1. Looking into the Future: A (Utopian?) Model of Heritage Language Education Olga Kagan, UCLA New York April 30, 2016

2. A Working Definition: HL Speakers are individuals “who have been exposed to a particular language in childhood but did not learn it to full capacity because another language became dominant.” Polinsky and Kagan 2007 2

3. A Heritage Speaker of Hindi Heritage language learners of Hindi is a very heterogeneous group because these students come from different language backgrounds. Some come from Hindi-speaking families and others from languages other than Hindi, but they are Indian languages. In the case of Hindi, only those students who come from families where Hindi is spoken have a family connection with Hindi. Heritage speakers from other Indian languages don’t have a family connection. However, they do have a very strong cultural connection with India. Source: Vijay Gambhir, NHLRC Online Workshop 3

4. Who is A Heritage Speaker? “Is she there with you?” I asked. “Could I talk to her?” I said it because I did not entirely believe him. “They will arrive next week. You will meet them when you come home for New Year’s.” And then he added, “She doesn’t speak English very well.” “She probably speaks English better than I speak Bengali,” I said. My father came to America as a graduate student and that’s where I was born. In 1986 when I was six we moved back to India. Four years later we came back to America. Since then I spoke Bengali rarely, only to my relatives on the phone. Jhumpa Lahiri “A Year’s End” 4

5. 2006-2018 National Heritage Language Resource Center National Heritage Language Resource Center -- funded by the Title VI U.S. Department of Education One of 16 NLRCs The only one dedicated to heritage languages Research; design of innovative materials; teacher training 5

6. Activities Workshops: STARTALK/NHLRC For HL Teachers Summer Research institutes This year: UW Seattle, June 15-19 International conferences: 2010, 2014; 2018 Online workshop Online certificate – under development An upcoming conference for Language Teacher Educators (see next slide) 6

7. Language Teacher Education for a World on the Move: Meeting the Needs of Diverse Student Populations Tenth International Conference on Language Teacher Education FEBRUARY 2 - 4, 2017 COVEL COMMONS, UCLA ABSTRACT DEADLINE: JUNE 21, 2016 http://nhlrc.ucla.edu/nhlrc/events/lteconference/20 17/call STRANDS on HL TEACHING 7

8. The Center Advocates HL-focused pedagogy because HLLs differ from FL learners’ have a potential of reaching a high level of proficiency in a shorter time 8

9. NHLRC Survey (2007-09) An online survey 1,800 responses 22 languages College-age respondents 29 responses of Hindi/Urdu Survey Report http://www.nhlrc.ucla.edu http://www.nhlrc.ucla.edu For analysis, see M. Carreira & O. Kagan (2011) 9

10. A Typical HL Speaker of Hindi/Urdu At least a second generation Simultaneous bilingual Continued (limited) use of HL HL specific motivations: linguistic and cultural Inclusive identities Source: NHLRC Survey (2007-09) analyzed in Carreira & Kagan (2011) 10

11. Languages spoken 11

12. Improving your skills 12

13. Identities 1.Knowing my HL has allowed me to be a fuller person and to live a fuller life. 2. All our relatives compliment my brother and i on how well we speak the language. we're pretty good. 3. It has made my communication with elders easier. 4. I speak to my mother's friends all the time in Urdu. They appreciate that I have retained my cultural identity. 13

14. The NHLRC Survey Provides us with data on – Language use – Attitudes, motivation & identity – Self-assessment BUT NOT assessment of HLL’s linguistic ability 14

15. What we know from linguistic research: Vocabulary appears to be the best indicator of HLLs’ overall proficiency Pragmatics: formality/informality is of paramount importance Grammar in HL is …selective and localized. Sources: Polinsky, Montrul, etc. 15

16. Hindi OPI’s …HLLs’ language production reached the ‘breakdown’ stage usually because of deficiency in register-appropriate vocabulary lacked mastery HLLs “showed control over complex syntax structures and discourse strategies usually considered indicative of Intermediate High level and above, but … lacked mastery over basic smaller language forms and structures” expected to be at Novice High or Intermediate Low” Source: G. N. Ilieva (2012) 16

17. HLLs and FLLs: A Comparison After one semester of instructed Russian, HLLs: 1.performed better on integrated tasks than L2Ls after 4 semesters of Russian; 2.80% of HLLs performed at an I-M level compared to 56% percent of the 2d-year students Source: A. Smyslova Ph.D. Dissertation (p. 101) 17

18. Project 1. Flagship Overseas ModalityHLLs (pre to post program) * FLLs (pre to post- program) * SPEAKING2+ > 4/4+2/2+ >3/3+ READING2+ > 42>3/3+ WRITING2 > 42 > 3 LISTENING2+>42>3 * ILR ratings 18 Source: Davidson & Lekic (2013)

19. Results: HLLs and FLLs In an overseas immersion same HLL tend to gain more than FLL in the same amount of time, but the time (and effort) investment needs to be significant Source: Davidson & Lekic (2013) 19

20. WE CAN STRIVE FOR HIGHER GOALS IN HLL TEACHING POINT # 1 20

21. Demographics and School Offerings 21% of Americans speak a language other than English at home. “This provides an enormous pool of students who enter school with some degree of proficiency in another language.” “However, the mismatch between demographic reality and school language offerings is significant and counterproductive.” Fee, Rhodes, Wiley (2014) 21

22. Speakers of a Language Other than English at Home, age 5+, by percentage US Census 2006-2010 USACA Metropolitan LA (12 mln) The City of LA (3.8 mln) 21%43%54%60% 22

