Chapter 13: Reaching Outside the Classroom: A Qualitative Look at the Effects of Community on the Heritage Language Development of University Students¹

Researchers are in agreement on the connection that needs to exist between heritage language education (HLE) and the community in which the heritage language (HL) resides. First and foremost, while instructors may be concerned with increasing the academic skills of their students, the latter have a long-term need to interact in and with their communities. A survey of post-secondary HL learners (HLLs) confirmed that the most important need students have for their HL is to connect with their communities (Beaudrie, Ducar, & Relaño-Pastor, 2009). It is for this reason, if no other, that curriculum design for HL courses needs to involve knowledge about the communities to which the learners belong (Carreira & Kagan, 2011). Interestingly, because speakers do not always initiate interaction on their own, the connection made through the classroom becomes even more significant (Schwarzer & Petrón, 2005). Moreover, there is strong evidence that development and maintenance of the HL requires more than just interaction with family; exposure to different linguistic domains is needed in order to develop vocabulary outside of the traditional areas of home and church in which speakers use their HL. In order to extend the use of the HL, there must be additional forms of comprehensible input such as those provided by watching television, reading, and traveling to the country where the HL is spoken (Cho & Krashen, 2000; Fishman, 2004). The impact group membership has on language proficiency and performance has been demonstrated by several studies (Oriyama, 2012; Tse, 2001; Zentella, 1997). Furthermore, investigators agree on how crucial it is to develop curricula for HLE that incorporate community connections as these reinforce learners’ cultural identity. Beaudrie et al. (2009) specifically proposed interviews with relatives and friends, descriptions of social gatherings, and cultural projects in the community; Rodríguez-Pino (1994) suggested ethnographic studies; Roca and Alonso (2006) developed the Abuelos Project in order to get students to interview elderly family members (as cited in Carreira & Kagan, 2011), and Carreira and Kagan (2011) recommended interviews with family and community members, recording oral histories, and researching the history of the country of immigration. Martínez and Schwartz (2012) took students into medical settings as interpreters, taking into account Aparicio’s (2000) suggestion of the need to show students the usefulness of their HL. Unfortunately, in spite of all of the above work being done, most HL programs at the post-secondary level have a lot of improvement to make in order to forge ties with their respective communities (Villa, 2010; Wiley, 2005).