Irma-Alarcón-Advanced Heritage Learners of Spanish a Sociolinguistic Profile Por Pedagogical...

8/17/2019 Irma-Alarcón-Advanced Heritage Learners of Spanish a Sociolinguistic Profile Por Pedagogical Purposes

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Advanced Heritage Learners of

Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Profilefor Pedagogical Purposes

Irma AlarcónWake Forest University

Abstract: This article reports on an extensive survey administered to advancedheritage language (HL) learners to examine their language behaviors, attitudes, andbackgrounds. To date, there have been no detailed categorizations of advanced HLlearners to guide classroom instruction and curriculum design. Thus the present study isa first attempt to fill this gap by providing a sociolinguistic profile of these speakers,including their identifying characteristics, linguistic needs, and similarities and differ-ences with lower-proficiency speakers. Survey responses indicate that advanced HLlearners possess both productive and receptive skills in the HL, always use Spanish athome, are fluent speakers of a standard variety, already have basic academic skills inSpanish, and are therefore primarily interested in perfecting their academic writing skills.

Key words: Spanish, attitudes, heritage language, language behavior, sociolinguistic profile

IntroductionAccording to a May 1, 2008, report by the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated His-panic population in the United States has surpassed 45 million. At roughly 15% of the total U.S. population, Hispanics comprise the largest minority group and their

presence continues to grow. Consequently, heritage language (HL) speakers of Spanish have also become a rapidly growing presence at all levels of education,from elementary school through college (Lynch, 2003). According to Valdés (1997,2003), most of these bilingual speakers have been enrolled either in traditionalforeign language classrooms or in remedial courses intended to re-teach the basicsof the heritage language they supposedly have not learned well at home. Thoughthere has been substantial interest among researchers in this minority languagepopulation, most existing goals and pedagogical practices have been inappropriate,and few Spanish departments have offered special courses to target their real needs.As Draper and Hicks (2000) indicated, this situation has led to frustration for both

language instructors and advanced HL speakers: Foreign language instructors havenot been trained to deal with these bilingual learners, and HL speakers have nothad their particular needs addressed For example although some HL speakers of

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stigmatized varieties of Spanish1 mightneed to resolve identity issues before con-centrating on improving communicativeproficiency, more advanced speakers mightwant to improve their textual competencerather than developing the communicativeproficiency they already possess.

Despite significant progress in curricu-lum development for teaching heritagespeakers, a recent survey conducted by theNational Foreign Language Center (NFLC)and the American Association of Teachersof Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) re-ported that only 18% of the colleges and

universities sampled (146 campuses) haveclasses for HL learners (Ingold, Rivers,Tesser, & Ashby, 2002, pp. 324–329).Moreover, most Spanish departments cur-rently offering courses tailored for HLlearners offer only a 2-semester sequencethat parallels the 4-semester language cour-ses required for traditional foreign languagelearners (Valdés, 1997). Consequently, HLspeakers wanting to pursue a Spanish major

or minor often have no upper-level coursesto help them continue developing their lin-guistic competencies or maintain their HL.

But who are these advanced HL speak-ers? What are their identifying char-acteristics and concrete linguistic needs?How different are they from their lower-proficiency counterparts? This article con-siders these questions by examining thesociolinguistic profile of advanced HL

speakers of Spanish who responded to anextensive survey. In the present context,‘‘sociolinguistic profile’’ means a descriptivesummary of a specific group of speakersthat highlights their language usage as wellas the social and cultural factors influencingtheir linguistic choices, attitudes, and mo-tivations, such as age, education, and ethnicidentity. The goal of this study is to provide,for pedagogical purposes, a detailed and

accurate categorization of advanced HLspeakers. Current typologies of HL speakersare of limited classroom utility particularly

research on immigrant speakers, such asgenerational categorizations (e.g., first- orsecond-generation). Others, such as Val-dés’s typologies (1995, 1997), focusnarrowly on time of arrival, schooling, aca-demic skills, and contact variety, and thusare not directly relevant for the advancedHL students in the present study.

Heritage Language SpeakersValdés (2000) defined a heritage speakingstudent as ‘‘a student who is raised in ahome where a non-English language is spo-

ken, who speaks or merely understands theheritage language and who is to some de-gree bilingual in English and the heritagelanguage’’ (p. 1). This definition, which fo-cuses on language proficiency, captures thewide variation among heritage speakers,with some displaying only basic compre-hension of the spoken HL and othersfully proficient speakers. In the Spanish-language teaching literature, these speakers

are variously referred to as native speakers,quasi-native speakers, L1/L2 users, bilin-gual speakers, residual speakers, and home-background speakers. Because of theirdiverse Spanish linguistic competencies,Valdés (1997) proposed a general typologyof eight types of HL speakers based on thespeakers’ schooling, academic skills in bothEnglish and Spanish, level of fluency, andthe Spanish variety they produce. Her cate-

gorization ranged from those speakers whohave been schooled in a Spanish-speakingcountry to those who have merely receptiveskills in the HL. Thus, HL speakers do notconstitute a homogeneous group, but ratherappear to be ‘‘a collection of types of learn-ers who share the characteristic of havingidentity and linguistic needs that relate totheir family background’’ (Carreira, 2004,p. 21).

