Mi Lengua ─ Spanish As a Heritage Language in the United States, Research and Practice

An increasing number of U.S. Latinos are seeking to become more proficient in Spanish. The Spanish they may have been exposed to in childhood may not be sufficient when they find themselves as adults in more demanding environments, academic or professional. Heritage language learners appear in a wide spectrum of proficiency, from those who have a low level of speaking abilities, to those who may have a higher degree of bilingualism, but not fluent. Whatever the individual case may be, these heritage speakers of Spanish have different linguistic and pedagogical needs than those students learning Spanish as a second or foreign language.

The members of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) have identified teaching heritage learners as their second greatest area of concern (after proficiency testing). Editors Ana Roca and Cecilia Colombi saw a great need for greater availability and dissemination of scholarly research in applied linguistics and pedagogy that address the development and maintenance of Spanish as a heritage language and the teaching of Spanish to U.S. Hispanic bilingual students in grades K-16. The result is "Mi lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States."

"Mi lengua" delves into the research, theory, and practice of teaching Spanish as a heritage language in the United States. The editors and contributors examine theoretical considerations in the field of Heritage Language Development (HLD) as well as community and classroom-based research studies at the elementary, secondary, and university levels. Some chapters are written in Spanish and each chapter presents a practical section on pedagogical implications that provides practice-related suggestions for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language to students from elementary grades to secondary and college and university levels.

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, includingResearch on Spanish in the United States; Nuevos Mundos (text & workbook);Spanish in Contact: Issues in Bilingualism (co-edited with John B. Jensen); andSpanish 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 Rodriguez), and the coeditor of bothDeveloping Advanced Literacy in First and Second Language (with Mary Schleppegrell) andLa Ensenanza del Espanol a Hispanohablantes: Praxis y Teoria (with Francisco X. Alarcon).