Se puede y se debe: Educating Heritage Students

There are many challenges in teaching heritage language learners because of the different levels of linguistic proficiency, cultural competence and identity. In the case of Spanish heritage speakers in the Central Washington region, most of them share a common background: their families come from rural areas in Mexico, and therefore, speak a Spanish vernacular that stigmatizes them. While some critics argue that it is important to teach a formal variety of Spanish and improve students’ writing skills, Kim Potowski (2002) contends that error correction should not be the framework. It would be more beneficial if heritage language teachers expanded their knowledge of Spanish vernacular to account for the fact that their students have a unique way of speaking, rather than dismissing such traditionally stigmatized forms of colloquial speech