Beyond the service-learning course: A glance at Spanish heritage language service-learners and communities over the long term

Abstract: Studies to date on service-learning in the field of Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) education have seldom addressed the long-term impacts on SHL learners and/or communities. The present study aims to help fill in this gap in research through quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected from former university SHL service-learners and their community partners about continued student engagement beyond their service-learning course, program and/or degree. The preliminary results of this study shed light on the details of students' continued community-engaged activities, their impacts on communities over the long term and the factors that contribute to and/or inhibit their engagement. Greater knowledge and understanding of these long-term aspects of service-learning can help inform the future design service-learning courses and/or programs for more effective outcomes and long-lasting community partnerships.

Narrative: Tentative title:
Beyond the service-learning course: A glance at Spanish heritage language service-learners and communities over the long term

Proposal

Overview: The current study investigates the underexplored topic of long-term community engagement impacts on minority Spanish heritage language learners and communities. These preliminary research findings have direct implications for service-learning design and implementation with the aim of increasing minority learners’ access to community-engaged pedagogies and the effectiveness of community-engaged activities for both learners and communities.

Proposal Abstract:
The field of Spanish heritage language (SHL) learning and teaching has grown considerably in recent years due to the rapidly increasing number of students raised in Spanish-speaking homes who are now entering the Spanish language classrooms at various levels of instruction (middle-school, high-school and university). Effective methods to teach Spanish to these bilingual speakers, whose language learner profiles and need vary considerably from traditional, second or “foreign” language learners, has been a critical area of focus among language researchers and teachers. Spanish heritage language (SHL) educators are increasingly turning to service-learning as a pedagogical framework with the aim of providing quality, effective language instruction that is responsive to both these heritage student voices and local community needs, and to develop long-lasting, meaningful connections between these learners and their language communities to help contribute to heritage language maintenance. While service-learning research and practice among language learners has been explored more extensively among second or “foreign” language learners, this area of research among heritage language speakers is still very new and underexplored. Recent research among this learner group has demonstrated how service-learning can enhance student learning and help meet the socioaffective needs of SHL students by helping learners to overcome their own linguistic insecurities (Leeman et al. 2011; Lowther Pereira 2015), cultivate positive linguistic and cultural identities (Isabelli & Muse, 2016; Lowther Pereira, 2015, 2018; MacGregor-Mendoza, 2016; Parra, 2016; Petrov, 2013), develop problem-solving skills (Dubord & Kimball, 2016), and gain hands-on experiences that align with their academic interests and professional goals (Abbott & Martínez, 2018; Lafford, 2012; MacGregor-Mendoza & Moreno, 2016; Martínez & Schwartz, 2012). Importantly, service-learning, when designed and implemented with a critical pedagogical orientation, can also generate critical thinking and action toward social justice for greater change. Following what Beaudrie & Loza (2022) refer to as a “critical turn” in the field of SHL education over the last two decades, pedagogues and researchers have increasingly sought to contest and correct the discriminatory practices and discourses that disparage SHL students and their bilingual language varieties in the classroom and other contexts. Integrating critical service-learning and critical language awareness pedagogies into the SHL curriculum can effectively engage students in critical analysis of social and linguistic inequities and help move students into action toward social justice in their local communities and beyond.

Despite recent, pioneering scholarship to date on service-learning among this minority learner population, studies have seldom addressed the long-term impacts on SHL learners and/or communities. The present study aims to help fill in this gap in research through quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected from former university SHL service-learners and their community partners (after school literacy and ESL programs) about continued student engagement beyond their service-learning course, program and/or degree. The preliminary results of this study shed light on students' continued community-engaged activities, their impacts on communities over the long term, and the factors that contribute to and/or inhibit their engagement. Greater knowledge and understanding of these long-term aspects of service-learning can help inform the future design service-learning courses and/or programs for more effective outcomes and long-lasting community partnerships. Tying in with this year’s IARSCLE conference theme, this knowledge will also aid in increasing access and inclusion for minority learners seeking community engagement opportunities as part of their language education.


References

Abbott, A., & Martínez, G. (2018). Spanish for the Professions and Community Service
Learning. In K. Potowski (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language
(pp. 389-402). New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315735139-25

Beaudrie,S. & Loza, S. (2022). The central role of critical language awareness in Spanish heritage language education in the United States: An introduction. In S. Loza & S. Beaudrie (Eds.), Heritage Language Teaching: Critical language awareness perspectives for research and pedagogy ( pp. 1-19). New York, NY: Routledge.

Dubord, E., & Kimball, E. (2016). Cross-language community engagement: Assessing the strengths of heritage learners. Heritage Language Journal, 13(3), 298-330.

Isabelli C. A., & Muse, S.D. (2016). Service-learning in the Latino community: The impact on Spanish heritage language students and the community. Heritage Language Journal, 13(3), 331-353.

Lafford, B. (2012). Languages for specific purposes in the United States in a global context:
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Leeman, J., Rabin, L., & Román-Mendoza, E. (2011). Critical pedagogy beyond the classroom walls: Community service-learning and Spanish heritage language education. Heritage Language Journal, 8(3), www.heritagelanguages.org/.
Lowther Pereira, K. (2015). Developing critical language awareness via service-learning for heritage speakers. Heritage Language Journal, 12(2), 159–185.

Lowther Pereira, K. (2018). Community service-learning for Spanish heritage learners: Making connections and building identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

MacGregor-Mendoza, P. and Moreno, G. (2016). Connecting Spanish Heritage Language Students with the Community through Service-Learning. Heritage Language Journal, 13(3), 405-433.

Martínez, G. & Schwartz, A. (2012). Elevating “low” language for high stakes: A case for critical, community‐ based learning in a medical Spanish for heritage learners program. Heritage Language Journal, 9(2), 37–49.

Parra, M. L. (2016). Critical approaches to heritage language instruction: How to foster students’ critical consciousness. In M. Fairclough & S. Beaudrie (Eds.), Innovative Approaches in Heritage Language Teaching: From Research to Practice. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Petrov, L.A. (2013). A pilot study of service-learning in a Spanish heritage speaker course: Community engagement, identity, and language in the Chicago Area. Hispania, 96(2), 310-327.