A Pilot Study of Service-Learning in a Spanish Heritage Speaker Course: Community Engagement, Identity, and Language in the Chicago Area

This article presents research findings from a pilot study of the use of service-learning in an intermediate-high class (“Spanish Language and Culture for Heritage Speakers”) in the fall semesters of 2010 and 2011. Students reported gains in the areas of communication skills, dispositional learning, language, identity formation, and identification and solidarity with Latino communities of the greater Chicago area. The author argues that service-learning in this context not only serves the goals of the discipline of teaching Spanish language and Hispanic cultures, but that it is also potentially transformative for students. Service-learning engages with social justice education, as well as education for democracy, pointing the discipline in a promising direction as Latino student enrollments continue to grow in the years to come.