Identity and Activism in Heritage Language Education

Abstract

In contrast with the field of second language acquisition (SLA), where until recently sociocultural concerns were largely unaddressed (Block, 2007), identity has always been at the core of heritage language (HL) education. The present article highlights this often overlooked history and presents action research centering on a Spanish critical service-learning program stressing identity and social activism in HL education. The article begins with an examination of the constructs of identity, agency, and advocacy in Spanish HL education and critical pedagogy. Stressing that critical pedagogy seeks not only to promote agency but also to contribute to social justice outside of the classroom, we provide an overview of our critical service-learning program melding university HL education with community language activism. The program builds upon HL speakers' classroom-based learning of critical language awareness by providing community-based opportunities to enact and strengthen identities as language experts and to contribute to positive social change. Next, we present and analyze qualitative data gathered in order to investigate the emergence of expert and activist identities among program participants who worked to counteract school-based subordination of Spanish by running an after-school Spanish class for HL speakers at a local elementary school.THANKS TO THE SOCIAL TURN IN academia, recent decades have seen a growing interest in the multifaceted relationship between language and identity, as well as in the role of identity in learning and education. In the past decade, second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have paid increased attention to the relationship between language and identity (Block, 2007), with language learning now seen to involve the development of new identities linked to the new languages, language varieties, and registers that learners acquire (Starfield, 2004). In fact, it has been suggested that one key challenge of language learning is for learners to retain their sense of self while also appropriating

Struggling Authorial Identity of Second Language University Academic Writers in Mexico

“…Second language writing has always been at the core of heritage language education, but only recently has it opened up more in the English as a second language (ESL) field (Leeman, Rabin, & Román-Mendoza, 2011). In fact, in recent decades there has been a growing interest in the multifaceted relationship between language and identity.…”

Culture and Instruction in the Spanish Heritage Language Classroom

“…Outside of the university, they can also use their local varieties as a valuable mean to communicate within medical contexts. Furthermore, service-learning allows HLLs the opportunity to move towards the maintenance of their linguistic and cultural background and knowledge (Leeman, Rabin, and Román-Mendoza, 2011b).…”

“…Critical pedagogy consists of sharing the instructor's own cultural background with the students to build an inclusive environment in the classroom (Ducar, 2008;Samaniego and Pino, 2000). For example, Leeman (2011aLeeman ( , 2011b) investigated a critical service-learning internship program in which college HLLs supervised a heritage language program in an elementary school. The rationale behind this internship was to legitimate their expertise as HLLs as part of building their identities.…”

Research tasks on identity in language learning and teaching

“…Another population of increasing interest to identity researchers is heritage language learners (see Leeman, Rabin & Román-Mendoza 2011;Duff 2012;Kagan & Dillon 2012;He 2014;Manosuthikit & De Costa 2016;Maloney & De Costa 2017). Common in such research is a commitment to reclaim the local by venerating the languages spoken in students' home communities.…”

“…One good example is Leeman, Rabin & Román-Mendoza (2011) who describe a critical service-learning university program that sought to build heritage language speakers' language awareness through community-based opportunities to enact and strengthen their identities as language experts. In this vein, future heritage identity research should take into consideration curricular efforts that involve various stakeholders such as families and community organizations.…”