Community-based heritage language (HL) programs can empower culturally and linguistically diverse students and families to construct hybrid practices linking home and school knowledges to promote learning. This study focused on the analysis of critical incidents in one Spanish HL program involving both youths and adults. Findings revealed the ways…

Research examining ethnolinguistic community schools (García, Zakharia, & Otcu, 2013) proposes that local spaces not directly affiliated with schools sustain bilingualism and identity. Though researchers often theorize about how community schools sustain home language literacies, less research examines how local public spaces sustain…

An extensive body of research documents the successes of immigrant groups in establishing community language schools. Studied within this tradition, Latino immigrant communities appear to come up short, because of the scarcity of such schools for Spanish-speaking children. However, as we show in this paper, Latino immigrant communities do have…

We report on the service-learning component of a Spanish-language Saturday school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for elementary-aged Spanish-language heritage learners and also examine the newly forming Latino community served by this innovative program. The US Spanish-speaking population is growing throughout the country, resulting in greatly increased…

This article reports the results of an investigation into current Spanish heritage language (SHL) course offerings and their content in 4-year public and private universities in the American Southwest. Prior research has indicated that the number of language departments in the United States offering SHL courses remains small (18 and 17.8%,…

CThe article is a study of Latino immigrant parents' agency toward primary language (L1) instruction in the face of restrictionist language policy. Certain attitudes and characteristics were associated with advocacy for Spanish L1 instruction. Interviews conducted in an urban California school district among parents with different background…

The Hispanic population of the United States is quite diverse and with each passing year, due to (im)migration patterns, more and more students are entering language classrooms with some degree of familiarity with the language. However, because of the tendency toward intergenerational loss of Spanish, the linguistic proficiency covers the…

This article presents a critical analysis of language ideologies in the instructional discourse of Spanish for heritage speakers in the United States. We focus on the discourse present in prefaces and introductions to Spanish for heritage speakers textbooks published between 1970 and 2000. Whereas previous research on language ideologies in…

Although a growing body of research points to the potential benefits of bilingual education, there are a number of commonly held beliefs that run counter to research findings. Based on current research, this digest clarifies some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding language use and bilingual education in the United States. The fallacies…

Discusses Krashen's monitor model and input hypothesis of language acquisition, focusing on the implications of this hypothesis among Hispanic bilinguals in an English speaking-teaching-reading-problem-solving environment. The hypothesis maintains that individuals acquire more language only when they are exposed to comprehensible input that is a…

This article describes a series of studies that examine the development of literacy in elementary school Spanish-speaking second-language learners. Findings from the research that addresses our first question-regarding cross-language relationships-indicate that first-language reading skills are related to second-language reading skills, but that…

Rapid demographic changes and an increasing recognition of the critical need for professionals who are proficient in languages other than English have led to an interest in developing language programs and classes for "heritage language learners" students who are raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken and who speak or at…

This digest focuses on teaching Spanish to native or Hispanic heritage language students in the United States. Heritage language students are students who speak another language (in this case Spanish) as their first language either because they were born in another country or because their families speak another language at home. The entrance of…

The Career Awareness and Resource Education Program (Project CARE) served 425 limited English proficient students at two New York City high schools. The students, all Hispanic, were enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, Native Language Arts Classes (NLA), and content area subjects. The program provided guidance, tutoring, and…