wang, hl development, 01061 heritage language development: suggesting some strategies and a...

Wang, HL Development, 0106 1

HERITAGE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Suggesting Some Strategies and

a Conceptual Framework

Heritage Language ProgramUniversity of Washington

Shuhan C. Wang, Ph.D.Delaware Department of Education

January 30, 2006Seattle, WA

<swang@doe.k12.de.us>

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What Does it Take to Develop Speakers

at High Proficiency Levels? High Proficiency Levels: individuals who can function

at the professional level in the target language

Hours of instruction needed for a native English speaker: --Commonly Taught Languages: 720 hours--Less Commonly Taught Languages: 1320 hours (Omaggio-Hadley, 2001)

Malone, M. E.; Rifkin, B., Christian, D. & Johnson, D. E., 2005. Attaining High Levels of Proficiency: Challenges for Foreign Language Education in the United States. http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/attain.htm.

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Pathways to Proficiency

Start language learning early to build a strong base for second, third, and fourth language learning

Provide intensive immersion experiences for students at the postsecondary level, including overseas study in a target-language culture

Build on the language background of heritage language speakers

(Malone, et al., 2005, p. 2, 10/26/05)

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Who Are Heritage Language Learners?--A National Debate

Sociolinguistic Perspective: (1) colonial languages; (2) indigenous American Indian or Alaska Native languages; and (3) immigrant languages brought by recent influx of immigrants (Fishman (2001)

Linguistic Perspective: home language, may or may not understand the heritage language, may be to some degree bilingual (Valdés, 1999, also see 2001)

Ecological Perspective: Any of the above and those who self-identify as heritage language learners of a particular language (Hornberger & Wang, in press)—e.g., multi-racial marriages; multi-national adopted families

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The Big Question:

How Do We Help

Heritage Language Learners

Develop High Levels of Proficiency?

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Strategy 1:Frame Heritage Language Issues in

the US To engage in public discourse, we can’t simply

talk about HL without mentioning English, the Dominant Language in the US (Crawford, 2003)

In reality, we are not “Reversing Language Shift” (Fishman, 1991)

Rather, we are concerned with moving HL proficiency forward along with English language development—Biliteracy Development (Hornberger & King, 1996)

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Strategy 2:Rethink Heritage Language

in the Global Context (Layering of Languages & Cultures)

Along with globalization, there comes localization of language and culture

In the global context, one’s native language and culture becomes one’s HL and HC, and so on—Everyone has a heritage language & culture

While one is developing competencies in a world-wide language of communication and global culture, one’s own sense of heritage becomes more salient and cherished

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Strategy 3:Advocate the Notion of Biliteracy

Biliteracy refers to heritage learners’ competencies in the literacies of the dominant society and their own heritage community. Biliteracy is at the juncture where bilingualism across modalities and biculturalism meet, and this competence can be used as learners’ human, cultural, and social capital (Wang, 2004).

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Strategy 4:Be Mindful of Two Big Ideas about

Heritage Language Learning

1. HL competence develops in a language eco-system

2. Build and use biliteracy as a reservoir of human, cultural, and social capitals

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Strategy 5:Consider Critical Elements in

Heritage Language Development

Proposing A Conceptual Framework

of Heritage Language

Transmission and Development

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Biliteracy Resource Eco-System of Intergenerational Language and Culture Transmission

Language Environment:Heritage and Dominant Discourses-in-Contact

Language Evolution:Biliteracy in Development

Continua of Biliteracy

Biliteracy Resource Reservoir

Heritage Language Counter-Endangerment:Biliteracy in Use

Human CapitalCultural CapitalSocial Capital

Her

itag

e D

isco

urs

es

Dom

inan

t D

isco

urs

es

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Language Environment:Discourses-in-Contact (Wang, 2004)

An expansion of the notion of Languages in contact

Discourses (Paul Gee, 1996): Discourses with a capital D, which encompasses the language, culture, and the use of these systems in a group/society

Discourses shift: expanding from language shift

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Identity/ies

Situated and performed (Erickson & Schultz, 1982)

