1. Spanish for Heritage Language Learners : Lesson 1
Presenter: Betzaida Imperiale
Sumner Academy of Arts and Science
Spanish and Spanish Heritage Language Teacher

2. Betzaida Imperiale Born and raised in Puerto Rico
BA Modern Languages - Cum Laude (Italian and French)
MA in Arts, Spanish /Latin America Literature
PhD in - Grand Canyon University, in progress
Member: MLA, KSWLA, KSDE World Languages Advisory Committee, Phi Lambda-Theta
Sumner Academy First Spanish Native Speaker Program Teacher
Instructor: 11 yrs. Teaching K-14 and 4 yrs. Teaching Spanish for HL Level I - III

3. What do you know…?
…about

4. Language Learners Second Language Learner (L2)
Exposed to formal second language instruction at an older age
Already have an understanding of the meanings, uses, and purposes of (first) language; they now must… go on to learn how the second language--oral and in print--expresses those purposes, uses, and meanings (Lindfors, 1987).

5. Heritage Language Learner (HLL)
1970’s Canada
Since the 1990’s in USA
Exposure to non-English language outside the formal educational system
Anyone who has had in-depth exposure to another language
Hornberger &Wang (2008)

6. Synonyms Native speaker Bilingual Home background
*Different names, different interpretations
(Valdés, 1996)

7. Guadalupe Valdés Graphic Organizer
Language
Native
Foreign
Heritage
L1 or L2 (age)
L1 (child)
L2 (after the first language has been acquired)
L1/L2?
Exposure to target Language
Full language Community
Outside of community
Limited community
Evolution of the teaching of a second language
Questions on how to teach Heritage Language Learners- How do we define our HLL versus the HLL reality (their voice)

8. Assist HLL language self assessment Check point
Students language proficiency (myth vs reality)
Students knowledge about grammar forms
Students skills: performing their knowledge of Spanish grammar
Students learning style preferences (yes, you have them!)
The number of languages they have studied
Students continuous exposure to the target language (
Before I itemize these aspects of self awareness of language knowledge I want to strongly recommend to visit KSDE website and download Lingua Folio as a free and easy to use student self assessment tool
This slide is
Myth- Student will say: I do not need to take this class, I speak already the language
Reality- We will support: This course will level (balance) your language skills: reading, writing, grammar, academic spoken language with local or learned spoken language
Grammar forms - Will enhance your other skills by augmenting the depth and breath of your current knowledge of the language and definitively provides the tools to professionally apply/use your language now and in real life
Student skills: Is the foundation of this course: is what you will acquire here: you will be able to read, write and think in your language knowing the how, why and when I do it this way or that way.
Students learning styles: is your choice to use one or several ways to process your new skills learned in classroom (some you have them others you can develop them with practice and formal learning)
Number of languages they have studied: Students (according to the grade you are teaching) already know basic Math, Music, computer, another language (English,….) therefore, they have develop ways to learn and apply their languages.
Language exposure: In addition to home, formal instruction on class, they need to teach someone at home what they have learned in class and read out loud for 3 to 5 minutes at home (to themselves or someone else).

9. HL student’s needs To learn Spanish for academic purpose
understanding language for specific learning goals
Clear future goals
content relevant to learners short and long term goals
Effective language teaching
organizing learning around subject specifics
purposeful activities
Sloan & Porter (2008)
----Why I am here?
----Unwillingness/Ignorance about why to learn the language
----Motivation To learn study skills for other classes and apply it to something they have learned (the language) but they do not know how to benefit of what they “already know” but do not know (the structure of it)
----Make connections with real life and have them excel in what they already know (find the applications of it)
The units and unit lessons should focused on understanding lectures, readings and writing.
The work diversified to include: classwork, work on assignment, short essays/report, research project outlines (analyzing a website, commenting in a current event… and this aligned with the key concepts (benchmarks) and always at the student level

10. Teacher’s needs… to revisit and adapt classroom behavior rule
to learn students culture and learner’s characteristics
to get prepared with unit, lessons and activities with this audience in mind
to ensure a bias free and good quality of learning environment
to revisit and adapt classroom behavior rule
Student’s culture = the way you will do things in the classroom will vary, however, be clear about what students should know, be able to do, or be like after the learning experience… prepare and review assessment before teaching content and question yourself how do I know they know this?….
Even if you get prepared, expect the unexpected from students… they may challenge your mastery on the subject
Bias free- works both ways: respect, responsibilities and Read more about Hispanics and classroom management/behavior etc

11. Teacher’s needs…
to discuss and recognize the relevance of achievement/success in class
to relate transferability of knowledge to other courses
to focus on reading for comprehension and understanding (making inferences, critical thinking and critical analisis…)
to write on target language (creative, summarizing and translations)
Motivate students to trust in their previous knowledge, in particular remind them they have practice two languages way before other regular students
Strategies used in class to reinforce all skills and formalizing their heritage language; can be applicable to other subjects
Reading always enrich knowledge, fluency and competencies
Writing will augment their expression in other dimensions

