Heritage Language Pedagogy is an emerging field. Many faculty members in the UC system, faced with the challenge of teaching Heritage Language learners, have begun to examine the issue of HL instruction and have developed efficient practices to meet their students' needs.
This website attempts to build on the knowledge and experience of these instructors, as well as on established literature on language acquisition and bilingualism, language teaching and learning, dialects, and other relevant issues, in order to develop an on-line teacher-training manual for HL instruction within the UC system.
HL instructors need coherent teacher training materials showing them how to develop the strengths of heritage learners.
Two kinds of materials are called for:
- those of a general nature, outlining the basic principles of teaching HL students;
- language-specific materials, as the needs for teaching each heritage language differ depending on the community, student history, and the language itself.
The Website has been divided into six themes or instructional units. Within each of these units we have a list of topics important to classroom instruction. These topics will each be covered in a general description of the Heritage Language Classroom. Within these topics, you will be able to click on language specific samples for instruction.