[HERITAGE-LIST] Request for participation: Survey about heritage Spanish instruction (focus on writing) in the United States

[Scott G. McGinnis]

Dear all,

My colleague Idoia Elola, and I have designed a survey about writing in the heritage Spanish classroom. Please see below for our official invitation to participate, as well as a link that will take you directly to the survey. Survey respondents are able to include themselves in a drawing for 1 of 4 $50 gift cards.

Note: The current survey is designed for post-secondary coordinators, instructors, and students, but we are thinking about doing a K-12 version of the survey in the future!

If you have any questions, please contact me (amm71 at psu.edu<mailto:amm71 at psu.edu>) or Idoia (idoia.elola at ttu.edu<mailto:idoia.elola at ttu.edu>).

Saludos,

Ariana Mikulski

*****

Dear Colleague,

My colleague, Ariana Mikulski, and I are writing to invite you to participate in a research survey about Spanish writing instruction because you have taught or coordinated a Spanish-as-a-heritage-language/Spanish-as-a-foreign-language course within the past year. The survey, linked below, should only take about 10-15 minutes to complete. If you are able and willing to take the survey, we would ask that you do so within the next 2 weeks. If you participate, you can choose to enter a drawing for a $50 gift card.

We would appreciate if you could forward this message to any faculty, instructor, or graduate teaching assistant that might be able to participate. Also, please share this link with any undergraduate students you have in Spanish heritage-language classes.

tlpdc.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3VL0KA6jy3S8Uw5<http://tlpdc.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3VL0KA6jy3S8Uw5>

The goal of the survey is to gather information about teachers’ and students’ writing practices and perceptions at various institutions.

Your decision to participate or decline participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you have the right to skip questions and/or terminate your participation at any time without penalty. Your decision to participate, decline, or withdraw from participation will have no effect on your current status or future relations with Texas Tech University.

Your participation in this research will be completely confidential. Your name and location will not be recorded at any point. Possible outlets of dissemination of the results of this study may be presentations at academic conferences or articles in scholarly journals.

Although your participation in this research may not benefit you personally, you will have extra opportunities to reflect on how you 1) learned English and Spanish and 2) used your abilities in each language, especially for writing. This reflection can in turn help you to better understand yourself as a writers and language teacher/learner. Your participation will help us understand how universities design writing curricula and writing practices. There are no risks to individuals participating in this survey beyond those that exist in daily life.

If you have questions about this project or if you have a research-related problem, you may contact the researcher, Idoia Elola at idoia.elola at ttu.edu<mailto:marta.tecedor at ttu.edu>. If you have questions concerning your rights as a research subject, you may contact Texas Tech University IRB Office at hrpp at ttu.edu<mailto:hrpp at ttu.edu> or (806) 742-2064<callto:(806)%20742-2064>.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Thank you very much for your participation!

Idoia Elola, Texas Tech University

Ariana Mikulski, Penn State University