Effects of Community Service-Learning on Heritage Language Learners' Attitudes Toward Their Language and Culture

Abstract

This study examined the effects of participation in a community service‐learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service‐learning activities as part of the Spanish heritage language program afforded students transformative experiences that enhanced the work done within the classroom walls.

Service learning in Spanish for the health professions: Heritage language learners’ competence in action

“…Multiple rounds of coding resulted in three core themes—the community, the self, and language—and included some responses that corroborated the findings of previous studies (Martínez, ; Pascual y Cabo et al, ; Petrov, ). However, other comments introduced new or contradictory perspectives.…”

“…Pak (2016) also reported students’ improved confidence in their skills, which included their ability to overcome linguistic insecurities and reaffirm their ethnolinguistic identity. Similarly, Pascual y Cabo et al () also found that their intermediate learners discovered that they could successfully use the language in new contexts beyond the home, family, and neighborhood; learned first hand about career options; and became cognizant of the important role that the education system plays in supporting programs to maintain Spanish language and culture.…”

“…In this regard, Hellebrandt and Varona (1999) and the volume by Wurr and Hellebrandt (2007) pointed out the intrinsic relationship between the study of the Spanish language and culture, and serving the needs of the Hispanic community in the United States. This initial perspective has been advanced more recently by Altstaedter (2017); Roman-Mendoza (2011a, 2011b); Martínez (2010); Palpacuer Lee, Curtis, and Curran (2018); and Pascual y Cabo et al (2017).…”

Shaping the vision for service‐learning in language education

“…Studies of heritage language learning (e.g., DuBord & Kimball, ; Pascual y Cabo, Prada, & Louther Pereira, ) have emphasized CBSL as an effective means of collaboration among heritage language speakers, Spanish or English learners, and their community partners. For instance, Pascual y Cabo et al () showed how a Spanish heritage language course that builds on the rich history of language activism in the United States can create a social space in which bilingualism can be practiced and can consolidate participants’ positive views on language activism, bilingualism, and biculturalism. As one participant said, “This experience has taught me a lot about myself and all that I can do as a bilingual student; it makes me think and feel beyond only myself” (p. 80).…”

Redefining Spanish teaching and learning in the United States

“…An important action taken toward the remedy of this situation has been the development of courses and programs specifically designed for Spanish HSs. From the early claims made by Guadalupe Valdés and colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s advocating for SHL-specific pedagogies, the articulation of these educational alternatives has been characterized by an array of resources and perspectives, most notably the following: (1) the application of sociolinguistically informed curricula (e.g., Beaudrie, Ducar, & Potowski, 2014;Potowski & Lynch, 2014;Shin & Hudgens Henderson, 2017), (2) the implementation of principles of critical pedagogy and social justice (e.g., Abbott, 2018;Correa, 2011;Leeman, 2005;Leeman & Serafini, 2016), (3) the adoption of flexible approaches to language use (e.g., García, 2009;Shohamy, 2011;Prada & Nikula, to appear), (4) the inclusion of service learning or other forms of community engagement (e.g., Lowther Pereira, 2016; Pascual y Cabo, Prada, & Lowther Pereira, 2017), and (5) the attention and centralization of socioaffective factors, such as the notion of identity formation in the design and implementation of HL courses/programs (e.g., Hornberger & Wang, 2008;Ducar, 2008;Leeman, 2015;Parra, 2016;Potowski, 2012;Sánchez-Muñoz, 2016;Carreira & Beeman, 2014;Wilson & Martínez, 2011;Wilson & Ibarra, 2015). 3 The increasing trends in the implementation of such programs and courses in K-12 and postsecondary contexts across the country reflect the dynamics within the Hispanic community itself, which shows promising advances in areas such as education, employment, and linguistic vitality of Spanish (Krogstad, 2016).…”