Inquiry: Relevance of ESL study to heritage language teaching

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DO NOT USE "REPLY" TO RESPOND TO THIS INQUIRY! Responses should be sent
directly to its originator, Shirin Razani, at razani at mail.shayda.com


I am considering returning to school to study teaching languages and need
to know the best approach. I am a bilingual Persian/English speaker (raised
in Iran by an American mother and Persian father) and want my kids (being
raised in the U.S.) to be bilingual Persian/English speakers. They are now
5 and 3 years old and I have another on the way. The boys speak Persian
well and are quickly acquiring English in preschool. We visit Iran every
year for language and cultural proficiency purposes (we just returned
from a 2 month stay in Iran which really helped them).

If I return to school for the purpose of learning how to teach my
heritage language to my kids (and other Iranian kids in the community),
should I study ESL or is there another route to go? I'd appreciate ANY
advice on this matter.

Sincerely,

Shirin Razani
Chicago, IL>