Connecting Spanish Heritage Language Students with the Community through Service-Learning

Abstract

In addition to enhancing language skills of their students, instructors of Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) learners seek to address the social and emotional needs of their students yet are challenged to do so only in a classroom setting. Service-learning (SL) offers the authentic opportunities in which learners can employ their language skills and evaluate how these abilities are valued outside of the classroom setting. In addition to encouraging deep grounding of the course material, SL promotes learners’ general abilities in critical thinking, self-awareness, knowledge, tolerance, and compassion (Eyler & Giles, 1999). We add to the emerging literature of SL with SHL populations (e.g., Trujillo, 2009; Martínez, 2010; Leeman, Rabin & Román-Mendoza, 2011; Petrov, 2013) and find that SL is a powerful tool to not only connect SHL learners to their identity, the Spanish language, and the community, but also to validate the high level of cultural and linguistic skills that SHL students already possess and to spur the development of more skills. Moreover, integrating SL in SHL courses aids learners in developing their knowledge of the Spanish language and of course material far and beyond what could be accomplished in the classroom alone and allows the community to provide students with valuable knowledge, skills and insights as well.

Student Perceptions of Community-Engaged Scholarship Courses: Developing a Sociolinguistic Corpus on the U.S.–Mexico Border

“…That is, these students learn that there are many different styles of language which may vary in structure, words, and pronunciation and that all of these varieties are valid. Furthermore, these types of courses offer students the opportunity to challenge the false notion of one idealized standard language, develop a critical consciousness, and experience pride in their language (MacGregor- Mendoza & Moreno, 2016;Pascual y Cabo et al, 2017). In the context of an HSI where almost all students in these courses are bilingual and/or Hispanic, this is especially meaningful.…”

“…CES also supports metalinguistic learning (Arnold, 2019;Fitzgerald, 2010;Hudley, 2008) along with heightened self-determination (Bucholtz et al, 2014) and critical language awareness (Alim, 2010). Additionally, Hispanic college students in CES sociolinguistics courses develop an appreciation and understanding of language varieties including their own and a critical consciousness to challenge negative societal perceptions of U.S. Spanish (MacGregor- Mendoza & Moreno, 2016). These students also demonstrate increased pride for their own U.S. Spanish and a desire to maintain their Spanish-language skills, including for future career options (Pascual y Cabo et al, 2017).…”