The HL learner profile becomes evenmore intricate when accounting for addi-tional issues these students bring into the

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identity and cultural questions, attitudestoward the HL, and unique linguisticstrengths and weaknesses. All these issuesreveal the sociolinguistic complexity of thisminority language group of speakers, andthe difficulty in describing their inter- andintra-individual language variation. Conse-quently, language instructors facing the taskof teaching HL learners for the first timebenefit significantly from sociolinguisticaccounts describing HL learners’ maintraits, attitudes, and linguistic needs. It isoften the case that HL students are taughtby traditional foreign language instructors

who have had no additional training forworking with HL speakers and who receiveinadequate support within their ownschools (Draper & Hicks, 2000). Thus HLinstructors, beyond their own personal ex-periences and skills, depend on informationabout the needs and goals of HL speakersobtained from research profiles to be able toprovide these students with a successfullearning experience. This article aims at

helping HL instructors in their pedagogicaldecision making by supplying sociolinguis-tic knowledge about advanced HL learnersstemming from a qualitative categorizationof their language behaviors, attitudes, andneeds.

Review of the LiteratureA number of recent studies have investi-

gated Spanish HL speakers at the universitylevel, including learners at all proficiencylevels (e.g., Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005; Blake& Zyzik, 2003; Edstrom, 2007; Lynch,2008; Schwarzer & Petrón, 2005). Thesestudies have offered insights about variousaspects of HL learning and teaching, in-cluding reading abilities (e.g., Hislope,2003); oral production (e.g., Achugar,2003; Fairclough & Mrak, 2003); self-

perceptions of Spanish skills (e.g., Hasson,2008); sociocultural background variablesthat predict successful mastery of the HL

students’ writing strategies (e.g., Martinez,2007; Schwartz, 2003); similarities anddifferences between HL and L2 learners(e.g., Lynch, 2008; Montrul, 2005); stu-dents’ opinions on language use in HLclasses (Ducar, 2008); and HL speakers’perspectives in linguistically mixed classes,which include both L2 learners and nativespeakers of Spanish (Edstrom, 2007).Nonetheless, according to Schwarzer andPetrón (2005), ‘‘Nowhere is the lack of information concerning heritage speakersmore apparent than in the area of studentattitude and perceptions’’ (p. 569). To date,

few studies (e.g., Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005;Mikulski, 2006) have explored in depth HLcollege learners’ sociolinguistic profilethrough extended questionnaires, inter-views, or journals. Such studies wouldserve two purposes. First, they give stu-dents an opportunity to analyze their ownlinguistic skills, strategies, and attitudes.Second, language instructors could use theinformation regarding students’ linguistic

needs and sociocultural opinions and con-cerns to guide their teaching in moreeffective and relevant directions (Carrasco& Riegelhaupt, 2003).

With respect to Spanish university HLlearners’ profiles, the most thorough char-acterization to date has been done byBeaudrie and Ducar (2005), who investi-gated the cultural and Spanish languageattitudes of 20 beginning-level HL speakers

of Spanish enrolled in a first-semester HLcourse at the University of Arizona. Theresearchers administered a survey and con-ducted follow-up interviews addressinglanguage contact, attitudes, and linguisticbehaviors. Their results showed that theselow-level HL speakers had strong receptiveproficiency, but little or no productiveskills. The majority of the students, whocame from mid-level socioeconomic back-

grounds, seldom used Spanish with theirfamilies, even though they were exposed tothe language at home Overall they had



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oral Spanish abilities and had little respectfor the prestige of the Spanish dialect towhich they had been exposed at home.Consequently, their main goals for takingan HL class were to improve their fluencyand to learn a standard Spanish dialect.

These findings were supported bySchwarzer and Petrón’s (2005) case study of three lower-proficiency HL learners who,despite considering Spanish part of theiridentity and their family relations a majorfactor in their desire to become more fluentspeakers, reported no interest in takingmore Spanish classes at the university level.

Their first and only HL class disappointedthem because the emphasis was on pre-scriptive grammar rather than oralproficiency. Lynch’s (2008) study of fivelower-proficiency HL students and four L2learners found that, even though all of theHL students had initially acquired and usedSpanish as a first language (L1), theirgrammatical and lexical abilities in an oralinterview strikingly resembled those of the

L2 learners. Lynch attributed this linguisticsimilarity to the social exposure to the lan-guage: The HL learners spoke primarilyEnglish at home, used English as the mainlanguage of formal cognitive developmentand peer socialization, and did nothave significant Spanish language contactexperiences.

In another study, Mikulski (2006)investigated HL students’ motivations, atti-

tudes, and goals in taking a college HLcourse. She found that the four HL learnersparticipating in her study enrolled in theclass for both personal and academic rea-sons, and their goals included mastery of orthographic accentuation, grammar, andimprovement of writing skills. In addition,the students’ positive attitudes towardlearning Spanish increased throughout thesemester as they self-reported progress to-

ward their language goals and gainedconfidence in their Spanish skills. Moreimportant their positive experience with

behaviors and attitudes, the present articlecontributes to the existing literature byproviding a sociolinguistic profile of agroup of HL learners whose linguistic goalsand needs have not been addressed in theseterms.

The Present StudyThis study investigates the sociolinguisticprofile, including language attitudes, lan-guage contact, and linguistic behaviors, of five advanced HL students at a small privateuniversity.2 This university does not have a

large undergraduate Hispanic population,but freshman enrollment in the 3 yearsstudied reveals a gradual and steady in-crease. In fall 2005, 2.2% of freshmen (atotal of 25) identified themselves as His-panic; in fall 2006, this rose to 2.7% (30),and it grew to 3.4% (38) the following year(fall 2007). These small though increasingnumbers, explain the absence of HL coursesaddressing the needs of these students. In

spring 2008, however, the university of-fered the first course for heritage Spanishspeakers in the curriculum: an upper-level grammar and composition coursespecifically designed for English-Spanishbilinguals competent in spoken Spanish butwanting to improve their writing skills andvocabulary.