23. LA Unified School District: Speakers Vs HS Programs B16001 2006-10 ACS 5- year estimate City of LA: Speakers of Languages other than English (age 5+) High Schools teaching these languages Total:3,515,546 Spanish or Spanish Creole: 1,515,40994 Tagalog 90, 484 -- Korean89,18314 Armenian62,673-- Chinese54,66017 Persian43,516-- Russian 32, 527 1 23

24. Some Smaller School Districts offer community languages in public schools Metropolitan LA: Alhambra – Chinese, English, Spanish, Vietnamese Glendale – Armenian, English, Spanish, Korean Long Beach – English, Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog Westminster – English, Vietnamese, Spanish 24

25. Westminster, Orange County Westminster (2006-2010 Estimate): Total population – 83,924 Vietnamese – 31,574 Vietnamese settled in Orange County in the mid-1970; the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. Vietnamese is taught in three schools Vietnamese is taught in three schools 25

26. LA Times, Sept 22, 2002 “Vietnamese parents and students had clamored for such a course since the mid- 1980s. Westminster High School was the first to respond, in 1999. The Huntington Beach Union High School District school now has more than 100 students studying Vietnamese and offers advanced-level courses.” http://articles.latimes.com/2002/sep/22/local/me-vietclass22 26

27. Conclusions from the Study There is no master plan for offering WLs, and in particular HLs Offerings mostly depend on the principal’s decision In schools where HLs are taught, the curriculum depends on the teacher’s/coordinator’s decisions Smaller school districts (and charter schools) appear to be more responsive to community resources/ interest 27

28. COORDINATE FL AND HL OFFERINGS IN K-12 WITH THE LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES. Point # 2 28

29. A QUICK LOOK AT HINDI PRE- COLELGE 29

30. Introducing Hindi in Public Schools Indian-American educators in Fremont have worked “for seven years to satisfy California’s requirements to bring a new language into public schools. In a major advance this fall, the Education Department at CalState East Bay, enrolled its first student seeking to gain her primary California teacher certification in Hindi language instruction.” SiliconValleyOneWorld website 2014 M.A. in Hindi at Kean 30

31. Outside of the Formal Educational System Hindi Community/Saturday schools Other Indian Languages community school Hindi/Urdu STARTALK summer programs Hindi/Urdu Flagship Program at UT Austin 31

32. NHLRC Survey of College Programs Responses: 296 programs in 34 states 11% -- community colleges; The rest – 4-year universities Languages: Spanish (76), Chinese (50), Arabic (44), Russian (36), Hindi/Urdu (32), Korean (13), Farsi (11), Vietnamese (5), Japanese (4), Tagalog (3), Hebrew (2), Portuguese (2), Punjabi (2), Serbo-Croatian (2), Yoruba (2), Armenian (1), Bulgarian (1), French (1), Greek (1), Hmong (1), Hungarian (1), Indonesian (2), Italian (1), Polish (1), Tamil (1), Thai (1), Yiddish (1). 25% of Hindi/Urdu have HLL programs Source: M. Carreira (in press) 32

33. Carreira: Mixed findings POSITIVE 1.Some HL courses are available in many programs 2.“a striking number of strategies by resourceful faculty to implement HL- specific instruction, even when institutional conditions do not favor such courses.” NEGATIVE 1.The impediments are multiple, incl. administrative 2.Mixed classes emerge as a top priority for the field. As currently configured, these classes are not serving HLLs well. 33

34. A NEED TO INSTITUTIONALIZE HL PROGRAMS POINT # 3 34

35. Institutionalizing HL programs For HL programs to become part and parcel of our educational system: 1. Accepted as part of our educational mission; 2. Introduced at the majority of institutions; 3. Receive routine allocations of time and money; 4. Not be dependent upon the actions of specific individuals but upon the organizational culture. Based on: Miles, M.B., Ekholm, N. and Vandenberghe, R. (eds.).(1987) Lasting school improvement: exploring the process of institutionalization. Leuven, Belgium : Acco 35

36. (Utopian?) Steps to Take 1.Strive to teach HLLs to the high levels of proficiency. 2.Coordinate FL and HL offerings in K- 12 with the languages spoken in local communities. 3.Institutionalize HL programs 36

37. Publications Handbook of Heritage, Community, and Native American Languages in the United States: Research, Policy, and Educational (T. Wiley et al. eds). CAL/Routledge 2014 Beadrie, S., Dukar, C., Potowski, K. Heritage Language Teaching: Research and Practice McGraw- Hill, 2014 Handbook on Heritage Language Education: From Innovation to Program Building (O.Kagan, M.Carreira, C.Chik, eds.) Routledge (projected for 2016) 37

38. References Maria Carreira, & Olga Kagan (2011) The Results of the National Heritage Language Survey: Implications for teaching, curriculum design, and professional development. Foreign Language Annals, Volume 44, No 1. pp. 40-64. Dan E. Davidson & Maria D. Lekic (2013) The Heritage and Non-Heritage Learner in the Overseas Immersion Context: Comparing Learning Outcomes and Target- Language Utilization in the Russian Flagship (pages 226-252), Heritage Language Journal, 10-2, 2013The Heritage and Non-Heritage Learner in the Overseas Immersion Context: Comparing Learning Outcomes and Target- Language Utilization in the Russian Flagship (pages 226-252) Cynthia Martin, with Elvira Swender, and Mildred Rivera-Martinez (2013) Assessing the Oral Proficiency of Heritage Speakers According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Speaking (pages 211-225) Heritage Language Journal, 10-2, 2013Assessing the Oral Proficiency of Heritage Speakers According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Speaking (pages 211-225) Gabriela N. Ilieva 38

39. Thank you okagan@ucla.edu 39