Retrospectives, Advances, and Current Needs in the Teaching of Spanish to United States Hispanic Bilingual Students

Engaging Critical Pedagogy: Spanish for Native Speakers

“…Researchers and proponents of SNS courses have fought hard to overcome these language prejudices, emphasizing that no language variety is inherently better than another. Consequently there is now a consensus that educators need to understand that there is regional and social variation in all languages, that all language varieties are systematic and rule governed, and that language attitudes are based primarily on judgments of the speakers, rather than the linguistic qualities, of different linguistic varieties (Roca, 1997). Indeed, the importance of incorporating an introduction to sociolinguistic principles in teacher training-stressed in the early 1980s by researchers in the field (see, for example, the numerous contributions in Valdes, Lozano, Q Garcia-Moya, 1981)-is today widely recognized, and the best teacher training programs now incorporate such an introduction to Spanish in the United States (e.g., Potowski, 2001).…”

“…In turn, the location of Spanish language authority outside of the United States reinforces the ideological construction of the United States as an English-speaking nation and the concomitant notion that "true Americans" are monolingual in English (see Leeman, 2004;Pavlenko, 2002;and Schmidt, 2002, for discussions of the ideological construction of the United States as a monolingual Englishspeaking nation). As Roca (1997) and others have argued, negative attitudes towards bilingualism in general, and towards Spanish in particular, represent serious obstacles to the maintenance and development of heritage language abilities among Latinos, both in terms of individual motivation and interest, as well as institutional support.…”

Heritage Language Instruction at the College Level: Reality and Possibilities

“…Unfortunately, this proclamation was not followed by action. As Roca (1997) stated, "Though the AATSP acted admirably in the early 1970s by publicizing the need for SNS [Spanish for Native Speakers] instruction, that report was not followed up formally for over twenty years" (p. 39). This is not to say that nothing has changed.…”

“…A cursory glance at the table of contents of numerous language journals including Modern Language Journal, Hispania, and Foreign Language Annals in the past few years reveal that Valdes's call is being answered. As Roca (1997) so aptly articulated, "As we move closer to the new centuv, the profession has begun to move beyond awareness and toward a proactive stance on fulfilling the needs of native speakers struggling to become fully bilingual and biliterate" (p. 38). While it is not possible to assert that research in the area of heritage language instruction is rapidly increasing, it does appear that there has been a shift from awareness to a theoretical exploration of issues specific to bilinguals and a serious evaluation of program goals and outcomes of heritage language classes.…”

Teacher Development and National Standards for Spanish as a Heritage Language

“…This means that even at institutions with an SNS program, teachers often do not receive adequate preparation to work with these students. Calls for SNS teacher training began appearing at least 20 years ago (Garcia-Moya, 1981;Gutierrez, 1997;Roca, 1992), but to date no for-ma1 national surveys have determined how many preservice teacher-training programs include heritage issues.…”