Thursday, June 19, 2025

Presentation Panel: Ideologies II

Promoting heritage language learning through state seals of biliteracy

• Kendall King, Ph.D., University of Minnesota

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State seals of biliteracy are awards given to U.S. high school graduates who demonstrate high levels of proficiency in a language other than English. Seals are an important recognition and powerful step towards reframing multilingualism and multiliteracy as individual and societal assets. Yet while seals are technically available to nearly all U.S. high school graduates, access is biased toward students of widely taught languages and students residing in large or well-resourced districts (King, 2022). This presentation examines the challenges that speakers of less commonly taught languages and heritage language learners in particular face in accessing state seals. These barriers include varied ideologies on what language learning and competence should look like, which at times are incompatible with formal assessments. In light of these challenges, this presentation showcases our recently completed national toolkit to support and advocate for seals locally and nationally through CARLA’s Equity and Access to State Seals of Biliteracy initiative. Participants will be encouraged to interact with the site and provide additional feedback.

Revisiting and addressing language ideologies: The case of Spanish in the U.S.

• Martiniano Etchart, Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition and Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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“But where are you really from?”, “wow, you speak so well!”, “that’s not proper language”. While linguistics does not recognize any language or language speaker as superior or inferior to any another (Lippi-Green, 2012), individuals perceive language based on different stereotypes about the social categories associated with who is using the language and the correct ways in which language should be used (Barrett et al., 2022). Consequently, people make judgements and assumptions that, while sometimes benign, may result in harmful comments like the ones quoted above. These social understandings and representations of language structure, norms, and use are known as language ideologies.

Drawing on previous research and theorizations on language ideologies (e.g., Barrett et al., 2022; Fuller & Leeman, 2020; Saenz & Mamani, 2022), this presentation will revisit how scholars have defined what language ideologies are and discuss the different types of ideologies associated with language. With a particular focus on the case of Spanish and its speakers in the context of the United States, this talk will also present some examples from the Spanish-speaking and Latinx communities to visualize such language ideologies and the possible effects they may have on individuals and their ways to engage with language. Finally, a few ideas to address and counteract language ideologies (in education) will be shared.

References

Language Ideologies and Spanish Heritage Learners in the Midwest and Southwest

• Leslie Del Carpio, Ph.D., Indiana University Bloomington

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Research on Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) has consistently demonstrated that language ideologies exert a profound influence on the lived experiences of SHL learners in the U.S. These ideologies operate across multiple domains—personal, societal, academic, and professional—by reinforcing entrenched power dynamics that privilege certain language practices over others. This presentation seeks to offer a nuanced examination of how such ideologies are articulate and experienced by SHL learners situated in distinct geographical regions, specifically the U.S. Southwest and Midwest. By focusing on learners from these two areas this presentation aims to explore how regional variation informs the expression and internalization of language ideologies, particularly the ideology of standard language.

The research employs a directed content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) informed by the framework developed by Fuller and Leeman (2020), which categorizes and defines prevalent language ideologies in SHL contexts. Central to this analysis is the examination of the standard language ideology—an ideology that promotes a monolithic, "correct" form of Spanish while marginalizing the diverse, hybrid linguistic practices often used by heritage speakers. The data reveals that SHL learners in the Southwest express a broader range of language ideologies compared to their counterparts in the Midwest. Although the analytical approach remained consistent across both sites, the methods of data collection varied: participants in the Southwest were engaged in individual interviews while the participants in the Midwest were engaged in focus groups. This methodological variation allows for a comparative understanding of how different interview formats might yield distinct insights into learners’ presentation of language ideologies.

References

Unofficial Interpreters: How Language Ideologies Shape the Lives of Child Spanish Heritage Speakers

• Diego Pascual y Cabo, Ph.D., University of Florida

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Non-English-speaking families that immigrate to the United States often rely on their young children to help with their newly found linguistic needs. From very early on in their lives and without any special training, these children are asked to act as intermediaries and bridge difficult communication gaps. This common practice, generally referred to as language brokering, is a complex process that involves more than simply translating or interpreting basic information from language A to B; it can also involve negotiating cultural differences and advocating for their relatives in what can be traumatic conversations arising in contexts such as a doctor visit or an emergency 911 call. To be sure, while these experiences are unique to each situation, they are usually shaped by dominant language ideologies that influence how bilingualism is perceived, valued, and experienced.

In this presentation I seek to explore how language brokering experiences, and the language ideologies that frame them, impact the long-term socioemotional development of Spanish heritage speakers who acted as language brokers in medical environments during their childhood. Drawing on survey data and semi structured interviews, I examine how early language brokering experiences in healthcare settings correlate with differing adult levels of trust in doctors. Participants responded to adapted measures of subjective brokering experiences and physician trust, revealing a consistent pattern: the more frequent and unsupported the brokering experience, the lower the reported trust in medical professionals later in life. Qualitative data further illustrate how participants internalized linguistic and cultural marginalization were often exacerbated by discriminatory (language) ideologies and the lack of institutional support. These findings underscore the powerful role language ideologies play in shaping the emotional trajectories of Spanish heritage speakers, particularly in systems that depend on but fail to value their bilingualism.