Mi Lengua / Edition 1

by Ana Roca, M. Cecilia Colombi, Guadalupe Vald?s

Overview

This volume examines issues in the research, theory, and practice of teaching Spanish as a heritage language in the United States. It addresses questions that have surfaced as an increasing number of Latinos have sought to become more proficient in a language to which they have had some exposure to in childhood but in which they are not fluent. Each chapter includes a section on pedagogical implications.

Heritage language learners encompass a wide range of proficiency, from those who have a low level of listening comprehension from hearing their parents speak to those who are nearly, but not quite, bilingual or fully literate in Spanish. These learners have needs that differ from students learning Spanish as a second language with no prior knowledge of it.

The members of the AATSP have identified teaching heritage learners as the second greatest area of concern (after proficiency testing). This book was developed (the essays were commissioned for it, not resulting from a conference) in response to a perceived hunger for this kind of information. The AATSP and ACTFL have each published a book on the subject (both in 2000, I think), but not much else is available except for Roca's work and journal articles.

Some of the essays (5 of 13) are written in Spanish, which is common practice in collections of essays in the field of Spanish linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878409037
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	07/28/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ana Roca is a professor in the Modern Languages department at Florida International University, Miami. She is chair of the Spanish for Native Speakers Committee of the AATSP. Her main areas of teaching and research interest are Spanish, Spanish in the United States, bilingualism and heritage language education issues in Spanish, language teaching, language education policy issues, and Hispanic culture and film. Roca is the author or coeditor of many books, including Research on Spanish in the United States; Nuevos Mundos (text & workbook); Spanish in Contact: Issues in Bilingualism (co-edited with John B. Jensen); and Spanish in the United States: Linguistic Contact and Diversity (co-edited with John M. Lipski).

M. Cecilia Colombi is a professor in the Department of Language and Classics and Associate Language Director at the University of California-Davis. Her research interests include second language acquisition, educational linguistics, and sociolinguistics with emphasis on Spanish in the United States. She is the coauthor of Palabra Abierta (with Jill Pellettieri and Mabel Rodríguez), and the coeditor of both Developing Advanced Literacy in First and Second Language (with Mary Schleppegrell) and La Enseñanza del Español a Hispanohablantes: Praxis y Teoría (with Francisco X. Alarcón).

Read an Excerpt

This book is a unique contribution in that it incorporates theory, research, and practice and moves us forward to the next stage in the development of this specialized field of inquiry and teaching. Roca and Colombi have brought together an exceptional [volume] that focus[es] on the most important issues involving the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language today.

Table of Contents

ForewordGuadalupe Valdés1. Insights form Research and Practice in Spanish as a Heritage LanguageM. Cecilia Colombi and Ana RocaPart I Spanish as a Heritage LanguageTheoretical Considerations

2. Toward a Theory of Heritage Language AcquisitionSpanish in the United StatesAndrew Lynch3. Profiles of SNS Students in the Twenty-First CenturyPedagogical Implications of the Changing Demographics and Social Status of U.S. HispanicsMaría M. Carreira4. Un enfoque funcional para la enseñanza del ensayo expositivo¿Revitalización o erradicación de la variedad chicana?Ysaura Bernal-Enríquez and Eduardo Hernández ChávezPart II Community and Classroom-Based Research StudiesImplications for Instruction K-16

6. “Spanish in My Blood”Children’s Spanish Language Development in Dual-Language Immersion ProgramsErnestina Pesina Hernández, Hinako Takahashi-Breines, and Rebecca Blum-Martínez7. Minority Perspectives on LanguageMexican and Mexican-American Adolescents’ Attitudes toward Spanish and EnglishKaren Beckstead and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio8. META: A Model for the Continued Acquisition of Spanish by Spanish/English Bilinguals in the United StatesRoberto Luis Carrasco and Florencia Riegelhaupt9. La enseñanza del español a los hispanohablantes bilingües y su efecto en la producción oralMarta Fairclough and N. Ariana Mrak10. Academic Registers in Spanish in the U.S.A Study of Oral Texts Produced by Bilingual Speakers in a University Graduate ProgramMariana Achugar11. ¡No me suena!Heritage Spanish Speakers’ Writing StrategiesAna María Schwartz12. Navegando a través del registro formalCurso para hispanohablantes bilingüesRebeca Acevedo13. Spanish Print EnvironmentsImplications for Heritage Language DevelopmentSandra Liliana PucciContributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

Provides credible research and sound pedagogical strategies for addressing the education of the ever-increasing numbers of Spanish heritage language speakers in the United States. Its publication is timely and it should be required reading for all people who currently teach Spanish or plan to teach it in the future.

Language Problems and Language Planning

Mi lengua is a valuable collection that can serve not only professors and future researchers in the field of teaching Spanish to bilingual speakers, but also students in the area of political reform (reforms surrounding inherited language), interested in making new proposals or in disseminating new pedagogies.

Estudios de lingüística aplicada

" Mi lengua is a valuable collection that can serve not only professors and future researchers in the field of teaching Spanish to bilingual speakers, but also students in the area of political reform (reforms surrounding inherited language), interested in making new proposals or in disseminating new pedagogies." -- Estudios de lingüística aplicada

"Provides credible research and sound pedagogical strategies for addressing the education of the ever-increasing numbers of Spanish heritage language speakers in the United States. Its publication is timely and it should be required reading for all people who currently teach Spanish or plan to teach it in the future." -- Language Problems and Language Planning

From the Publisher