Response to inquiry: Differences between heritage and non-heritage learners

[Scott McGinnis]

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 10:57:05 -0800
To: heritage-list at Glue.umd.edu
From: Frank Smith <vox at drizzle.com>

Margarita Hidalgo wrote:

>
>This inquiry RE Differences between heritage and
>non-heritage learners is the most interesting I have seen in more than
>a year, if not the only one that is truly relevant to to the Forum
>"heritage-list".  Can you leave it on the air for a while just to see
>  which direction it takes?
>
>Scott McGinnis wrote:
>
>Fine by me -- I'm only sorry that Margarita (and perhaps others?) have
>found what I've been taking a good deal of time to post to the list
>over the past year so "irrelevant".


Well, in fairness to Scott and all his hard work running this list, I
think many of us have found all the various announcements and other
issues which are tangential (but in many cases still related) to
heritage language teaching useful, but this recent post is, I think,
much more on the money for most of us as far as what we were
expecting when we joined.

Of course, we all have the ability to post here and steer the
discussion in one direction or another, which is after all what makes
or breaks a listserv, so...

Hi-Sun Helen Kim wrote:

>
>I'm interested in looking into cognitive/ lingusitic differences of
>heritage learners in comparison to non-heritage learners and other
>learners.
>
>I was wondering if there are any (empirical) studies done in the
>literature on linguistic characteristics, cognitive styles
>(psycholinguistic), and/or aptitude of heritage learners?

I wish I could suggest some empirical studies, but I can't...other
than the excellent ACTFL volume from last year, "Teaching Heritage
Language Learners: Voices from the Classroom" (edited by John Webb
and Barbara Miller).  And for the most part I think I'd have to call
that one ethnographic/experiential rather than empirical (which is by
no means a criticism!).  At any rate, I think anyone involved in
Heritage language instruction/curriculum planning--at the university
level, as I am, or at any other level--would do well to read this
book.  For one thing, it very articulately raises lots of issues and
perspectives which are needed before we can formulate any coherent
empirical studies of heritage language learning.  And while it deals
primarily with Spanish heritage instruction, it is wonderfully
diverse and extends to many other languages as well in its case
studies and examples.

That said, I think one of the strengths of a listserv like this is
that we *all* possess a wealth of first-hand experiences and
observations regarding the differences between heritage learners and
non-heritage learners, and that while that doesn't amount to
empirical evidence, it does mean that we too (like the authors of the
above volume) can contribute to the necessary operationalizing of
terms and concepts that must occur before valid empirical research
can be carried out.

I have just one more thing to comment on for now:

Craig Butler wrote:

>Moreover, it is uncertain to me whether "heritage"-with its
>social >accretion--is an appropriate construct for learner's who, in
>linguistic
>plainspeak, are...bilingual.  As theorists and practitioners, are we
>not >talking about understanding and guiding the development of
>individual language
>competence acquired in a naturalistic setting, where this language
>is, in fact, >the "lesser" sibling of the language dyad (or
>triad...) that comprises an
>individual's whole linguistic competence/reach?

I think that "heritage" *is* an appropriate construct, certainly for
the purposes of distinguishing these learners from non-native
speakers (in a pedagogical, needs-assessment context).  Years of
trying to serve these two populations' very different needs in the
same classroom have led the organization in which I teach and design
curriculum to create dedicated heritage classes for four of the
languages we teach, and this has enabled us to become much more
focused and efficient in our language instruction.

Honing in on the needs of heritage students as a separate population
has opened my eyes to a whole different set of questions, though, and
driven home to me how heterogenous the population of heritage
learners itself is...and how fluid terms like "bilingual" and "native
speaker" are, as I begin to deal with widely differing abilities
among heritage learners in their command of grammar, phonology, and
socially appropriate speech forms, among other things.

Frank

Frank Smith
Khmer Language Coordinator
Heritage Language Facilitator
Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute
University of Wisconsin-Madison