View Content #19657

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

As we consider many unique characteristics of heritage language learners, we cannot ignore the critical skills related to intercultural competence and pragmatic development. With a strong tie to the community, it is often expected learners will be able to maneuver in, out, and through a variety of interactional contexts with ease. However, is it false to assume heritage learners have the necessary skills to do so on their own. Missteps can present challenges that are often difficult to pinpoint, but made salient in uncomfortable and challenging ways. Take for example, a heritage learner who is comfortable interacting with immediate family members and peers using the associated interactional patterns and social norms. However, when placed in other contexts the same expectations do not always apply and the behavioral patterns may be less clear, potentially resulting in pragmatic missteps or unintended results.

Explicit instruction and careful attention to heritage learners’ intercultural competence in the language classroom can help solve this challenge. As noted by Kagan (2012),

“The ability to relate to heritage learners’ daily experiences in an intercultural light is a crucial aspect of heritage language instruction. While these students may be English-dominant with the home language as their weaker language, they nevertheless are rooted in a local ethnic community and are exposed to the heritage culture in the home” (Kagan, 2012, p. 80).

Drawing from a national survey of heritage learners in the United States, Carreira and Kagan (2011) suggest a community-based approach.  In this approach, instructors are encouraged to utilize what heritage learners already bring to the table while also expanding access to varying interactional contexts. This approach entails knowing the community, knowing the learner, and connecting the learner to the community (Carriera and Kagan, 2011, p. 59-60). Activities include background research and knowledge of the heritage community itself, surveys and interviews with students to identify unique characteristics and backgrounds, and activities to connect learners with that community, especially people they may not know or interact with regularly.  For pragmatic development, these activities could center on observing pragmatic behaviors, analyzing those behaviors, and then offering an opportunity to participate. For example, learners might be asked to talk to three members of the community about how they ask for a favor.  Interviewees would be drawn from the contexts in which the learners will need to utilize appropriate pragmatic behavior.  Interview data could then be compared with examples the instructor brings to the classroom. Samples should be chosen to include the pragmatic features most salient and critical to success. Finally, learners would be given the opportunity to apply what they know using the required pragmatic behaviors in a variety of contexts. This could include community participation as well as classroom activities. Regardless of the approach, attention to intercultural competence and pragmatic behaviors is essential in the heritage language classroom.

References

Carriera, M. & Kagan, O. (2011). The Results of the National Heritage Language Survey: Implications for Teaching, Curriculum Design, and Professional Development. Foreign Language Annals, 44 (1), p. 40-64. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2010.01118.x/epdf

Kagan, O. (2012). Intercultural Competence of Heritage Language Learners. CERCLL Proceedings of Intercultural Competence, 2, p. 72-84. http://cercll.arizona.edu/_media/development/conferences/2012_icc/kagan_ic_heritage_ic2012.pdf