Dr. Potowski Presents: “Teaching Spanish as a heritage language.”
As of 2010, Latinos formed 17% of the U.S. population and are are the demographic group that is increasing at the largest rate. Those individuals who grow up speaking some Spanish in the home are often referred to as ‘heritage speakers’ of the language. Current estimates suggest that 40% of universities now offer courses in Spanish that are specially designed for heritage speakers. In this talk, I discuss what makes teaching Spanish to heritage speakers different from teaching it to second language learners, as well as some salient pedagogical and administrative issues involved when teaching this population.
Kim Potowski is Associate Professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has authored, co-authored, and edited 7 books including Heritage language teaching: Research and practice (2014), Language diversity in the USA (2011), Bilingual youth: Spanish in English-speaking societies (2008) and Language and identity in a dual immersion school (2007). She has also authored two Spanish textbooks. More details about her work can be found at http://potowski.org
