Engaging With Communities

heritage speaker
A heritage speaker, also called a heritage language learner, is a student who is exposed to a language other than English at home. Heritage speakers can be categorized based on the prominence and development of the heritage language in their daily life. Some students may have full oral fluency and literacy in the heritage language; others may have full oral fluency, but their written literacy was not developed because they were schooled in English. Another group of students — typically third- or fourth-generation — can speak to a limited degree but cannot express themselves on a wide range of topics. Students from any of these categories may also have gaps in knowledge about their cultural heritage. Teachers who have heritage speakers of the target language in their class should assess each student’s proficiency level in order to understand what their strengths are and what gaps in language skill may exist that need to be addressed. For more information about heritage speakers, go to the Characteristics of Home Background Students (PDF, 79 K) chart.

keypal
Keypals are students who communicate with one another electronically (via email or instant messages) for the purposes of practicing their communication skills in the target language and learning more about the target culture. The process is parallel to the letter-writing process for pen pals, but more immediately interactive

native speaker
A native speaker considers the target language to be his or her first language. Teachers seek opportunities for students to communicate in person or through technology with native speakers. Students in foreign language classes who are first- or second-generation immigrants and who use the language extensively outside the classroom are also considered native speakers. These students typically maintain the cultural norms of their heritage in certain situations.

thematic approach
A thematic approach refers to curriculum organization that is based on content themes. Vocabulary, grammatical structures, and cultural information are included as they relate to the themes in each unit. For examples of theme-based units, see the Nebraska Foreign Language Education Web site in General Resources on the Teaching Foreign Languages K-12 video library Web site.

Check out these additional resources to explore the topic further.

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. National Standards in Foreign Language Education Collaborative Project. Yonkers, NY: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1999. (To purchase the Standards document, go to www.actfl.org or call 1-800-627-0629.)

Draper, Jamie B., and June H. Hicks. “Where We’ve Been; What We’ve Learned.” In Teaching Heritage Language Learners: Voices from the Classroom, edited by John B. Webb and Barbara L. Miller, 15-35. Yonkers, NY: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2000.

European Schoolnet: Virtual School.

Global Gateway

Global School Networks Alliance

Hass, Mari, and Margaret Reardon. “Communities of Learners: From New York to Chile.” In Collaborations: Meeting New Goals, New Realities, edited by June K. Phillips, 213-241. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company, 1997. (This text is available in the Before You Watch section.)

Hellebrant, Josef, and Lucia T. Varona. “Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Spanish.” In Service-Learning in the Disciplines, edited by Edward Zlotkowski. Washington, DC: American Association on Higher Education, 2002.

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network)

Kasper, G., and S. Blum-Kulka, eds. Interlanguage Pragmatics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Kuttenberg, Eva, Marion Gehlker, and Ingrid Zeller. “Transcontinental Links via E-Mail.” Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL) Newsletter 42 (1997): 42-50.

Lyster, R. “The Effect of Functional-Analytic Teaching on Aspects of French Immersion Learners’ Sociolinguistic Competence.” Applied Linguistics 15 (1994): 263-287.

People to People International: School and Classroom Program

Tarone, E., and M. Swain. “A Sociolinguistic Perspective on Second Language Use in Immersion Classrooms.” The Modern Language Journal 79 (1995): 166-178.

The following lessons from Teaching Foreign Languages K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices are listed in the order in which they appear in the “Engaging With Communities” video:

Lesson Title	Instructor	Language	Grade Level
U.S. and Italian Homes	Marylee DiGennaro	Italian	9
A Cajun Folktale and Zydeco	Paris Granville	French	8
Comparing Communities	Ghislaine Tulou	French	9-12
Hearing Authentic Voices	Davita Alston	Spanish	8
Routes to Culture	Pablo Muirhead	Spanish	9-10
Daily Routines	Margaret Dyer	Japanese	5
Communicating About Sports	Jie Gao	Chinese	6
Performing With Confidence	Yvette Heno	French	10-12
Assessment Strategies	Nancy Gadbois	French	10-12
Russian Cities, Russian Stories	Jane Shuffelton	Russian	9-12

If you are taking this workshop for credit or professional development, submit the following assignments for session 8: Engaging With Communities.

1. Examine the Research
   Read the article, then submit your written responses to the Reading Questions.
2. Examine the Topic
   Complete the interactive activity, then submit your plan for the three stages of a community interaction from the interactive activity.
3. Put It Into Practice
   Complete one or both of the activities, then submit your plan for email interactions and/or design for community observations and interactions tasks.
4. Action Research Project
   Submit your completed action research project on any one of the eight session topics.
5. Reflect on Your Learning
   Review your notes, then write a summary of what you have learned and how you plan to apply it in your classroom.