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Kimberley A. Helmer
Ph.D. Candidate
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
Joint AAAL & ACLA/CAAL
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
June 17 -20, 2006
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“Year One at “City” High School: Resistance in a Heritage Spanish-Language”
ABSTRACT
Peyton, Ranard, and McGinnis (2001) explain that although a lot is known about foreign language and ESL pedagogy, heritage language pedagogy is an area vastly under researched—especially in the context of charter school reform. In a two-year ethnographic study of an innovative, start-up charter high school located near the Mexican border, a heritage Spanish-language class is investigated within the larger school environment. The school’s overarching pedagogical framework is place-based learning which situates the academic curriculum within the school’s surrounding economic, political, social, linguistic, and geographic contexts.
From the first day the school opened its doors, the Spanish heritage class became a site of student resistance—students refused to speak their ancestral language, rejected published Spanish-language materials, and segregated themselves along racial lines with those who symbolically represented their Mexican identity and those who did not. Through videotaped classroom interaction, home visits, interviews with students, parents, and teachers, this resistance is explored. The heritage Spanish class is juxtaposed with a humanities course in which students participate and engage fully with subject matter and instructor in sharp contrast to the Spanish class: What is of interest is that these are the exact same students.
In the heritage class, it was found that ethnic identity and “sounding white” while speaking Spanish played a contributing role in fueling student resistance to language instruction. Student engagement was enhanced with the implementation of hands-on student-centered tasks and close adherence to the school’s philosophy of place-based learning. It was also found that a teacher’s ethos of caring, humor, and clear boundary setting created the most effective learning environments.
This presentation will expand on the above findings as well as discuss situated identity, language ideology, and recommendations for the heritage-language classroom.
Peyton, J. K., Ranard, D. A., & McGinnis, S. (2001). Charting a new course: Heritage language education in the United States. In J. K. Peyton, D. A. Ranard & S. McGinnis (Eds.), Heritage languages in America: Preserving a national resource (pp. 3-26). McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems Co.
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