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

Chapter 3: Profiles of SNS Students in the Twenty-first Century: Pedagogical Implications of the Changing Demographics and Social Status of U.S. Hispanics

3 Profiles ofSNS Students in the Twenty-first Century Pedagogical Implications of the Changing Demographics and Social Status of U.S. Hispanics Maria M. Carreira California State University, Long Beach Marketing surveys, socioeconomic studies of U.S. Hispanics, and census data provide a basis for making a number of projections regarding the composition of future heritage language students of Spanish. Specifically, they suggest that the number of students with intermediate to low levels of fluency in informal varieties of spoken Spanish will likely increase in the coming decades, and that those with higher levels of Spanish language proficiency will decrease. With respect to academic skills, students with basic to low levels ofacademic skills in Spanish are likely to greatly outnumber those with solid academic skills in this language. The evidence presented in this essay also suggests that the Spanish-language media may serve to familiarize U.S. Hispanics with dialectal and register variants that are outside their range ofeveryday use. In addition, religious education programs in Spanish, parental instruction, and general gains in education by U.S. Hispanics may playa positive role in the attainment ofbasic literacy skills in Spanish by bilinguals. The repercussions of these and other projections for the field of Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) are examined in detail in this chapter. Changing Stue/ent Profiles The diversity of academic experiences and the range of Spanish language proficiency levels represented among U.S. Hispanics constitute one of the 52 Morio M. Correiro biggest challenges facing the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language. In table 3-1, Valdes (1997, p. 14) identifies eight different types of students who enroll in SNS courses. Two areas of knowledge crucial to SNS instruction are distinguished within these categories: Spanish language proficiency and general academic skills in English and Spanish. With respect to proficiency, the students identified by Valdes range from those who are fluent speakers of a prestigious variety of Spanish (Newly arrived : Type A; Bilingual: Type C) to those who have only receptive skills in a contact variety of rural Spanish (Bilingual: Type F). The academic skills of these students also exhibit wide variation. Some students have basic to good academic skills in English and Spanish (Bilingual: Type A). Others have well-developed skills in one language but not the other (Bilingual: Types B, C; Newly arrived: Type A). Still others have minimal to nonexistent academic skills in both languages (Bilingual: Types D, E, F). Each ofthe above categories differs with respect to the needs and expectations of students. While students with relatively high proficiency levels in Spanish may enroll in SNS classes to prepare for exacting academic or professional use of Spanish, those at the lowest levels of competence may seek to develop very basic skills in the language for personal reasons, such as connecting with family members. In each case, the pedagogical materials, course objectives, and classroom practices must be fine-tuned to the needs and expectations of particular populations of students. Given the diversity of U.S. Hispanics, the success of SNS instruction depends as much on sound pedagogical practices as it does on the availability of up-to-date information on the linguistic and academic skills that Hispanic students bring to SNS classes. Literature dedicated to the topic of student profiles (Valdes 1997, 2001; Webb and Miller 2000; Walqui 1997) without exception support Valdes's conclusions regarding the wide range of abilities and needs among SNS students, particularly when examined from a national rather than regional perspective. However, the rapidly changing demographics of U.S. Hispanics and the evolving social and political conditions currently affecting this population may result in substantial changes in the student composition of SNS classes. What is the range of the linguistic and academic skills that we can expect to find in the SNS classrooms of the twenty-first century? Marketing surveys, socioeconomic studies of U.S. Hispanics, and census data suggest that the number of students with intermediate to low levels of fluency in informal varieties of spoken Spanish will likely increase, as those with higher levels of Spanish language proficiency will decrease. With respect to academic skills, Profiles of SNS Students in the Twenty-first Century 53 Table 3.1 Selected Characteristics of Students Who Enroll in SNS Language Courses TYPES OF STUDENTS CHARACTERISTICS Newly arrived: Type A Well schooled in Spanish-speaking country Speakers of prestige variety of Spanish Newly arrived: Type B Poorly schooled in...