The data from the participants werecollected through a lengthy survey (cf.

Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005), which is part of alarger study on the effects of instruction onadvanced HL learners’ written production(information available upon request). Theemerging profile provides qualitative andpractical knowledge that instructors of ad-vanced HL learners can use in theircurriculum design and classroom practices.Since the present study is qualitative interms of its goal, design, sample, mode of

analysis, and findings (see Merriam, 1998,for a detailed discussion), the researcher,who was also the instructor of the HL

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and willingly responded to the survey, whichwas presented as a research tool to gather in-formation about their language backgroundand proficiencies in order to adjust the coursecurriculum according to their linguistic ob-

jectives, needs, and interests. Their candidresponses were extremely helpful, contribut-ing substantially to the success of the course.The survey was administered both at thebeginning of the course and after its comple-tion, so the research process did not influencethe grading for the course.

The following research questions moti-vated the study:

1. What are the distinctive characteristicsof advanced HL speakers of Spanish?

2. How are they different from lower-proficiency HL speakers?

3. What are the pedagogical implicationsfor HL programs stemming from thequalitative analysis of the present data?

The study concludes by presenting thepedagogical implications of the profile of

these advanced HL learners and the sug-gestions made by the learners themselveswhen asked about their ‘‘ideal’’ Spanishcourse.

MethodParticipantsThe HL speakers of Spanish who partici-pated in this study were the five students

enrolled in the first course specifically de-signed for HL speakers at their university.All five of the students in Grammar andComposition for Heritage Speakers of Spanish, which was offered in the spring2008 semester, were self-identified as HLspeakers. The average age of the four fe-males and one male was 19.6. The presentstudy identifies them as Carmen, Isabel,Vicky, Rosa, and Pablo. Rosa audited, but

the other four students took the course forcredit. Carmen and Isabel were freshmen,Pablo was a sophomore Vicky was a junior

sisting of 50 multiple-choice questionson basic grammatical knowledge. Thisdiagnostic test is regularly given to high-intermediate/advanced L2 learners of Span-ish at the beginning of their grammar andcomposition class, a parallel course. In ad-dition to determining internal placement,administering the diagnostic test to the HLspeakers allowed comparisons of theirgrammatical competence with that of tradi-tional L2 learners. The average score amongtraditional L2 learners, based on 5 sectionsoffered in an earlier semester, was 28/50(SD 7.06, range 17–45). Results among the

HL learners were clearly superior: their av-erage was 43/50 (SD 5.59, range 35–48).The individual scores were: Carmen – 45,Isabel – 44, Pablo – 35, and Vicky – 48. Rosawas unable to take the online diagnostic testbecause she was auditing. These test resultsrevealed little variation among the ad-vanced HL speakers, and even the lowestscore among them was higher than the av-erage for L2 learners. Consequently, these

HL students were considered advancedlearners, although it is the survey responsesproviding a full profile of these speakersthat proves they are actually advanced, ra-ther than lower-level, HL learners (e.g.,Lynch, 2008).

Data Collection InstrumentTo address the research questions, partici-

pants completed an extensive socio-linguistic survey consisting of 56 questions,including open-ended, closed-ended, andmultiple-choice items, measuring theirbackground, language behaviors, attitudes,and self-assessments. The survey was de-veloped from an original version used andtested by the researcher with L2 learners(Alarcón, 2006). This survey was improved,expanded, and adapted based on similar

instruments previously developed by HLresearchers (e.g. Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005;Mikulski 2006) and was intended as a



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addition, since this survey is part of a largerstudy of instruction effectiveness in improv-ing the written production of advanced HLstudents, some questions address the stu-dents’ expectations and goals for their firstcollege HL class and request their opinionson their ideal HL course. Surveys of thisnature, which rely on self-reported data per-taining to language behavior, have beendemonstrated to be highly accurate data col-lection tools (Hasson, 2008). Moreover,researchers have found that Spanish-Englishbilinguals evaluate their Spanish skills moreprecisely than their English skills (Delgado,

Guerrero, Goggin, & Ellis, 1999). The com-plete survey is presented in the Appendix.

ProcedureThe researcher administered the survey intwo sessions. The first part (the first 37questions) was given during the first classmeeting in order to obtain information nec-essary for adjusting the course objectives,

content, design, and methodology to coin-cide as closely as possible with the students’needs. The second part (questions 38–56)was administered the following semester andwas intended to expand upon some of theearlier questions as well as to provide furtherinsights and feedback regarding the students’experience in their first HL university-levelcourse. The following sociolinguistic profileand qualitative analysis is based on the HLlearners’ responses to all 56 survey questions,which correspond to the eight main topicspresented below.

Analysis and ResultsThe survey questions were categorized bytopic, and the data were first analyzed bytabulating the responses to each question.Subsequent analysis involved identifyingand synthesizing emerging themes in order

to elucidate patterns in the data.3

The va-lidity of the findings was enhanced invarious ways including feedback rich data

topics, each of which appears in detail be-low: (1) personal background; (2) languagecontact situations and interlocutors, in-cluding type and amount of input exposure;(3) attitudes toward language and culture,with particular attention to language usage;(4) identity and culture issues; (5) aware-ness of Spanish dialects; (6) self-assessmentof language abilities in both English andSpanish; (7) personal motivations and fu-ture use of the language; and (8) reasons forenrolling in an HL course.

