Spanish Heritage Speakers in Study Abroad Programs
This Guide can be used by students preparing for study abroad and administrators of study abroad programs. It has three parts.
Part 1: Understanding Heritage Speakers provides a general overview of Spanish Heritage Speakers (SHSs) in the U.S. context.; analyzes some statistical data on the Hispanic and Latino population; discusses some factors that influence the proficiency level of SHSs. It concludes with some of the obstacles that may cause heritage learners to opt out of study abroad programs.
Part 2: Fostering Language Development discusses some linguistic characteristics that are typically exhibited by SHSs; analyzes some barriers that SHSs often encounter in study abroad programs when trying to develop their language skills in Spanish; presents pedagogical considerations and strategies.
Part 3: Fostering Cultural Adjustment provides information and ideas on how to enrich the cultural experience of heritage speakers in study abroad programs. This includes managing perceptions and expectations from the point of view of both heritage speakers and the host community (including host families, instructors, staff, etc.). Three opportunities to enhance heritage speakers´ cultural experience while abroad are discussed: service learning, voluntary work, and internships.
Publication Units:
Part 1: Understanding Heritage Speakers
Part 2: Fostering Language Development
Part 3: Fostering Cultural Adjustment
Model Program for Heritage Spanish Study Abroad
The aim of this project was to support the impact of short-term study abroad for heritage speakers of Spanish by developing an enhancement program. The resulting model program, written in Spanish, is published here as “Curso de preparación para estudiantes de herencia de español en programas de estudios en el extranjero”.
There are five modules to the program (+ handout to module 2 and 5), a bibliography of relevant references, a guide for students and a guide for instructors or administrators.
Please respect the Creative Commons Licence and cite as:
Jimenez Jimenez, A. (2022). Curso de preparación para estudiantes de herencia de español en programas de estudios en el extranjero. University Park, PA: CALPER Publications.
Publication Units:
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Heritage Spanish Students – Background
Module 3: Studying Abroad
Module 4: Heritage and Identity
Module 5: Language Development
Bibliography
Publication Files:
CALPERLEX Spanish
CALPERLEX is a series of worksheets that teachers can use in their course to explore language through corpus analysis. Teachers can find single lexical items or contrasting lexical pairs or routine expressions presented in form of concordance lines. The “problem set” can be printed out and used in the classroom. They can also be used by individual learners for self-study.
Publication Units:
CALPERLEX on “en fin / por fin “
CALPERLEX on “ir / irse”
CALPERLEX on “quedar / quedarse”
CALPERLEX on “en seguida”