Heritage Speakers

January 22, 2013 by Sra. Brown 1 Comment

I am privileged to get to teach a number of heritage speakers of Spanish.  I define a heritage speaker as someone who has parents or grandparents who speak Spanish and have been exposed to it in their home.  The levels of exposure to Spanish varies quite a bit, as does each student’s proficiency in understanding or speaking Spanish.  I find that these students often can understand much of what I say and pronounce words with near-native accuracy.  However, they often struggle to produced meaningful prolonged speech.  I try to weave the background knowledge of these students into the fabric of instruction, and I find that once the students develop trust they are excited to describe their families’ stories and traditions as well as vocabulary and expressions in Spanish that have special personal meaning.