1. BackgroundAll the participants were born in the UnitedStates, were exposed to Spanish in earlychildhood, and came from families of mid-dle or upper socioeconomic class. Theirparents came from different regions of LatinAmerica but have lived in the United Statesfor at least 20 years. Except for two moth-ers, all the parents have college degrees,some of them have graduate degrees, and all

are professionals, including physicians,professors, social workers, and business-men. Their English oral and writtenproficiencies range from intermediate tonative-like. Table 1 displays more back-ground details about the HL learners andtheir parents.

2. Language Contact

2.1. Family Situations and InterlocutorsAll participants reported speaking Spanishat home, when visiting their relativesabroad, and when talking with them bytelephone or computer. Although the par-ents speak Spanish at home, Rosa, Vicky,and Pablo also indicated using English withthem. Though Spanish is occasionally usedin interactions with siblings, with grand-parents and other relatives Spanish is used

exclusively. Nonetheless, the students’dominant language is English, which theyuse most frequently in their daily life at

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2.2. Language Exposure in SchoolAll these HL students received their school-ing entirely in English (ages 6–181).Although they reported having had someformal Spanish instruction before startingtheir current college education, this instruc-tion occurred at different stages during theireducation: Pablo had Spanish only at the el-ementary level, Isabel and Vicky only in highschool, Rosa had Spanish in both middle andhigh school, and Carmen reported havinghad Spanish classes all through her elemen-tary and secondary education. Carmen,Isabel, and Pablo had never studied or lived

in a Spanish-speaking country, but bothVicky and Rosa had spent a total of 6–7months abroad in Argentina and Spain. At thecollege level, all of them had taken at leastone literature course designed for L2 Spanishlearners, but no previous HL courses.

2.3. Language Exposure Outsidethe ClassroomOther than Rosa, all these HL learnersspoke only Spanish until age 5. After be-ginning school, however, there is variationin the type and amount of Spanish inputthey received outside the classroom. Suchvariation has persisted. For example, eventhough all participants reported reading inSpanish less than 1 hour per day, andEnglish more than 2 hours daily, only two of them (Vicky and Rosa) visit Spanish-language Web sites either for news or to

chat with friends and relatives. Similarly,they are the only students who regularlyread Spanish outside of class. With regard tospeaking, rather than reading, all the sub-

jects except Isabel speak Spanish outside theclassroom. As for listening, Carmen, Vicky,and Rosa reported listening to Spanish musicand radio, as well as watching Spanish-language television and films.

3. Language Attitudes andEase of UseE

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dence in their own Spanish language abili-ties, which is manifested in their approachto speaking (3.1), listening (3.2), reading(3.3), and writing (3.4). Positive attitudesare also reflected in their responses toquestions on identity issues (Section 4 be-low), their own Spanish variety (Section 5),and motivations to learn more about Span-ish and Hispanic culture (Section 7).

3.1. Attitudes Toward Speakingin SpanishOther than Pablo, the students claimed tofeel as comfortable speaking Spanish as En-glish, ‘‘especially with family and friends,’’as Vicky remarked. Rosa wrote, ‘‘I lovespeaking Spanish. I do it as often as possi-ble. It connects me with my heritage and Ispeak it every chance I get. I feel nearly ascomfortable speaking in Spanish as I do inEnglish.’’ Pablo, though, claimed he has anAmerican accent when speaking Spanishand feels much more comfortable in En-glish. (His accent, however, is native-like;his difficulties with Spanish generally in-volve overall grammatical and lexicalproficiency.)

3.2. Attitudes Toward Listeningto SpanishStudents’ responses revealed that they allfeel comfortable when listening to othersconversing in Spanish. Carmen claimed, ‘‘I

like listening to other people speak Spanishespecially because everyone has a differentSpanish accent.’’ Vicky added, ‘‘When I lis-ten to people speak Spanish I am happybecause it reminds me of Argentina,’’ andPablo said, ‘‘I have no issue whatsoever un-derstanding people speak in Spanish, butoccasionally an accent can be troublesome.’’Isabel synthesized her attitude toward lis-tening as ‘‘comfortable and at easeFreassuring.’’

3.3. Attitudes Toward Reading

comfortable. I learned how to read in Span-ish before learning how to read in English.’’Nonetheless, some of them also realizedthat reading is a different and more com-plex task than speaking. Rosa said, ‘‘I likereading in Spanish, though it is a lot moredifficult than speaking.’’ Pablo put it thisway: ‘‘I usually understand the meaning of the sentences, but will often have to look upa few words per page that I am unfamiliarwith to understand it fully.’’

3.4. Attitudes Toward Writing

in Spanish While all the participants indicated feelingvery comfortable writing in English, theiranswers varied when asked about Spanishwriting. Two reported not feeling comfort-able (Isabel and Pablo), while the othersreported being very/somewhat comfortable.Pablo indicated that ‘‘I will frequently haveto double-check what I’ve written,’’ whileRosa affirmed, ‘‘I feel pretty confident writ-ing in SpanishFI know my grammar isgood, although again if I am writing some-thing academic I often find my vocabularyinhibiting.’’ Even though Isabel had re-ported not feeling comfortable, shecommented later, ‘‘I write well but I’d like todevelop my style and learn to write moreeloquently.’’

