Language and identity development of Spanish heritage speakers: a case for critical immersion

This qualitative case study of four college students aims to gain insight into the experiences of Spanish Heritage Speakers (SHS) in two contexts: studying abroad in Spain and enrolling in a critically-informed Spanish course designed specifically for SHSs at their home institution. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of identity and investment (Norton Pierce, 1995; Darvin Gómez García, 2022). Meanwhile, study abroad (SA) research has primarily focused on second language learners, highlighting the potential that this immersive learning context has for enhancing language learning and personal development. Of the studies which do include SHSs as subjects, most focus on their identity development, with less attention paid to language development or how these two variables are related. This study seeks to address gaps in the research on both of these learning contexts by placing linguistic and cultural identity, linguistic proficiency, and CLA development in relationship to each other. Participants include two SHSs who matriculated in a Spanish for Heritage Speakers course at their home institution and two who studied abroad at the time of data collection, which took place across three time points during one semester. Participants completed semi-structured interviews with the researcher, a social network questionnaire, and bi-weekly audio reflection journals. An elicited imitation task (EIT) served as a measure of global oral proficiency. Findings from these tasks are triangulated to determine connections between the participants’ identity negotiation, linguistic outcomes, and investment in HL learning. The research questions for this study consider 1) the ways in which SHSs’ linguistic and cultural identities become relevant and/or shift over the course of a semester in each of these contexts, 2) the extent to which the participants exhibit gains in global oral proficiency, and 3) the extent to which the participants achieve desired outcomes of a CLA-informed curriculum. Findings will reveal insights into how SHSs interact with their learning environments and understand their relationships to imagined communities, as well as how language learning contexts may be adapted to enhance developmental and learning outcomes.