Student Voices: The Missing Link in the Spanish Heritage Language Debate.

Abstract: Though much of the research looking at the issue of language in the Spanish heritage language field is intended to guide the Spanish heritage language teacher in the classroom, students' voices are often stifled. This article fills this gap by giving voice to students' opinions on language use in the Spanish heritage language classroom. Survey results from 152 Spanish heritage language students enrolled in an extensive Spanish heritage language program show that these students prefer to learn specific varieties of Spanish in their Spanish heritage language classes. Interestingly, 91% of those surveyed want their Spanish to be corrected. This article closes with pedagogical suggestions based on the students' preferences that may cause those of us working in the Spanish heritage language field to question our own pre-existing beliefs concerning which language variety best serves the Spanish heritage language student population. Key words: heritage language, standard language, student perspectives Language: Spanish Introduction As Valdes put forth in her seminal text in 1995, the four main pedagogical foci within heritage language pedagogy include: (1) Spanish language maintenance, (2) acquisition of a prestige dialect of Spanish, (3) expansion of bilingual range, and (4) transfer of literacy skills (1995, 2001). A quick glance at these goals reminds us of the primacy of language itself in the heritage language context. In fact, goals 1-3 are inherently tied to each other and have resulted in a boom of recent research in the Spanish heritage language field (see Carreira, 2000, 2003; Fairclough & Gutierrez, 2006; Gutierrez, 1997; Hidalgo, 1990, 1997; Martinez, 2003a; Peyton, Lewelling, & Winke, 2001; Potowski & Carreira, 2004; Valdes, 1995, 1999, 2005, 2006; Villa, 1996, 2002b). Virtually all of the aforementioned research, however, focuses solely on the perspective of the teacher. Though much of the research looking at the issue of language in the Spanish heritage language field is intended to guide the Spanish heritage language teacher in the classroom, our students' voices, which should also serve as guides, are often lost in the research. As Spanish heritage language research has already recognized, we must acknowledge that Spanish heritage language learners are bilinguals who are complex individuals that are fundamentally different from monolinguals (Valdes, 1995). It is my belief that the current situation within the U.S. educational framework upholds Train's (2003) findings that "successful language learners are those who have mastered the standard language" whether or not this was their intended goal (p. 8). In light of this finding, the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language finds itself in a paradoxical situation. The classes that bear the name Spanish for Heritage Learners, are, in theory, simultaneously respecting the "heritage variety"1 while concurrently teaching the standard. Yet if the students (and indeed educators) recognize the societal value placed on the standard language, then often, the original dual-focused goal becomes reduced to the acquisition of the standard language.2 Nevertheless, these authors, in their attempt to look at language in the Spanish heritage language context are answering important questions: What can we do to improve Spanish heritage language students' learning? How can we make Spanish heritage language teachers more sociolinguistically aware? How will increasing the teachers' metalinguistic awareness improve their ability to respect student dialects in the classroom? All of these questions, and the answers generated by this body of research have been imperative to improving the Spanish heritage language field and most importantly the classroom context for Spanish heritage language learners. This article, however, takes such research a step further. By examining the language practices and desires of Spanish heritage language students in a well established Spanish heritage language program, the current study connects the previous research and its pedagogical suggestions to the reality of the Spanish heritage language student. …