4. Identity and Culture Issues

These advanced HL speakers are proudof their Hispanic heritage, and they self-identify themselves as Hispanic (Carmen,Vicky, and Pablo), Latino/a (Isabel), andLatin American (Rosa). For Pablo, knowingthe language means ‘‘to truly understandyour heritage,’’ and for Vicky it means ‘‘ev-erything, it is how I communicate with myfamily, the most important people in mylife.’’ In addition, most of them associate

Spanish with prestige, though Carmen con-nects Spanish with ‘‘cultural diversity anduniqueness’’ and Pablo thinks that ‘‘it is part

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their Hispanic heritage they enthusiasticallyresponded: ‘‘Incredibly proud. To know thatI come from such an interesting, rich anddiverse culture makes me feel patriotic andhappy’’ (Isabel); ‘‘Love it! I am so proud tobe Latina! I really embrace it and wouldreadily self-identify as Cuban’’ (Rosa); and‘‘I am extremely proud of my heritage. It hasgiven me a different perspective of theworld’’ (Carmen).

5. Spanish Dialect AwarenessThe students know the Spanish variety they

speak and do not attach any negative con-notation to their dialect. For example,Isabel knows she speaks ‘‘the Mexican dia-lect from Mexico City,’’ Rosa insists hers is‘‘some strange mix of Cuban, Argentinecastellano, and castellano ‘puro’, i.e., SpainSpanish, with my Cuban dialect being thedominant one,’’ and Carmen declared, ‘‘I’ma Nicaraguan so the dialect is from there.’’Nonetheless, when judging their own

dialect, some displayed contradictory re-sponses indicating misunderstanding of sociolinguistic terminology, as the termsthey applied to their dialect are mutuallyexclusive. Pablo, for instance, thinks hisdialect is both ‘‘standard’’ and ‘‘less edu-cated,’’ and Rosa referred to hers as both‘‘standard’’ and ‘‘stigmatized.’’ More impor-tant, though, is that most of them believedthat all Spanish varieties have the samevalue, and that no variety is more presti-gious than any other. Carmen expressedthis most directly: ‘‘No, I don’t think anydialect is more prestigious than any otherone. They are all just different but no one isbetter than the other.’’ Pablo supported thisidea: ‘‘I think every dialect is a reflection of its culture. To believe that a dialect is moreprestigious than another, I believe, wouldbe claiming a culture is better thananother’s.’’

6 Self-Assessment of HL Proficiency

Spanish, all participants evaluated theirspeaking, listening, and reading abilities aseither advanced or native-like. However,most HL learners rated writing skills as in-termediate. Only Rosa assessed her writingskills as advanced. These self-evaluationsdiffered sharply with the assessments of their English capabilities, for which almostall HL speakers rated themselves as nativein all four language skills. (The single ex-ception was Carmen, who assessed herreading and writing skills in English at anadvanced level, even though she had alsoreported feeling ‘‘very comfortable’’ writing

in English.)

7. Motivations and Future Useof the LanguageAll the HL learners were intrinsically in-vested in Spanish, and they displayedboth integrative (learning a language forpersonal reasons, such as cultural identifi-cation) and instrumental (learning a

language for functional purposes, such asgetting a job) motivations.4 They werevery interested in learning more aboutSpanish, their Hispanic culture, and otherSpanish-speaking countries, and they haveconsidered either living or working in aSpanish-speaking country at some point intheir lives. Their reasons include beingcloser to their relatives abroad (Carmen andVicky), experiencing the culture their par-

ents grew up in (Isabel), teaching at a LatinAmerican university (Rosa), and even per-fecting their Spanish (Pablo). Each of thesestudents is currently pursuing either a ma-

jor or minor in Spanish or a concentrationin Latin American Studies. Moreover, theyare also planning to use their knowledge of Spanish in various ways, including bothvolunteer and paid work, and for researchand publishing in Spanish. They are con-

scious of the many advantages their Spanishskills offer them, for both professional andpersonal growth Finally given the oppor-



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their commitment to maintaining their cul-ture, language, and identity.

8. Reasons for Taking a HeritageLanguage Course in CollegeAll these HL students believe they speakSpanish well. As Rosa put it, ‘‘Most of usspeak it more than we learned it in school.’’Isabel commented, ‘‘I know the languagebut never actually had any schooling.’’ Yetthey also realize a need to strengthen theirability to write in Spanish using a more for-mal register and vocabulary. Consequently,

their main reason for taking an HL coursewas ‘‘to become better with writing inSpanish’’ (Vicky). Recall that it was theirwriting skills that received the lowest self-ratings. All the students agreed that theirHL course should stress, in order, writing,grammatical accuracy, and vocabulary.

DiscussionBased on the survey results, the three re-

search questions motivating this study,which are repeated here for convenience,can now be addressed.

1. What are the distinctive characteristicsof advanced HL speakers of Spanish?

2. How are they different from lower-proficiency HL speakers?

3. What are the pedagogical implicationsfor HL programs stemming from the

qualitative analysis of the present data?

Characteristics of AdvancedHeritage Language LearnersColombi and Roca (2003) reminded re-searchers that: ‘‘As language instructors weneed to take into account the attitudinaland sociohistorical factors affecting stu-dents in the environment in which we

teach. We should understand that teachingSpanish as a heritage language in Los An-geles can and will vary widely from the

backgrounds, proficiency levels, attitudes,and linguistic needs. Therefore, informa-tion concerning HL learners’ profiles is anindispensable tool for HL instructors todevelop more effective HL courses andprograms, because each specific HLpopulation requires different objectives,materials, and activities.

