Response to inquiry: Definition of "heritage learner"

[Scott McGinnis]

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From: Maria Eugenia Trillo [mailto:meja5 at lycos.com]
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 4:54 PM

Cecile,

I, for one, don't believe it is too basic a question to ask for an
applicable definition of a heritage speaker.  There could be many
assumptions that we are all working with at this point.

Case in point:  I am teaching a SPANISH FOR THE PROFESSIONS course with
a focus on the Health Sciences.  It is a 300 level course and I have 9
students in it.  Ideal conditions.
Three of the students have taken Spanish courses in high school and/or
university.  Six of the students are products of bilingual education and
were not taught grammar as they report.  The three 'letradas' in the
language know their grammar but have difficulty in expressing verbally
or in the correct lexical use within a given context.  The bilingual ed
students, not having had grammar taught to them and hearing Spanish in
their homes, are quite fluent and most verbal in their expression.  Both
groups have demonstrated in their classroom assignments and testing
conditions misspellings like "deficil" for dificil, "haiga" for haya,
normalization of certain items like escribido for escrito...  I find it
interesting that of the 9, only 2 are not Hispanic.  The 2 'letradas'
grew up in the El Paso area in a Jewish home speaking English but were
taken care of by their 'nana' who is a mexicana from Juarez.  So their
pronounciation and spelling reflect the nana's upbringing in the langu
age.  All 9 have been most reticent to applying grammatical rules to
their everyday language and I question why we need to teach grammar :).
All 9 are quite comfortable in expressing their thoughts on any topic in
Spanish as well as English.

In my mind, there is a difference between the heritage language speaker
who carries cultural context for the language in the mind and heart,
although not necessarily on the tongue, and the native speaker of
Spanish (SNS) who is more or less an 'analfabeto'.  An 'analfabeto' from
a Spanish-speaking country may be eloquent of speech and may understand
political speeches but, because he has not attended school, is not able
to read or write the language.  In the USA and Canada the Spanish Native
Speaker may be able to read and write Spanish but at an elementary
level, not at all at the level that they need to function as
professionals.  These lack confidence and practise and need the support
to develop both.  The heritage speaker needs to be taught the phonetic
value of the written word so that s/he may also learn to read and write
the language of their ancestors (or hired help as in the case given
above).

Estos son mis dos cacahuates.  La cancha esta abierta.  Thank you for
your time and patience.

Yours truly,



---
Maria Eugenia Trillo, Ph.D.
Dept. of English, Speech and
Foreign Languages
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY
P.O. Box 425829
Denton, TX.  76204-5829
(940) 898-2159
FAX:  (940) 898-2297

>Hello,
>I, for one, thought there were some very good questions posed in the
>last year but unfortunately not a lot of responses. I, as a linguistics

>student, think it is a beneficial tool to see what others are
>researching and studying. I can't say that I have enough experience to
>put in my two bits but I am very eager to hear some world views on
>language. As for the heritage vs non heritage learners, it may be a
>dumb question but what is the definition of non heritage learner. For
>that matter a heritage learner. Is this someone learning their native
>language again? If this is the case isn't there already other
>influences that skew the progression or the learning process? Forgive
>me if this is too basic for this discussion. Sincerely, Cecile Buhl
>
>