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

Chapter 1: Insights from Research and Practice in Spanish as a Heritage Language

1 Insights from Research and Practice in Spanish as a Heritage Language M. Cecilia Colombi University of California, Davis Ana Roca Florida International University Mi lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States addresses the issues and challenges ofdeveloping and maintaining Spanish as a heritage language in the United States. Our book brings together work that addresses theoretical considerations in the field of Heritage Language Development (HLD), as well as community and classroom-based research studies at the elementary, secondary, and university level. Each chapter includes a practical section titled "Pedagogical Implications for the Teaching of Spanish as a Heritage Language in the U.S.," which provides practice-related suggestions for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language to students from elementarygrades through the secondary and college levels. The collection of essays in this volume was undertaken in response to the growing and urgent need for scholarly materials in applied linguistics and pedagogy in the specific areas of research on Spanish as a heritage language and the teaching of Spanish to U.S. Hispanic bilingual students in grades K-16. u.s. Hispanic Population Growth Unlike the past immigrant waves in this nation's history, in which sizeable linguistic enclaves of German, Japanese, Polish, and Italian communities gradually diminished, the populations of Spanish-speaking U.S. Latinos and newly arrived Latin American groups have continued to grow, resulting in increased use of the Spanish language. The city of Los Angeles alone has over 2 M. Cecilia Colombi and Ana Roca +2 million Hispanics, the largest concentration of Hispanics in the U.S. In a CNN report titled "Will Spanish Become America's Second Language?" (Hochmuth 2001) the lead reads: "It's not just your imagination. In cities from coast to coast, the use of Spanish is booming and is proliferating in ways no other language has done before in U.S. history-other than English of course. It's a development that's making some people nervous. It's making others rich." According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the population, totaling 35.3 million, a number that has surpassed the African-American population (34.6 million). If we add into the equation the estimated numbers of undocumented Latin Americans who come into the country every day via Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere (estimated at 4,500,000 undocumented workers by INS, 2002), then we can safely assume that Latinos in the United States likely number more than 40 million and are, without question, the largest minority group in the country. One consequence of this demographic trend is that the use ofthe Spanish language has increased in the U.S. As the new arrivals interact in Spanish within the community and the schools, we hear more Spanish in public settings and see more Spanish in media and advertising. It is as if the constant influx of new immigrants is providing "booster shots" of the language to Spanish speakers who have been here longer. The demographic changes and the increasing use of Spanish in public, business, and private settings have important implications in modern language education, teacher education programs, policy development, and curriculum and program planning for teachers and students in the twenty-first century. The number of persons who classified themselves as Hispanic in the latest census has grown 60 percent since the previous census. In the 1990 U.S. Census out ofa total population of248,709,803,9 percent of the population, or 22,354,059, were Hispanic. By the 2000 U.S. Census the number of Hispanics grew to 35,300,000 (12.5 percent of the population of 281,421,906). According to the most current census, persons of Mexican origin comprise approximately 66 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population. Among the Hispanic population, Mexicans have the largest proportion of persons under age 18 (38 percent) and in general, the Hispanic population is younger than the non-Hispanic white population. The projected statistics in 1990 had already indicated that Hispanics (who could be of any racial group) would become the largest minority of the twenty-first century; however that milestone has been reached sooner rather than later than expected. After English, Spanish is the most frequently spo- Insights from Research and Practice in Spanish as a Heritage Language 3 Figure 1.1 U.S. Hispanic Population, 2000 25r-------------------------------------------~ 21.7 20 '" 15 c o E...