What Is Different for Heritage Speakers Studying Abroad and Why Does It Matter?
This session focuses specifically on students raised in the U.S. with exposure to their family’s native language (“heritage speakers”) who study abroad in a country where that language is widely spoken. The experiences and needs of these heritage speakers can differ quite substantially from those of second language learners, including issues related to stigmatized features of their linguistic varieties and their identities as bilingual, bicultural individuals in the U.S. After a brief overview of the increasing population of U.S. heritage speakers studying abroad, two presenters will discuss Spanish programs and one will focus on Chinese, with the aim of maximizing study abroad benefits for this diverse population.
Chair
Kim Potowski, University of Illinois at Chicago
Presenters
Rachel Shively, Illinois State University
Wenhao Diao, The University of Arizona