The analysis of the survey responsesyielded the following sociolinguistic profileof advanced university HL learners (seeTable 2), reflecting the most relevant andpervasive characteristics of these studentsfor HL instructors to consider when de-

signing and implementing new courses forthis population. One can consider ninemain themes: background, education,Spanish variety and oral proficiency, HLcontact, attitudes, identity, self-assessmentin the HL, motivations and future use of HL,and linguistic needs.

Similarities and Differences Between

Lower-Level and AdvancedHeritage Language SpeakersAccording to Valdés (2000), some of thebackground experiences of HL speakers arewidely shared: ‘‘They speak or hear the her-itage language spoken at home, but theyreceive all of their education in the officialor majority language of the countries inwhich they live’’ (p. 1). This applies, invarying degrees, to both lower-level and

advanced HL speakers of Spanish. Further-more, based on the results of both thecurrent study and of Beaudrie and Ducar’sprofile of beginning HL learners (2005),both lower-level and advanced HL individ-uals display positive attitudes towardSpanish; have a high degree of motivationto study the language; perceive the benefitsattached to knowledge of Spanish, bothpersonally and professionally; and feel

proud of their Hispanic heritage. Thesecommon characteristics reflect essentiallysociocultural background variables partic-

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TABLE 2

Sociolinguistic Profile of Advanced Heritage Learners of Spanish at the

University Level

Background

U.S.-born citizens (second generation)

Spanish acquisition in early childhood (0–5 years old)

Middle/high socioeconomic background

At least one parent of Hispanic descent

Parents are professionals with college educations

Education

U.S. English schooling

Spanish formal instruction in high school (at a minimum)

Spanish variety and oral proficiency

Fluent speakers of a standard Spanish variety

Heritage language contact

Always speak Spanish at home and with relatives

Exposure to Spanish music, radio, television, movies, Internet sites, and varied

readings

Spanish college classes

Attitudes

Strong positive attitudes toward Spanish and Hispanic culture

Feel comfortable speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Spanish

Identity

Hispanic or Latino

Proud of Hispanic heritage

Self-assessment in heritage languageNative-like proficiency in speaking, listening, and reading

Intermediate proficiency in writing

Motivations and future use of language

Majors/minors in Spanish

Plan to use Spanish in future jobs

Have considered working or living in a Spanish-speaking country

Intend to have their children learn Spanish

Linguistic needs

Language maintenance



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positively correlated with mastery of aSpanish accent (Oh & Au, 2005). HLstudents who display strong cultural iden-tification are more motivated to study thelanguage and to speak Spanish with a na-tive-like accent.

However, as Colombi and Roca (2003)observed, ‘‘The degrees of language profi-ciency in particular cases and the number of variables in the profiles of these students arecomplex and dependent on multiple cir-cumstances’’ (p. 3). So there are somesignificant differences between beginning-and advanced-proficiency HL speakers. In

light of Beaudrie and Ducar’s findings(2005), most beginning proficiency HLspeakers grow up speaking English as theirnative language, seldom speak Spanish athome, and thus feel ‘‘anxious, intimidated,challenged, and shy’’ when they arerequired to produce Spanish (p. 10). Al-though they tend to be interested whenlistening to the language (good receptiveskills), they fear that teaching Spanish to

their children would hinder the children’sacquisition of English, they lack confidencein their Spanish speaking skills, they per-ceive the dialect they learned at home asbeing stigmatized, and they want to becomefluent speakers of a standard variety. Bycontrast, advanced HL learners acquiredSpanish since birth, always speak Spanish athome, feel very comfortable both speakingand listening to the language (good recep-

tive and productive skills), are committedto teaching their children the language, feelconfident about their language skills,accept the dialect they speak without nega-tive biases, and want to become betterwriters in Spanish (cf. Mikulski’s case study,2006).

One crucial difference between thesetwo groups of HL speakers, however, hasdeep repercussions in their language be-

haviors and attitudes: the age of their firstexposure to Spanish. A number of studies of both first and second language acquisition

children, such as native-like attainment.Second, sensitive periods occur that affectlanguage development, during which nor-mal acquisition of various linguisticabilities takes place and after which acqui-sition is either incomplete or irregular.Third, first language loss may begin as earlyas age 6 in some individuals. These findingsare associated with maturational con-straints in general and can be related to thecomprehensively defined notion of lan-guage proficiency, including grammaticalcompetence (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson,2003). Furthermore, HL students who are

exposed to and use Spanish more often havebetter productive grammar abilities (Oh &Au, 2005), which leads to greater confi-dence in their own perceived languageskills. The advanced HL students partici-pating in this study had been exposed toSpanish since birth, had experienced unin-terrupted language development, and hadcontinued to use the language in significantsocial interactions.

Pedagogical ImplicationsSince the backgrounds, attitudes, linguisticneeds, and expectations of lower-leveland advanced-proficiency HL learnersare not the same, course objectives andclassroom practices should also vary.Most notably, beginning HL learners oftenstrive to talk more articulately, while ad-

vanced HL learners concentrate onimproving their formal writing skills. TheHL learner profile obtained from the pres-ent study can help the HL instructor tobetter understand the complexity of ad-vanced HL populations and thus ‘‘create amore relevant and culturally responsiveteaching and learning environment for her-itage learners’’ (Carrasco & Riegelhaupt,2003, p. 176).

