Mi lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States, Research and Practice

Chapter 8: META: A Model for the Continued Acquisition of Spanish by Spanish/English Bilinguals in the United States

Introduction 8 META: A Model for the ContinuedAcquisition ofSpanish bySpanish/English Bilinguals in the United States Roberto Luis Carrasco Florencia Riegelhaupt Northern Arizona University META is a holistic model for the acquisition of languages (Carrasco and Riegelhaupt 1992), and it is at once a research design, a curriculum, and a pedagogy. It is particularly useful for the continued acquisition of Spanish by heritage learners. While META was first developed and tested in language and culture immersion contexts in Mexico (Carrasco and Riegelhaupt 1994; Riegelhaupt and Carrasco 2000), it was also refined and tested in American university Spanish language classrooms in which heritage speakers were participants . This article describes the approach in the context of its appropriateness and usefulness to heritage language and culture acquisition. We begin with a review of the literature on the acquisition of Spanish by heritage/native Spanish-speaking bilinguals followed by a historical overview on the development of the META model. The next section describes META. It includes an explanation of four underlying theoretical concepts, followed by a description of the curriculum design and a summary. In the conclusion, along with recommendations, we discuss pedagogical implications for instruction of heritage language in the United States, and research implications of employing the META approach for the further acquisition of Spanish by heritage learners. META: A Model for the Continued Acquisition ofSpanish 777 A Brief Review of Literature on the Acquisition of Spanish by Heritage/Native Spanish-Speaking Bilinguals in the United States Research on the Spanish of Chicano heritage speakers began to receive special attention in the 1970S (Hernandez Chavez, Cohen, and Beltrano 1975; ElIas-Olivares 1976; Riegelhaupt-Barkin 1976; Carranza 1977; Valdes-Fallis 1975; Valdes-Fallis and Teschner 1977; ElIas-Olivares and Valdes-Fallis 1979; Teschner, Bills, and Craddock 1976). In the late 1970S through the 1990S, high schools and institutions of higher education implemented courses for heritage speakers and with them came more related studies on (1) the linguistic characteristics of heritage speakers (Barkin and Brandt 1980; Barkin 1978, 1979, 1980 a-d, 1981 a-b; Carrasco 1979, 1981a-b, 1984; Carrasco and Riegelhaupt , 1992; Carrasco, Vera, and Cazden 1980; Floyd 1981; Villa Cresap 1997; Valdes and Geoffrion-Vinci 1998), (2) an appropriate pedagogy for teaching Spanish to Native Speakers (Barkin 1981a; Riegelhaupt-Barkin 1985; Faltis 1990; Rodriguez Pino 1993; Rodriguez Pino and Villa 1994), (3) the placement , and the oral and written Spanish language proficiency of heritage students (Teschner 1990; Valdes 1997, 2001; Valdes and Geoffrion-Vinci 1998), (4) professor, family, community, and student attitudes toward local U.S. varieties of Spanish and the learning of Spanish in U.S. classrooms (Hidalgo 1990; Delany-Barmann 1997), and (5) discourse analysis of planned and unplanned speech and Mexican and Chicano students (Valdes and GeoffrionVinci 1998). These studies have contributed knowledge and insights about psychological , cultural, social, and linguistic issues regarding heritage speakers' continued acquisition of Spanish. They also have proposed various pedagogical approaches that seek to address the needs of heritage learners studying in traditional high school, community college, and university classrooms. The literature on heritage language acquisition coupled with our documented teaching experiences in both immersion and classroom settings led us to develop the META teaching and learning activities based on four interrelated key concepts that will be discussed in a later section. Historical Overview of the Development ofMETA In the 1970S very few textbooks were available for heritage language populations . These textbooks tended to use a corrective, comparative, standard/ nonstandard approach and included numerous exercises directed at pointing out nonstandard characteristics and eradicating them. Correcting oforal language was also commonplace. Correcting, especially of speech during 772 Roberlo Luis Corrasco ond F/orencio Riege/houpl discourse, can be detrimental to the self-esteem ofheritage learners, and may discourage the use and further acquisition of Spanish (Riegelhaupt and Carrasco 2000). Knowledge about the strategic importance of affective variables in language acquisition was unavailable. Many U.S.-born bilinguals themselves became Spanish language teachers and linguists. They recognized the need to inform the profession about the issues involved in the continued maintenance and acquisition ofU.S. native languages. Their own Spanish-language learning experiences did not build upon their linguistic and cultural knowledge . Rather, they experienced what Pefialosa (1980) coined to be "languagism ," or prejudice toward Spanish and especially toward their dialects and informal registers. Researchers began to point out the need for special programs for SpanishEnglish bilinguals (Valdes-Fallis 1981; Merino, Trueba, and...