Foreign Language Policy and Planning in Higher Education

Policy Activity for Heritage Languages

“…Writing about the United States, she observed that the bilingualism attained by speakers who learn English and maintain their minority language is rarely appreciated as a skill, whereas the acquisition of foreign languages by majority English speakers is treated as a demonstration of talent and is celebrated as an achievement. Variations on this differential evaluation of a two-language skill are also noted by Roca (1999), who finds that minority speakers are seen to constitute difficulties for the majority, and Shannon (1999), who notes that English-speaking children acquiring Spanish receive more praise than Spanish-speaking learners' attainments in English (p. 193). In these examples, we see ideology becoming policy, and the practice and habits of language operating as default policy.…”

Language ideologies and the production of identities: Spanish as a resource for participation in a multilingual marketplace

“…The proximity of the U. S. to Central and South America and the presence of roughly 35 million Latinos in the U. S. has led to an awareness among some college students that expertise in Spanish is one key to professional success both abroad and at home (Alalou 2001;Dahl 2000;Roca 1999). U. S. newspapers are rife with job announcements that seek Spanish-English bilinguals in fields like medicine, education, law, advertising, publishing, and social work.…”