Title: HERITAGE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Suggesting Some Strategies and a Conceptual Framework
1HERITAGE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Suggesting
Some Strategies and a Conceptual Framework
- Heritage Language Program
- University of Washington
- Shuhan C. Wang, Ph.D.
- Delaware Department of Education
- January 30, 2006
- Seattle, WA
- ltswang_at_doe.k12.de.usgt
2What Does it Take to Develop Speakers at High
Proficiency Levels?
- High Proficiency Levels individuals who can
function at the professional level in the target
language - Hours of instruction needed for a native English
speaker - --Commonly Taught Languages 720 hours
- --Less Commonly Taught Languages 1320 hours
(Omaggio-Hadley, 2001) - Malone, M. E. Rifkin, B., Christian, D.
Johnson, D. E., 2005. Attaining High Levels of
Proficiency Challenges for Foreign Language
Education in the United States.
http//www.cal.org/resources/digest/attain.htm.
3Pathways to Proficiency
- Start language learning early to build a strong
base for second, third, and fourth language
learning - Provide intensive immersion experiences for
students at the postsecondary level, including
overseas study in a target-language culture - Build on the language background of heritage
language speakers - (Malone, et al., 2005, p. 2, 10/26/05)
4Who Are Heritage Language Learners?--A National
Debate
- Sociolinguistic Perspective (1) colonial
languages (2) indigenous American Indian or
Alaska Native languages and (3) immigrant
languages brought by recent influx of immigrants
(Fishman (2001) - Linguistic Perspective home language, may or may
not understand the heritage language, may be to
some degree bilingual (Valdés, 1999, also see
2001) - Ecological Perspective Any of the above and
those who self-identify as heritage language
learners of a particular language (Hornberger
Wang, in press)e.g., multi-racial marriages
multi-national adopted families
5The Big Question
- How Do We Help
- Heritage Language Learners
- Develop High Levels of Proficiency?
6Strategy 1Frame Heritage Language Issues in the
US
- To engage in public discourse, we cant simply
talk about HL without mentioning English, the
Dominant Language in the US (Crawford, 2003) - In reality, we are not Reversing Language Shift
(Fishman, 1991) - Rather, we are concerned with moving HL
proficiency forward along with English language
developmentBiliteracy Development (Hornberger
King, 1996)
7Strategy 2Rethink Heritage Language in the
Global Context (Layering of Languages
Cultures)
- Along with globalization, there comes
localization of language and culture - In the global context, ones native language and
culture becomes ones HL and HC, and so
onEveryone has a heritage language culture - While one is developing competencies in a
world-wide language of communication and global
culture, ones own sense of heritage becomes more
salient and cherished
8Strategy 3Advocate the Notion of Biliteracy
- Biliteracy refers to heritage learners
competencies in the literacies of the dominant
society and their own heritage community.
Biliteracy is at the juncture where bilingualism
across modalities and biculturalism meet, and
this competence can be used as learners human,
cultural, and social capital (Wang, 2004).
