Spanish heritage language students’ writing perspectives

Idoia Elola Texas Tech University ; Ariana Mikulski ; Ana Padial Episcopal Divinity School

Abstract

Although the field of heritage language education has thrived in recent years and has focused primarily on the development of biliteracies in Spanish heritage language (SHL) students (e.g., Belpoliti & Bermejo, 2020; Samaniego & Warner, 2016), there is a scarcity of research on SHL students’ writing practices. Moreover, instructional practices and technological developments have transformed the landscape of SHL writing, underscoring the need to understand SHL students’ practices and perceptions of writing. The present study explores this gap in the literature by reporting on an online survey taken by 96 SHL students in the United States. SHL students reported a desire to improve their writing and regarded linguistic issues (e.g., accuracy, accent marks, and writing conventions) as their primary challenges. They considered technology helpful while writing in Spanish, but their use of social tools was not widespread. Although student responses often aligned with educators’ perspectives from previous research (Padial et al., 2024), students reported using English to plan their writing more frequently than instructors reported teaching the use of English as strategy. Students overestimated the importance that their instructors gave to grammar and orthography/accentuation.

Journal
Writing and Pedagogy
Published
2024-04-25
DOI
10.1558/wap.26126
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (47) · 1 in this index

  1. Asención-Delaney, Y. (2020). Writing in Spanish as a heritage language: A multi-dimensional analysis. Foreign…
  2. Beaudrie, S. M. (2011). Spanish heritage language programs: A snapshot of current programs in the southwester…
  3. Beaudrie, S. M. (2012). Research on university-based Spanish heritage language programs in the United States.…
  4. Beaudrie, S. M. (2017). The teaching and learning of spelling in the Spanish heritage language classroom: Mas…
  5. Beaudrie, S. M., Amezcua, A. & Loza, S. (2019). Critical language awareness for the heritage context: Develop…
Show all 47 →
  1. Beaudrie, S. M., Ducar, C. M. & Potowski, K. (2014). Heritage language teaching: Research and practice. McGra…
  2. Belpoliti, F. & Bermejo, E. (2020). Spanish heritage language learners’ emerging literacy: From research to p…
  3. Bowles, M. (2011). Exploring the role of modality: L2-heritage learner interactions in the Spanish language c…
  4. Carreira, M. (2012). In S. M. Beaudrie & M. Fairclough (Eds.), Spanish as a heritage language in the United S…
  5. Colombi, M. C. (1997). Perfil del discurso escrito en textos de hispanohablantes: Teoría y práctica. In M. Ce…
  6. Commission on Language Learning. (2017). America’s languages: Investing in language education for the 21st Ce…
  7. Ducar, C. M. (2008). Student voices: The missing link in the Spanish heritage language debate. Foreign Langua…
  8. Writing and Pedagogy
  9. Elola, I. (2017). Writing in Spanish as a foreign and heritage language: Past, present, and future. Hispania,…
  10. Elola, I. & Mikulski, A. M. (2013). Revisions in real time: Spanish heritage language students’ writing proce…
  11. Elola, I. & Mikulski, A. M. (2016). Similar and/or different writing processes? A study of Spanish foreign la…
  12. Elola, I., Padial, A. & Guerrero-Rodríguez, P. (2022). Herramientas sociales en la clase de español como leng…
  13. Faigley, L., Daly, J. A. & Witte, S. P. (1981). The role of writing apprehension in writing competence and pe…
  14. Fairclough, M. & Belpoliti, F. (2016). Emerging literacy in Spanish among Hispanic heritage language universi…
  15. Hedgcock, J. & Lefkowitz, N. (2011). Exploring the learning potential of writing development in heritage lang…
  16. Henshaw, F. (2013). Learning opportunities and outcomes of L2-L2 and L2-HL learner interaction during a colla…
  17. Holguín Mendoza, C. (2018). Critical language awareness (CLA) for Spanish heritage language programs: Impleme…
  18. Leeman, J. (2018). Critical language awareness and Spanish as a heritage language: Challenging the linguistic…
  19. Leeman, J. & Serafini, E. J. (2016). Sociolinguistics for heritage language educators and students. In M. Fai…
  20. Lusin, N., Peterson, T., Sulewski, C. & Zafer, R. (2023). Enrollments in languages other than English in US i…
  21. Martínez, G. A. (2007). Writing back and forth: The interplay of form and situation in heritage language comp…
  22. Mikulski, A. M. (2006). Accentuating rules and relationships: Motivations, attitudes, and goals in a Spanish …
  23. Mikulski, A. M. & Elola, I. (2011). Heritage language students’ allocation of time to writing processes in En…
  24. Mikulski, A. M., Elola, I., Padial, A. & Berry, G. M. (2019). Written feedback in heritage Spanish classrooms…
  25. Nichols, P. & Colón, N. (2000). Spanish literacy and the academic success of Latino high school students: Cod…
  26. Oskoz, A. & Elola, I. (2020). L2 Digital Writing. Equinox.
  27. Padial, A., Mikulski, A. M. & Elola, I. (2024). Voices of SHL Educators: Writing in the heritage Spanish clas…
  28. Parra, M. L. (2016). Understanding identity among Spanish heritage learners. In D. Pascual y Cabo (Ed.), Adva…
  29. Parra, M. L. (2021). Strengthening writing voices and identities: Creative writing, digital tools and artmaki…
  30. Potowski, K. (2007). Characteristics of the Spanish grammar and sociolinguistic proficiency of dual immersion…
  31. Samaniego, M. & Warner, C. (2016). Designing meaning in inherited languages: A multiliteracies approach to HL…
  32. Schwartz, Ana María. (2003). ¡No me suena! Heritage Spanish speakers’ writing strategies. In M. Cecilia Colom…
  33. Spicer-Escalante, María L. (2002). Spanish heritage speakers’ Spanish and English writings: Contrastive rheto…
  34. Teschner, Richard V. (1981). Spanish for native speakers: Evaluating twenty-five Chicano compositions in a fi…
  35. Torres, J. (2016). Flipping the classroom: A pedagogical model for promoting heritage language writing skills…
  36. Torres, K. M., Arrastia-Chisholm, M. C. & Tackett, S. (2018). Perceptions of writing anxiety and self-efficac…
  37. Valdés, G. (1997). The teaching of Spanish to bilingual Spanish-speaking students: Outstanding issues and una…
  38. Valentin-Rivera, L. E. (2015). Collaborative narratives between Spanish heritage and foreign language Learner…
  39. Williams, J. (2005). Teaching writing in second and foreign language classrooms. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  40. Yanguas, I. & Lado, B. (2012). Is thinking aloud reactive when writing in the heritage language? Foreign Lang…
  41. Zapata, G. C. & Lacorte, M. (2018). Multiliteracies pedagogy and language learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
  42. Zhang, M. (2019). Towards a quantitative model of understanding the dynamics of collaboration in collaborativ…