Spanish Linguistics at UNCG

Students\u27 Perception on Teaching L2 Culture Online Mainstream advertising of language companies guarantees that anyone can learn a language online. “Learn a language in 4 weeks,” “Do it from the comfort of your home,” “Learn at your own pace.” Is it feasible, however, to learn all skills of a language online? Can culture be taught online? Second language (L2) Learners can visit virtual museums, science exhibits, can chat and hold videoconferencing sessions with native speakers, they can learn how to cook, dance, and sing, all from home! This paper discusses current research on teaching and learning culture online. It analyzes existing online resources to make culture readily available to language learners. It also presents an ongoing study of an online program that pairs students virtually face-to-face with native speakers. Qualitative data about students’ self-reported perspective of cultural learning is presented, along with quantitative data about cultural gains from a comparative study between treatment and non-treatment. In addition, it explains the results obtained from questionnaires and what cultural aspect/s students think they are learning online. Los hispanos en los Estados Unidos: Barreras de identidad y lingüísticas que enfrentan e imponen This study explores how Hispanic Americans are represented in American society. It describes these individuals both from an ethnographic perspective, as well as from their linguistics contributions that embodies the fusion between the two cultures. According to the census (2016) the Hispanic population in the United States is the largest racial and ethnical minority, predicted to grow much more. This Hispanic population is not only made out of immigrants, but it encompasses many generations of them. It is, thus, important to see the challenges these people overcome. This study analyzes what it means to be a heritage speaker in the USA, how it affects their identity, and what the consequences of their linguistic ambiguity are. The linguistics focus of this study is on code-switching and Spanglish. As Lynch and Potowski (2014) pointed out, “Si lo que se busca es fortalecer el bilingüismo en los Estados Unidos, hay que hacerlo con una postura optimista y en un tono alentador, no de censura y acusación” (p.43). I will share my own study from UNCG, that targets heritage speakers and the ways they socialize in the higher education community, when they are exposed to different settings in the classroom. I will lay out various suggestions that may help this population of rising immigrants care for their roots, and how we can help create a more acceptable environment to the changes they bring. Heritage Language Learners in the AP/IB Spanish Classroom: Ideologies, Attitudes and Insecurities Boon and Polinsky (2015) say Heritage speakers are an untapped resource in America, and, especially in today\u27s globalized state, they should be encouraged to develop their language skills (page 13). Currently in public schools in the United States, Latino students are the second highest number of students, surpassing African-Americans (NCES 2017). Of this group of Latino students, 89% learn Spanish as a heritage from their parents. Currently there aren’t enough Spanish classes that meet the needs of students who take Spanish as their heritage language. In the rare case there are classes for these students, teachers do not have adequate training to understand their needs. Due to the variety of classes and teachers that these students have, they face different ideologies that may further affect their attitude to Spanish, since teachers often times want to teach them a cultured and correct Spanish or standard without realizing that they affect the identity and image of Spanish that heritage students speak. This leads to language insecurity, which leads to problems of identity and possible total loss of the language. This study investigates the ideologies, attitudes and insecurities of students who learn Spanish as a heritage language and also the perception and preparedness of teachers leading these classes. Results of a study about the ideologies, insecurities, and attitudes of the Heritage Language Learners in an AP/IB Spanish class are presented. A favor de SA: El efecto de una estancia en el extranjero en la motivación lingüística y la adquisición de segunda lengua a largo plazo The purpose of this research is to summarize current investigation incorporating the elements of study abroad (SA), second language acquisition (SLA), and linguistic motivation for students and to replicate similar results in a study group of university students in the United States participating in a five week study abroad program in Spain. This research uses Robert Gardner’s theoretical framework of linguistic motivation, which generalizes possible motivations into two categories: instrumental motivation, the study of language as means to another end, and integrative motivation, the desire to learn language in order to interact with native speakers. With this understanding, the results of this study track types and levels of motivation at various points in the course of students’ Spanish studies. The results show that linguistic motivations can change over time. Students report high instrumental motivation and integrative motivation is more varied. After study abroad, all students report an increase in integrative motivation. Instrumental motivation remains a factor in students’ decision to study Spanish, but integrative motivation does rise post SA. When asked to project reasons to keep studying Spanish in the future, students report more consistent integrative motivation while instrumental motivation is more varied in terms of being an influencing factor, essentially the reverse of pre SA motivational trends. The rise in integrative motivation reported in the current study provides a starting point for evaluating this relation and supports the value of providing language students with an SA experience that will, in turn, potentially affect long-term SLA