This article reports the results of an investigation into current Spanish heritage language (SHL) course offerings and their content in 4‐year public and private universities in the American Southwest. Prior research has indicated that the number of language departments in the United States offering SHL courses remains small (18 and 17.8%, respectively). The data collection consisted of a survey method carried out through an extensive Web search and follow‐up communications with all universities with Hispanic populations of at least 5% in the region. The findings showed a prevalence of SHL programs in the region, although there remained an uneven distribution throughout the Southwest as reported earlier in nationwide or local studies, with a great discrepancy between the low availability of programs in certain areas and a higher accumulation of programs in others. This distribution was, however, significantly proportionate to the size of the Hispanic population in the various universities. In addition, existing SHL programs were limited with respect to their instructional goals and the types of students they accommodated in their courses. This study encourages reflection on how to best serve the pedagogical needs of the growing population of SHL learners and incorporate insights from SHL research findings into SHL programs.

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Critical language awareness (CLA) is increasingly identified as a central component of the Spanish heritage language (SHL) classroom (Leeman, 2005; Martínez, 2003; among others). As a minority language, SHL is subject to sociopolitical, cultural, and economic forces that devalue its status. It is devalued in the eyes of the public, as a legitimate U.S. language, and as something worthy of being maintained. It is essential that students receive instruction not only in the heritage language, but also on the contextual factors that affect the Spanish-English sociopolitical relationship in the United States. Such instruction will enable learners to begin resisting heritage language loss by questioning language ideologies that promote English monolingualism and standard, monolingual Spanish as the ideal norm. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire with adequate psychometric properties to measure CLA in the SHL context. The respondents were 301 students enrolled in SHL courses in four U.S. universities. The questionnaire results were submitted to a series of statistical analysis to investigate how well the instrument meets the criteria of reliability and validity specified in this study. The final 19-item instrument had adequate psychometric properties and detected change in the CLA of students in a class where CLA was taught.