Identity Kits (Gee 1996): multiplicity and shifting

perform chosen identities at different times in different places with different people

Heritage Discourses and Dominant Discourses Identities (Wang, 2004)

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Sociolinguistic Deconstruction of a Native Speaker

Expertise in a language; e.g., in heritage or dominant language, or both or none

Allegiance --Inheritance toward the heritage group --Affiliation to the dominant group

Rampton, 1995

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Language Environment: Heritage and Dominant Discourses-in-Contact

Heritage

Discourses

(HD)

Inheritance

Identity Kit Dominant

Discourses

Hybrid (DD)

Expertise Affiliation

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Language Evolution:Biliteracy in Development

Heritage Discourses and Dominant Discourses exist in the language environment

Individuals must internalize these Discourses in order to turn them into personal biliteracy capital reservoir

How do we internalize the HD and DD?--

Via the Continua of Biliteracy

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Build Biliteracy Capital Reservoir via

Continua of Biliteracy (Hornberger, 1989; Hornberger & Skilton-Sylvester, 2000

Continua of Context (micro to macro, oral to literate, & monolingual to bilingual)

Continua of Media (linguistic structures, orthographic systems, & exposures to the languages)

Continua of Content (minority to majority perspectives, vernacular to literary use, & contextualized to decontextualized texts)

Continua of Development (receptive to productive skills, oral to writing, & L1 to L2)

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Heritage Language Counter-Endangerment:Biliteracy in Use

Biliteracy capital exists in All Levels from individuals to the society

The more we use these capitals, the more we possess them

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Three types of biliteracy capitals can be deconstructed in language education

Human Capital (including linguistic capital)

Cultural Capital (including family’s and ethnic group’s educational and cultural heritage)

Social Capital (how we use language & culture to engage others in achieving our social goals)

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Implications for Practice

How do we enable heritage language learners to develop high levels of proficiency in the heritage language?

A checklist for intergenerational language and culture transmission

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Align the Curriculum and Practice with the Five Goals of the National Foreign

Language Content Standards

Communication Cultures (Products, Practices, and

Perspectives) Connections (to Subject Matters) Comparisons (of Cultures and Languages) Communities

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1. Anchoring in Contexts:Make communities front and center

2. Tracking Language Development

3. Analyzing Language Exposure to theHeritage and Dominant Discourses

4. Incorporating majority & minority content and connecting language use to all

disciplines

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5. Adopting Community-Based Pedagogy: Examples

Linguistic biography studies: Make family language trees; role play multi-generational/multilingual/multiethnic family reunion

Cultural biography studies: trace the cultural backgrounds of the families or the group; delineate their cultural heritage or important values or beliefs; interview different generations of the family and write down their stories

Identity journaling: keep a log of one’s feelings and ideas about self in different situations and figure out the reasons why one feels in certain ways

Family photo-journalism: compile families’ pictures from the homeland to the host society; make oral or written histories about relatives

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Community-Based Pedagogy (2)

Community funds of knowledge projects: explore/document ways of making things, doing math, cooking food, making home remedies, playing games, making crafts and trades, celebrating or commemorating important dates; to name some examples

Multiple literacies projects: make a video, film, digital movie, or album involving multiple languages and different modalities, images, sounds, and media

Multiple voices projects: tell/record/write stories from the dominant and minority sources and perspectives

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Become Involved With the Alliance for the Advancement of

Heritage Languages

Join the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), and other language educators

and researchers

  Visit the Web site: http://www.cal.org/heritage/programs/profiles.html

Contact Joy Peyton (joy@cal.org)  

Join the HL listserv: Write to Scott McGinnis, (sm167@umail.umd.edu)

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Conclusion (1) All languages and cultures interact in a

ecological system

Everyone has a linguistic and cultural heritage that needs to be nurtured in the macro & micro environments

The development of the HL requires attention to the continua of context, content, media, and development

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Conclusion (2) Biliteracy resource is capitals to be used in

the global context:

Human capital: enable us to advance educationally and economically

Cultural capital: help us claim our identities and rich cultural inheritance

Social capital: allow us to engage people in achieving our social, economic and political goals

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谢谢

Thank you!