The design of courses for HL studentsshould not be dictated by any HL or foreignlanguage textbook or course syllabus

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ground surveys, such as the one included inthe present study, administered at the be-ginning of a course, can provide thelanguage instructor with sociolinguistic in-formation relevant for designing thecurriculum for that particular class. Conse-quently, the main challenge facing HLinstructors is to ‘‘mold instructional prac-tices’’ to fit each individual class (Carreira,2003, p. 72).

In HL courses specifically designed foradvanced-proficiency learners, those whogrew up using Spanish at home, and thosewho have had constant language exposure

and interaction, the pedagogical approachshould be based on the native speakermodel (e.g., Potowski & Carreira, 2004).Advanced HL students already have recep-tive and productive skills, and they usuallyhave little need to develop their basic com-municative abilities. They are closer tothe native speaker norm than are lower-proficiency speakers, who more closelyresemble the L2 norm (see Lynch, 2008, for

detailed discussion). Furthermore, a cur-rent ‘‘bio-developmental definition’’ of native speaker (Davies, 1996, p. 156) alsoapplies to HL speakers, as ‘‘an individual is anative speaker of the L1 learnt in child-hood’’ (Cook, 1999, p. 186). As nativespeakers, HL learners have an implicitknowledge of the grammar of the language,an intuitive grasp of word meanings, theability to communicate within diverse so-

cial contexts, a wide range of linguisticskills, and the capacity for using thelanguage creatively (Stern, 1983). Conse-quently, advanced HL students will benefitmore from instruction focused on readingand writing that helps them develop and/orreacquire linguistic capacities that might beincomplete or lost due to variable and in-sufficient language exposure (Montrul,Foote, & Perpiñán, 2008).

When asked to describe their ‘‘ideal’’university HL Spanish course, the studentsin the present study made the following

instructor. They also insisted that a smallclass provides a better environment forindividual attention, because ‘‘we all gotalong, helped each other, knew each other’sstrengths and weaknesses, and were taughtaccording to our individual needs’’ (Isabel).Moreover, they preferred a course focusingon literature and grammar, but not on cul-ture, because ‘‘people know culture on theirown’’ (Rosa) and ‘‘literature will essentiallyincorporate culture if good, contemporaryauthors are selected’’ (Isabel). The studentsdid not favor any particular teaching meth-odology, instead suggesting that a mixture

of lectures, group discussions, and seminarswould be most beneficial. They founduseful activities involving questions-and-answers, self-correction, and drills, but notpair-work, which ‘‘is often . . . inefficient’’(Isabel). Perhaps surprisingly, they wel-comed instructor correction of their verbalerrors, if it was not excessive, because ‘‘wehave to figure out our mistakes on our own’’(Carmen), and for it to be accompanied not

merely by a substitution of the correct form‘‘but an explanation of the mistake youmake if it was grammar’’ (Pablo). Finally,most of the students emphasized the valueof daily quizzes to evaluate their learningprogress over other assessment forms, suchas journals, oral presentations, and papers,because ‘‘[it] makes the student keep upwith the reading and puts less pressure ontests’’ (Isabel).

ConclusionBy using an extensive sociolinguistic back-ground survey, the purpose of this studywas to analyze advanced Spanish HLspeakers’ language attitudes, language con-tact, and linguistic behaviors in order toobtain a profile sufficiently detailed forpractical issues in course design. Survey re-

sults provided valuable information aboutadvanced HL speakers, a group whose pro-file had not previously been fully described



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parents’ native countries and are proud of their Hispanic heritage, confident in theirlanguage abilities, and interested primarilyin perfecting their academic writing skillsin Spanish.

The low number of participants in thepresent study is not a representative sampleof advanced HL speakers, which impliesthat the results cannot be generalized to alladvanced college HL learners. Due to thesmall enrollment of Hispanic students at theuniversity where the study was conducted,and the fact that the course was new in thecurriculum, only five students took the HL

course. Future research that includes largernumbers of participants is needed to con-firm the findings of this study, which wasalso intended partially as a prototype forfurther studies. Nonetheless, the character-ization of advanced HL learners from thisstudy is a useful reference for instructorswho are teaching advanced HL students of Spanish for the first time, or who wouldlike to contrast and compare their own

HL learners to these advanced students.Furthermore, although it is not directly rel-evant here, the present study, despite alimited number of participants, could in-form more theoretical research pertainingto differences between L1 and L2 acquisi-tion.

Finally, this study is a first attempt toprovide a profile of advanced university-level HL learners for language instructors to

use in their course designs. The next step isto investigate HL learners’ linguistic abili-ties in concrete production tasks, such aswriting samples or grammaticality judg-ment tasks, in order to complement the self-reports of the present study with more ob-

jective proficiency assessment toolstargeting HL learners’ implicit languagesystems.

AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to Drs Anne Edstrom and

Notes

1. A stigmatized variety of Spanish impliesa nonstandard or nonacademic use of

the language.2. Although this sample is small, all partic-

ipants display comparable language fea-tures and sociolinguistic backgrounds.Their characteristics and experiencesare typical of the type of heritage Span-ish speakers enrolled in this specificinstitution.

3. See Bogdan and Biklen, 2006, for a dis-cussion of similar methodology.

4. For a detailed discussion of motivationin general, and integrative versus instru-mental motivation in particular, see Gassand Selinker, 2008, pp. 426–432, andEllis, 2008, pp. 677–691. Although a de-tailed exploration of the role of moti-vation in HL speakers goes beyond thescope of the present study, it is anissue well worth pursuing, especiallybecause it has not received the attention

from HL researchers that its importancesuggests.

