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Introduction: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States
- Georgetown University Press
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Introduction SPANISH AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE IN THE UNITED STATES Sara M. Beaudrie, University of Arizona Marta Fairclough, University of Houston T HE TREMENDOUS GROWTH in the field of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) at the turn of the twenty-first century is evident in the recent explosion of journal articles, books, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, conferences, and organizations (e.g., Colombi and Alarcón 1997; Webb and Miller 2000; Roca and Colombi 2003). Most of the relevant research, however, has been published in professional journals or volumes of selected conference proceedings. Because of the prominence of Spanish in the United States, it has outpaced other heritage languages in research and has reached a key point where expert synthesis and direction in each of the subfields of research is warranted. The present book is the first single volume to summarize our understanding of the main issues related to SHL in the United States. The content and scope are unique in that this work brings together leading experts to provide a panoramic view of current research trends in the field. This chapter provides current data on Hispanics and the Spanish language in the United States, definitions of Spanish as a heritage language and heritage language learners, and an overview of the content of this volume. HISPANICS IN THE UNITED STATES The history of Spanish in what is currently the United States began in 1513, when the Spanish Crown started conquering and settling the American South. This area experienced successive Spanish, Mexican, and American domination (for a historical overview with a linguistic focus, see Balestra, Martı́nez, and 1 2 SARA M. BEAUDRIE AND MARTA FAIRCLOUGH Moyna 2008), and its Spanish-speaking population grew over the years from several thousands to millions, while other geographic regions of the country began experiencing Hispanic migration for the first time. The present-day numeric and geographic expansion appears clearly illustrated in figures I.1 and I.2. Whereas in 1980 Hispanics accounted for 6.4 percent of the overall population (14.6 million), in 2006 those figures reached 44.3 million Hispanics, or 14.8 percent of the total US population of 299 million. In 2010 the US Census reported that the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States reached 50.5 million, not counting approximately 4 million residents of Puerto Rico. Hispanics constituted 16.3 percent of the country’s total population, making them the nation’s largest minority. Although Latinos continue to be concentrated in certain US states (see table I.1), the Hispanic presence seems to be ubiquitous, no longer only in major urban areas of such traditional population centers as New York, Texas, California, and Florida, but also in small towns all over the United States. By 2050, the number of Hispanics in the United States is projected to reach 132.8 million, about 30 percent of the nation’s population. The Pew Hispanic Center (2009) reports that in 2009 about 60 percent of the Hispanic population was born in the United States and that 70 percent speak Spanish at home. Although United States–resident Latinos come from all over the world, the majority (65.5 percent) are of Mexican origin, an additional 9.1 percent are Puerto Rican, and 3.6 percent and 3.5 percent are of Salvadoran and Cuban origin, respectively, with the remaining 18 percent distributed among the other Spanish-speaking countries. Census estimates also indicate that worldwide as of 2009, only Mexico (with 111 million people) had a larger Latino population than the United States. SPANISH AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE IN THE UNITED STATES The growth and increasing importance of Spanish in all US regions is being reflected in changes throughout government, media, business, and education (for an overview, see Potowski and Carreira 2010). As US Hispanics have gained economic power and political influence, attention directed to research in and teaching of the Spanish language has grown correspondingly. The study of US Spanish and of Spanish/English contact phenomena has been ongoing for several decades, beginning with ethnographic studies and evolving to sociolinguistic research predominantly based on the generational model of minority language variation and change. Meanwhile, innovations occurred within the educational arena between the 1970s and 1990s, including transitional bilingual education programs for young children, ESL programs for Spanish [54.172.169.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 02:45 GMT) Figure I.1 Distribution of the Hispanic/Latino Population as a Percentage of the Overall Population, 1980...