12. “Recognizing the Needs and talents of the
“Recognizing the Needs and talents of the Heritage Language Learner” We are called to:
Blend native and second language methods, not students
Impact the formal studies of the HL
Impart will and motivation toward reading in target language
Improve their reading skills, their development and knowledge to read in another L2
(Berstain, Bruke, Fafre & Delcourt)
1- This research (Recognizing the need and talents…. By Berstain, Burke, Fafre & Delcourt have found that it is important to separate classes for HLL and L2 especially at the beginning levels. (1-3 years). This is valid for the HLL because they feel restricted in mixed group. This applies to small schools since it will not be always possible to have a separate small class of HLL.
2- Teachers will soon noticed that reading and writing is a skill the HLL need in order to out weight their talents. In many instances it has not been taught at home. The HLL literacy is an area were teachers are encourage to differentiate their teaching and assessment according to the group or the individual abilities and interests. I.e., the selection of readings, the instruction of grammar, not to mention the oral proficiency assessments and writing skills.
3- Researchers recommend the oral proficiency test should be given to the Native Speaker as a separate group when mixed in a non-native class, but together when it comes to reading activities..
** Because of the large individual differences between the L2 and the HL learner we need to change our instructional strategies instead of concentrating in balancing the individual differences in a mix classroom
--Are we talking about affective aspects of HL reading development?
-- Intrinsic motivation and integrative orientation variables are positively correlated with final course grades.
The motivation constructs will develop as they learn how to read- meaning making reading a specific motivation so reading behaviours are associated with general motivation. We need to observed the students engagement with reading in English (for example or reading in another L2.

13. Goals and content of instruction
Instructional Strategies
Differentiated
Student-center
Collaborative
Memorization
Higher level thinking skills
How will/do you teach your HL students?
Skills
Reading
Writing
Translation
Listening
Speaking
How proficient are your HL students?
Differentiated instructional strategies and practices has proven being a practical and efficient way to obtain the maximum on student’s knowledge, skills, experience, preferences and needs in regular classroom settings. I strongly recommend to use those principles with Heritage Language Learners understanding we need to depart from differentiating language standards, students expectations, multicultural diversity within the same diverse group of students, communication skills or competencies in their dominant and mother tongue, knowledge and processing of on target language and how memory process and make meaning of it. Environmental (society, political, technological and economic changes) influence what and how learning takes place as stated in the book by authors: Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman: Differentiated Instructional Strategies “One size doesn’t fit all”
Literacy skills related to decoding tasks of reading have been found to transfer between languages
(Bialystock, 1991; Goodman, Goodman, & Flores, 1979; Hudelson, 1987; Mace-Matluck, 1982)

14. Reading Motivation Assessment Plan Prototype
How do we evaluate HL ability to read?
What are the underlying components of motivation to read?
Are the HL reading motivation equal for the L2 group? Do they have similar or different reading motivation profiles?
To what degree is motivation related to HL reading ability?
Have students self rate their ability to read.
Provide six reading tasks from basic to more complex.
Provide a reading motivation questionnaire that includes items to measure some theoretical motivation components
Theoretical components: reading involvement, motivational strength for reading, reading efficacy, intrinsic motivation, knowledge-based value, and instrumental value. (Labeled as follows: Extrinsic: By learning to read about X, I hope to understand more deeply the lifestyle and culture of X, Intrinsic Involvement (I like reading X novels in the original Six reading tasks: Simplified letter, Authentic letter, newspaper, Magazine, Novel, Technical text (Great Difficulty/Not At All, Some Difficulty, Quiet Easy
Make this questionnaire to indicate their degree of agreement (1(most strongly disagree) to 7 (most strongly agree)
Reading - teacher and student centered - should be intense in the first year in order to reach advanced upper level reading abilities (Kondo-Brown, 2008)
Refer to scholarly article “Cultural teaching …”
Keep reading logs (number of articles, books etc., and words read in English/FL

15. R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s
Set-up clear knowledge-based reading goals
Use stimulating activities that connect reading to the students’ lives outside of the classroom or school
Support students autonomy by providing a variety of texts to choose from, based on their capacity and topic of interest
Provide strategy instruction that may help students improve bottom-up and top-down processing
Encourage collaborative learning by allowing students share their opinions on what they read
Create assessment tools easy to students systematically self-monitor what they read and how they read it
Let them know you care about their progress
Explore/focus on production skills: I.e., writing and speaking effectively
Goals needs to be: interesting, personally meaningful and appropriately challenging to the students ( extrinsic goals discussed)
Strategy instruction: effective questioning, affective comments, used of advanced organizers

16. Kagan, O. , & Dillon, K. (2003). A new perspective on teaching Russian
Kagan, O., & Dillon, K. (2003). A new perspective on teaching Russian Focus on the heritage learner. Heritage Language Journal, Available:
Polinsky, M. & Kagan, O. (2007). Heritage Languages: In the ‘Wild’ and in the Classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass, 1/5: 368–395, /j x x
Sloan, Diane, and Porter, Elizabeth (2008). The management of English Language support in postgraduate business education: the CEM Model (contextualisation, embedding and mapping), Northumbria University DOI: /ijme , International Journal of Management Education 7(2)
Valdés, G. (2000). The teaching of heritage languages: an introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals. The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures, Olga Kagan and Benjamin Rifkin (eds.), 375–403.
References