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APPENDIX

Heritage Learners of Spanish Survey

Please respond to these questions as candidly as possible.

Sex: male – female Age: ____________________1. Where were you born?

2. If you were not born in the United States, how old were you when you first arrived in theUnited States?

3. Where were your parents born?

4. What language do they speak at home?

5. What language do you speak with them at home?

6. What language do you speak most frequently in your daily life?7. What language did you use most between these ages?

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8. Did you take Spanish . . .

(a) in elementary school? yes – no(b) in middle school? yes – no(c) in high school? yes – no

9. Have you studied Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country? If yes, which one and for howlong?

10. Have you lived in a Spanish-speaking country? If yes, which one and for how long?

11. When do you speak Spanish?

12. Where do you speak Spanish?

13. With whom do you speak Spanish?

14. How comfortable do you feel speaking Spanish?

15. How comfortable do you feel speaking English?

16. How comfortable do you feel writing in Spanish?

17. How comfortable do you feel writing in English?

18. How would you rate your Spanish skills in . . . .?

(a) speaking ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(b) listening ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(c) writing ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(d) reading ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like

19. How would you rate your English skills in . . .?

(a) speaking ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(b) listening ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(c) writing ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like(d) reading ! none – low – intermediate – advanced – native-like

20. How many hours per day do you read Spanish?(a) 0–1(b) 1–2(c) more than 2

21. How many hours per day do you read English?

(a) 0–1(b) 1–2(c) more than 2

22. Do you access the Internet in Spanish? If so, what types of material and why?

23. When you’ve taken Spanish at the college level, did you speak Spanish outside of class?



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24. When you’ve taken Spanish at the college level, did you read Spanish outside of class?yes – noIf yes, how often? ____________________

What did you read (magazines, newspapers, short stories, etc.)?

25. When you’ve taken Spanish at the college level, did you listen to Spanish music/radio?yes – noIf yes, how often? ____________________

26. When you’ve taken Spanish at the college level, did you watch Spanish television/mov-ies?yes – noIf yes, how often? ____________________

27. Do you identify yourself as . . .

(a) American(b) Latino/a(c) Hispanic(d) Other ____________________

28. What does it mean to you to know Spanish?

29. Have you considered working or living in a Spanish-speaking country? Why or why not?

30. Is Spanish your major/minor?

31. Are you planning to use your Spanish in the future? If yes, how?

32. What are some of the benefits for you of speaking Spanish?

33. Would you have your children learn Spanish?

34. What are the main reasons for your taking this course?

35. What are your expectations from a course for ‘‘Heritage Speakers’’?

36. What types of material would you like to read in this course? (poems, newspapers, plays,

short stories, etc.)

37. On what aspect of language would you like this course to focus? Please circle all thechoices that are important to you.(a) speaking(b) writing(c) listening(d) reading(e) grammatical accuracy(f) vocabulary

38. How often (always, often, sometimes, etc.) do you speak Spanish with . . . .?(a) your father

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(e) your friends abroad(f) your friends in the United States(g) others (specify)

39. How often (always, often, sometimes, etc.) do you speak Spanish in these places?(a) at school(b) at work(c) at social events(d) others (specify)

40. How often (always, often, sometimes, etc.) do these people address you in Spanish?

(a) mother(b) father(c) brother(s) and/or sister(s)(d) grandparents (or other relatives)(e) your friends abroad(f) your friends in the United States(g) others (specify)

41. How do you feel when having to speak in Spanish? Explain.

42. How do you feel when listening to people speaking in Spanish? Explain.

43. How do you feel when reading in Spanish? Explain.

44. How do you feel when writing in Spanish? Explain.

45. With what do you associate Spanish? Circle one. If more than one, please explain.(a) prestige(b) low economic status(c) other (specify)

46. How do you feel when identified as a Latino or Hispanic? Explain.

47. How proud are you of your Hispanic heritage? Explain.

48. How interested are you in learning about your Hispanic culture? Explain.

49. How interested are you in learning more about other Spanish-speaking countries?

Which ones? Why?

50. What dialect of Spanish do you speak?

51. How do you judge the Spanish dialect you speak? Circle all that apply.

(a) standard(b) educated(c) correct(d) stigmatized(e) less educated

(f) incorrect(g) other (specify)

52 D hi k h di l i i h h ? E l i



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54. Please complete this information about your parents:

Father Mother

How long have they lived in the United States?

Highest educational level completedCurrent occupationEnglish oral proficiency(a) basic(b) intermediate(c) advanced(d) other (specify)English written proficiency(a) basic(b) intermediate

(c) advanced(d) other (specify)

55. Please describe the ideal Spanish course for you. Consider the following.

(a) language spoken in class (Spanish, English, both?)(b) instructor’s specific Spanish variety (any preference? If so, why?)(c) group size (why? advantages/disadvantages?)(d) content (literature, grammar, culture, etc.)(e) methodology used by your instructor (lecture, seminar, group discussions, etc.)

(f) Class activities (pair-work, drills, question-and-answer, self-correction, etc.)(g) instructor’s correction of your Spanish (how and why?)(h) evaluation (daily quizzes, journals, presentations, exams, etc.)(i) others (specify)

56. Any additional comments that you think would help in developing a heritage languageprogram at your university?

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