Mixed Messages in the Spanish Heritage Language Classroom: Insights from CDA of Textbooks and Instructor Focus Group Discussions

This paper explores the implications of prevailing attitudes about language variety found in a case study of a large, university SHL program. First, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach was employed to examine the ideological underpinnings of the presentation of varieties of Spanish (including those of U.S. Spanish) in textbooks used in the program. Second, discussions with focus groups of SHL instructors were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed to gain insight into the practices fostered by the SHL program related to language variety. The CDA findings show evidence of reinforcement of an ideology of a monolithic “standard” Spanish in the SHL textbooks and curricula, with only cursory attention paid to regional varieties of Spanish and, at times, implicit and explicit de-legitimization of U.S. varieties of Spanish. The focus group data indicates that instructors identify tension between: 1) the program’s stated goals, which are to validate the students’ Spanish varieties and to develop an academic or professional register of Spanish; and 2) classroom reality, in which the “standard” is the overwhelming focus and the students’ own “home varieties” of Spanish are at times devalued by the textbook and course materials. Finally, based on these results, some pedagogical recommendations to validate heritage learners’ Spanish as a resource, rather than a deficit, are discussed.