Abstract:

The US Census projects that the Hispanic community in the United States will reach 128.8 million by 2060, and this growth requires a better understanding of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL). This essay examines three future areas of development within SHL instruction. First, more communication between communities of research and practice is necessary to improve classroom instruction. Second, novel SHL teaching materials ought to promote a "pedagogy of multiliteracies" approach. Lastly, we provide a discussion that moves beyond differentiated language instruction by considering SHL at all instructional levels and implementing a "heritage studies" curriculum.