonly taught languages) (i.e. Polish)Slide14

Heritage Language Speakers:

To Teach or To Facilitate?

Classification of Heritage Learners According to Language Proficiency

Addressing the Needs of the Heritage Language Learners

Availability of Appropriate Courses, Curriculum Design, Teaching MaterialsSlide15

Disadvantages:

Mixing learning needs of HL students with those of FL students – unequal initial levels

Neither of the groups get full benefit of the learning experience

HL students’ presence can be/often is intimidating for FL students and raises learning filters

Challenge for instructors: HL students may use dialects, slangs, fossilized forms of inappropriate grammar, syntax, etc., frequent use of code switching, frequent interruption for clarification

Need to identify their gaps (resulting from incomplete acquisition or attrition)

Heritage Language Speakers

Their Impact on Classroom Instruction in a Foreign Language ClassroomSlide16

Heritage Language Speakers

Their Impact on Classroom Instruction in a Foreign Language Classroom

Advantages:

HL students are representatives of the language and culture of TL thereby helping to remove the aura of abstractness from a new and less common language

HL students can be a wonderful resource of cultural information

HL students are often conduits to ethnic communities, the presence of which can further function as an extended linguistic community

HL students in a FL classroom provide opportunities to implement ‘less common pedagogies’: explore sociolinguistic principles, raise learners’ consciousness about issues of identity and language, and provide class work that expands linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic competence.

/Valdés, 1995/Slide17

What’s Next? – Proposed Solutions

Ideal Scenario:

Separate courses for HL and FL students

Different levels of heritage language courses addressing HL speakers’ needs

Appropriate placement tests

Individualized Instruction Courses (I. I.)Slide18

Making the Best of What We Have & How to Go About It:

Know Thy Student!

Understand each population/group of students in a given course – ask students to write down their reasons for taking the course, provide information about other FLs studied or spoken

Identify the HL speakers in the group and their specific language needs and expectations

Acknowledge the nature of the class and its mixed HL and FL population (in a FL classroom)Slide19

Build a Community in Your Classroom

Create classroom atmosphere conducive not only to learning but to interacting and making connections with other students (in small groups if possible)

Organize classroom (if possible) to facilitate interaction on group level (setting up chairs, tables, teaching aids, etc.) – feeling of a community

Encourage work in pairs and in groups (assign activities which require work in pairs, small groups, and class collaboration)

Communicate with students who may have difficulties in interacting and encourage them to join in

Respect in-class support system (work pairs and groups)Slide20

Always Work With Context

Build grammar and vocabulary introductions around a clear context

Use visual aids whenever possible

Incorporate each of the four language components into your class whenever possible (listening, speaking, reading, writing)

Use Communicative Method of Teaching TL

Use Authentic Materials in ClassSlide21

Do Not Rely on Final Course Evaluations to Tell You How Successful the Course Is/Was

‘Take pulse’ in class regularly

Suggestion box (typed comments)

‘Venting Forum’ (provide an open forum for all students to share their frustration with the learning process and its challenges, especially grammatical challenges, ask all students to contribute by offering their suggestions on overcoming the difficulties or simply by presenting their weak points

Always address issues as they appear (discouraged students, test results, comments on class content and level of difficulty, types of assignments, clarity and usefulness of textbooks, workbooks, teaching aids, handouts, etc.)Slide22

Present TL Culture Aspects

Involve HL students and allow them to share their own perception of culture and speak about their own identity

Encourage class discussion about culture and traditions and allow HL students take lead; compare and contrast cultures and traditions Slide23

How do these suggestions translate into helping HL Speakers?

The four components help all students work on all aspects of language and present HL speakers with an opportunity to practice their skills further without leaving them disinterested.

Using TL in class provides an opportunity for FL and HL students to hear the language in its academic use.

By working together in pairs and groups, HL and FL students collaborate on language tasks and can help one another in furthering their skills by negotiating meaning.

(Blake

and

Zyzik, 2003

)

Slide24

In peer tutoring heritage language speakers assist their native English speaking peers.

(Quintanar-Sarellana, Huebner and Jensen, 1993)

In reciprocal tutoring heritage learners share their expertise and non-native learners, in turn, help with grammatical terminology.

(Potowski, 2002)

Teaching Bottom-Up and Top-Down helps HL students to approach language both from its basic and from a more advanced level.

HL students in class can be helpful in modeling exercises and activities.Slide25

The Importance of Collaboration Among Instructors Teaching Heritage Language Speakers

Sharing challenges of teaching in a mixed HL/FL classroom

Talking about the benefits of a mixed HL/FL classroom

Exchanging ideas about optimal teaching methodologies, activities, exercises, teaching aids

Collaborating on design and development of teaching materials and aids, possibly textbooks

Collaborating with researchers on studies in order to measure the effect of HL speakers’ presence in a FL classroom and FL students and usefulness of FL classroom instruction to HL speakersSlide26

References:

Blake, R.J. & Zyzik, E.C. (2003). Who’s Helping Whom? Learner/Heritage Speakers’ Networked Discussion in Spanish.

Applied Linguistics,

24. 519-544.

Campbell, R. & Peyton, J.K. (1998). Heritage language students: A valuable language resource.

The ERIC Review,

6(1), 38- 39.

Campbell, R.N. & Rosenthal, J.W. (2000). Heritage Languages. In J.W. Rosenthal (Ed.),

Handbook of Undergraduate Second Language Education.

Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. 165-183.

Draper, J.B. & Hicks, J.H. (2000). Where we’ve been; what we’ve learned. In J.B. Webb & B.L. Miller (Eds.),

Teaching heritage language learners: Voices from the classroom.

Yonkers, NY: American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. 15-35.

Kondo-Brown, K. (2005). Differences in Language Skills: Heritage Language Learner Subgroups and Foreign Language Learners.

Modern Language Journal

, 89 (4), 563-581.

Potowski, K.(2002). Experiences of Spanish Heritage Speakers in University Foreign-Language Courses and Implications for Teacher Training.

ADFL Bulletin

33, 35-42.

Quintanar-Sarellana, R., Huebner, T. & Jensen, A. (1993). Tapping a Natural Resource: Language Minority Learners as Foreign Language Tutors. In B.J. Merino, H.T. Trueba, & F.A. Samaniego (Eds.),

Language and Culture in Learning: Teaching Spanish to Native Speakers of Spanish.

London: Falmer. 208-221.

Rothman, J. (2009). Child Bilingual Acquisition with Non-Target Competence: Attrition, Incomplete Acquisition and/or Something Else? The

Ohio State University Workshop Series on Selected Topics in Second Language Acquisition

.

Rothman, J. (2007). Heritage speaker competence differences, language change and input type: Inflected infinitives in heritage Brazilian Portuguese.

International Journal of Bilingualism,

11 (4), 359-389.

Valdés, G. (2001). Heritage Language Students: Profiles and possibilities. In J.K. Peyton, D.A. Ranard & S. McGinnis (Eds.),

Heritage languages in America: Preserving a national resource

. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics/Delta Systems. 37-77.

Valdés, G. (1995). The Teaching of Minority Languages as Academic Subjects: Pedagogical and Theoretical Challenges.

Modern Language Journal,

79 (3), 299-328.