Spanish Heritage Language Learners: Let's Not Avoid Metalinguistic Knowledge

Response to "What's Next? Heritage Language Learners Shape New Paths in Spanish Teaching"

Perhaps the most important contribution Torres, Pascual y Cabo, and Beusterien's (2017) study makes is proposing to expand the principles that guide heritage language (HL) programs to the entire Spanish BA through a "heritage studies" curriculum, instead of having discreet HL programs operating separately within an L2-oriented program. An underlying crucial claim of Torres et al.'s (2017) essay is the need to address the needs of heritage language learners (HLLs) beyond lower division language courses, which have been the target of pedagogical and curricular proposals in the HL literature. As the authors note, "HL programs provide learners with increasing opportunities to use and be exposed to their HL; to challenge dominant social hierarchies; to model and construct positive linguistic and cultural identities; and to serve as a site for HL literacy" (272). For HLLs who take a Spanish course as a general education requirement or to reconnect with their language and heritage, developing linguistic confidence and cultural self-esteem through language engagement and revision of relevant sociolinguistic concepts should be prioritized. A renewed linguistic confidence is a positive outcome in itself, but for some students, it might be the beginning of a language-related career. Programs that address HLLs' professional and literacy goals must have a strong linguistic component that enhances students' metalinguistic awareness and knowledge. And this is an issue that cannot be circumvented.

The authors suggest bringing scholarship from cultural, museum and tourism studies, history, sociology, and anthropology to widen a HL acquisition field mostly dominated by the fields of bilingualism, second language acquisition (SLA), and sociolinguistics. However, without denying the contributions of these proposed fields, much remains to be done in the linguistic research arena. It has been argued that because of their implicit and naturalistic development, HLLs possess very little metalinguistic knowledge and do not benefit from explicit instructional methodologies. However, a paradox in the HL literature is that rejecting metalinguistic knowledge on the basis that HLLs are not FL/L2 learners assumes an SLA-oriented view of metalinguistic knowledge. Although the most significant body of work on metalinguistic knowledge has traditionally been seen in SLA, as a possible mediator of implicit knowledge, metalinguistic awareness has been widely studied in L1 research, especially its effects on spelling, reading, and vocabulary expansion. It is this L1-oriented research that we need to bring to the HL research. For example, spelling seems to be an "uncomfortable" topic, practically absent from HL research. However, poor spelling adversely affects HLLs' chances to be hired for a job that uses Spanish professionally (e.g., in translation, media, or marketing) (Carreira 2002). Research in spelling development is necessary to inform the teaching profession, since HL instructors do not know how to address spelling issues (Beaudrie 2012). For other aspects of writing, while the role of metalinguistic awareness is a matter of much debate, it has been shown to be beneficial in dialect and register contrastive analysis. Superior metalinguistic knowledge is also a must for many language-related professions. For example, many HLLs with a Spanish BA will become teachers and, no matter the pedagogical approach used by those teachers, it is undeniable that they will need to possess a strong metalinguistic knowledge at all levels.¹

L1 linguistic awareness develops through specific language and literacy experiences, and progresses incrementally from unanalyzed linguistic representations and a focus on meaning, towards increasingly analyzed representations and attention to formal aspects (Bialystok and Ryan 1985). However, lack of early literacy in Spanish alters this development, and puts HLLs in competitive professional disadvantage with people who have studied in countries whose educational systems emphasize such knowledge. While this might be unfair, we cannot avoid the issue altogether. Rather, we need to conduct research on the specific mental representations of HLLs' linguistic knowledge and the most appropriate approaches to enhance metalinguistic awareness that stem from them. One...