• Irina Y. Dubinina, PhD (Brandeis University)
• Natalie Tran, PhD (California State University Fullerton)

The goal of the roundtable is to highlight how sociodemographic characteristics of immigrant communities in the U.S. and typological differences between the languages in the dyad may affect classroom practices. While there are general principles of HL pedagogy which provide the overarching framework, specific teaching methods and approaches depend on a variety of factors, such as the social and educational context, learners’ proficiency levels, their needs and motivations, as well as the unique sociocultural profile of a HL community and linguistic features of a particular HL. Ideally, the field of HL pedagogy would offer evidence-based guidance to teachers of any HLs on how to approach the teaching of specific HLs, just as the field of L2 teaching has done in developing language-specific methodologies.

With this in mind, the presenters of three less commonly taught heritage languages - Korean, Indonesian, and Vietnamese - will discuss how the various sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and linguistic factors influence the teaching and learning of their HLs in the US, creating an “educational profile” of these three languages. The Institute's participants will be invited to join the discussion.