Language Placement Exams for Heritage Speakers of Spanish: Learning from Students' Mistakes

Abstract

Student admission into heritage language programs is usually determined by locally designed placement exams. Howevel; there are no norms to guide language teaching professionals in the assessment of this student population. This study looks at placement exams completed by heritage learners of Spanish at the University of Houston. The quantijication and analysis of the verb morphology section from this archival data describe the variation present in the linguistic systems of these learners, making it possible (1) to recognize gaps in the learners' linguistic systems and (2) to identijy major differences between academic Spanish and the students' home‐variety language. This information may be useful in the design of a placement exam based on empirical research, and may also serve as a guide for syllabi design and teaching practice.

Perceptions of Writing Anxiety and Self-Efficacy Among Spanish Heritage Language Learners

“…Nevertheless, Hispanics who enter higher education may be more English-proficient than Spanish-proficient. Fairclough (2008) stated that "despite the increase in the Hispanic population in the United States, proficiency in the Spanish language as a heritage language continues to diminish" (p. 595). Due to few formal educational experiences, HLLs may become less proficient in their HL and more proficient in the dominant language.…”

Spanish for Heritage Speakers: A Statewide Survey of Secondary School Teachers

“…Of the studies that have been published on specific Spanish HL programs, most have been conducted at the university level (e.g., Ducar, 2008;Edstrom, 2007;Fairclough, 2006;Valdés, Fishman, Chávez, & Pérez, 2006b). Two exceptions are a survey conducted by Pino and Pino (2005) of foreign language coordinators in Texas school districts, and a survey of Spanish department lead teachers/chairpersons at high schools in California, conducted by Valdés, Fishman, Chávez, and Pérez (2006a).…”

Toward Useful Assessment and Evaluation of Heritage Language Learning

“…Other studies have provided examples of the process of developing a placement test for HL programs at the university level. As Table shows, the most common assessment method used to place students appears to be multiple‐choice, discrete‐item tests measuring grammar, vocabulary, listening, and reading comprehension skills (Beaudrie & Ducar, ; Burgo, ; Sohn & Shin, ), as well as writing (Burgo, ; Fairclough, ) and cloze tests (Fairclough, ). As might be expected, most studies described the use of more than one assessment method.…”

“…Studies that have advised against the use of the ACTFL guidelines for HLLs (Draper & Hicks, ; Fairclough, ; Valdés, ) pointed out that the guidelines were designed for FLLs and therefore are based on a different language developmental continuum than the one observed for HLLs. In particular, studies focusing on Spanish as an HL have argued that the guidelines do not take into consideration the language varieties that are used by diverse HLLs and that the native speaker standard is not applicable for this specific group (e.g., Fairclough, ; Valdés, ). In other words, one single native speaker standard is not representative of the multiple varieties of Spanish to which HLLs are exposed at home.…”

“…The following review offers a general overview of studies that have advanced the research agenda concerning HLLs and focuses specifically on research and examples of practices that are oriented toward implementing assessment and evaluation in relation to adult HLLs and postsecondary heritage learner education. Most published research on this domain has focused on the K–12 HLLs, and relatively less attention has been given to the assessment of HLLs and the evaluations of HL programs in institutions of higher education (Fairclough, , ). This review therefore intends to generate more awareness and encourage more research on the adult HLL.…”