9Strategy 4Be Mindful of Two Big Ideas about
Heritage Language Learning
- HL competence develops in a language eco-system
- Build and use biliteracy as a reservoir of human,
cultural, and social capitals
10Strategy 5Consider Critical Elements in
Heritage Language Development
- Proposing A Conceptual Framework
- of Heritage Language
- Transmission and Development
11Biliteracy Resource Eco-System of
Intergenerational Language and Culture
Transmission
Language Environment Heritage and Dominant
Discourses-in-Contact
Language Evolution Biliteracy in Development
Continua of Biliteracy
Biliteracy Resource Reservoir
Heritage Discourses
Dominant Discourses
Heritage Language Counter-Endangerment Biliteracy
in Use
Human Capital Cultural Capital Social Capital
12Language EnvironmentDiscourses-in-Contact
(Wang, 2004)
- An expansion of the notion of Languages in
contact - Discourses (Paul Gee, 1996) Discourses with a
capital D, which encompasses the language,
culture, and the use of these systems in a
group/society - Discourses shift expanding from language shift
13Identity/ies
- Situated and performed (Erickson Schultz, 1982)
- Identity Kits (Gee 1996) multiplicity and
shifting - perform chosen identities at different times in
different places with different people - Heritage Discourses and Dominant Discourses
Identities (Wang, 2004)
14Sociolinguistic Deconstruction of a Native
Speaker
- Expertise in a language e.g., in heritage or
dominant language, or both or none - Allegiance
- --Inheritance toward the heritage group
- --Affiliation to the dominant group
- Rampton, 1995
15Language Environment Heritage and Dominant
Discourses-in-Contact
Heritage Discourses (HD) Inheritance
Identity Kit Dominant
Discourses Hybrid (DD) Expertise
Affiliation
16Language EvolutionBiliteracy in Development
- Heritage Discourses and Dominant Discourses exist
in the language environment - Individuals must internalize these Discourses in
order to turn them into personal biliteracy
capital reservoir - How do we internalize the HD and DD?--
- Via the Continua of Biliteracy
17Build Biliteracy Capital Reservoir via Continua
of Biliteracy (Hornberger, 1989 Hornberger
Skilton-Sylvester, 2000
- Continua of Context (micro to macro,
- oral to literate, monolingual to bilingual)
- Continua of Media (linguistic structures,
orthographic systems, exposures to the
languages) - Continua of Content (minority to majority
perspectives, vernacular to literary use,
contextualized to decontextualized texts) - Continua of Development (receptive to productive
skills, oral to writing, L1 to L2) -
18Heritage Language Counter-EndangermentBiliterac
y in Use
- Biliteracy capital exists in All Levels from
individuals to the society - The more we use these capitals, the more we
possess them
19Three types of biliteracy capitals can be
deconstructed in language education
- Human Capital (including linguistic capital)
- Cultural Capital (including familys and ethnic
groups educational and cultural heritage) - Social Capital (how we use language culture to
engage others in achieving our social goals)
20Implications for Practice
- How do we enable heritage language learners to
develop high levels of proficiency in the
heritage language? - A checklist for intergenerational language and
culture transmission -
21Align the Curriculum and Practice with the Five
Goals of the National Foreign Language Content
Standards
- Communication
- Cultures (Products, Practices, and Perspectives)
- Connections (to Subject Matters)
- Comparisons (of Cultures and Languages)
- Communities
221. Anchoring in Contexts Make communities front
and center 2. Tracking Language
Development 3. Analyzing Language Exposure to
the Heritage and Dominant Discourses4.
Incorporating majority minority content and
connecting language use to all disciplines
235. Adopting Community-Based Pedagogy Examples
- Linguistic biography studies Make family
language trees role play multi-generational/mult
ilingual/multiethnic family reunion - Cultural biography studies trace the cultural
backgrounds of the families or the group
delineate their cultural heritage or important
values or beliefs interview different
generations of the family and write down their
stories - Identity journaling keep a log of ones
feelings and ideas about self in different
situations and figure out the reasons why one
feels in certain ways - Family photo-journalism compile families
pictures from the homeland to the host society
make oral or written histories about relatives
24Community-Based Pedagogy (2)
- Community funds of knowledge projects
explore/document ways of making things, doing
math, cooking food, making home remedies, playing
games, making crafts and trades, celebrating or
commemorating important dates to name some
examples - Multiple literacies projects make a video, film,
digital movie, or album involving multiple
languages and different modalities, images,
sounds, and media - Multiple voices projects tell/record/write
stories from the dominant and minority sources
and perspectives
25Become Involved With the Alliance for the
Advancement of Heritage Languages Join the
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), the
National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), and
other language educators and researchers
Visit the Web site http//www.cal.org/heritag
e/programs/profiles.html Contact Joy Peyton
(joy_at_cal.org) Join the HL listserv Write to
Scott McGinnis, (sm167_at_umail.umd.edu)
26Conclusion (1)
- All languages and cultures interact in a
ecological system - Everyone has a linguistic and cultural heritage
that needs to be nurtured in the macro micro
environments - The development of the HL requires attention to
the continua of context, content, media, and
development
27Conclusion (2)
- Biliteracy resource is capitals to be used in the
global context - Human capital enable us to advance educationally
and economically - Cultural capital help us claim our identities
and rich cultural inheritance - Social capital allow us to engage people in
achieving our social, economic and political
goals
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