Voices of SHL educators
Writing in the heritage Spanish classroom
Even though the field of heritage language education has flourished in recent years and has placed emphasis on the
development of biliteracies in Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners (e.g.,
Belpoliti &
Bermejo, 2020;
Samaniego & Warner, 2016), little is known about how SHL
writing instruction is conducted in terms of educators’ practices and perceptions. Through an online survey distributed across the
United States, SHL educators reported the main challenges they face (e.g., working with accuracy, writing conventions), strategies
they use (e.g., modelling), and the technology they use to teach writing. The survey also provides an overview of the importance
given to various elements of a composition (e.g., task type, range of vocabulary) when teaching SHL courses. Overall, SHL
educators’ perceptions provide a knowledge base of instructor experiences and practices that can assist in teacher training and
inform curricular models.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1SHL learner writing in Spanish
- 2.2Surveys of SHL programs
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2The survey
- 3.3Procedure
- 3.4Analysis
- 4.Results
- 4.1Challenges
- 4.2Writing strategies
- 4.3Technology tools
- 4.4Importance given to components of writing
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Pedagogical implications
- 7.Limitations and conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Elola, Idoia, Ariana Mikulski & Ana Padial
2024.
Spanish heritage language students’ writing perspectives.
Writing & Pedagogy 15:3
► pp. 197 ff.

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