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El presente estudio responde a la necesidad de obtener datos a escala global sobre los profesionales del español como lengua extranjera (ELE) o segunda (EL2), ante la escasez de información de carácter empírico sobre la profesión. Para ello, se dan a conocer las respuestas de 1675 informantes de 84 países obtenidas mediante un cuestionario en línea estructurado en tres bloques temáticos: a) perfil laboral y docente, b) perfil formativo, y c) perfil investigador. A partir del análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de las respuestas, ofrecemos perspectivas actuales sobre los profesionales del español en el mundo y sobre los diversos ámbitos en los que se desenvuelven. El cotejo de los resultados permite dilucidar algunos de los retos y desafíos inmediatos a los que se enfrentan los profesionales del idioma. El estudio concluye con unas líneas de actuación concretas para cada perfil analizado. Esta es la primera investigación empírica que ofrece datos sobre la profesión desde tres puntos de vista distintos pero complementarios.

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This study fills the gap in the availability of empirical data on L2 Spanish language professionals around the world. We surveyed 1,675 individuals from 84 countries through an online questionnaire divided into three thematic sections: a) professional profile, b) educational profile, and c) research profile. The analysis of this unique set of quantitative and qualitative data enables us to offer current and novel perspectives on L2 Spanish language professionals worldwide and on the different environments in which they work, as well as to analyse the main challenges and opportunities that L2 Spanish language professionals face. Based on these data, the study concludes with concrete recommended lines of action for each of the three areas. This is the first empirical study to offer data on the profession from three different, but complementary, angles.

Hay casi 50 millones de personas en los Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) que hablan español. Se estima que el 40% son inmigrantes y el otro 60% nace en EE.UU., en su mayoría hijos, nietos o bisnietos de inmigrantes. Al ser expuestos al español en el hogar o en redes sociales comunitarias o relaciones de familia extendida, muchos han adquirido capacidades comunicativas en este idioma pero son principalmente angloparlantes. Se les ha denominado “hablantes de herencia”, “bilingües” o incluso “hablantes nativos” en el ámbito educativo; la enseñanza del español para ellos se conoce como heritage language teaching o español para hablantes de herencia (EHH). Este artículo considera las bases sociolingüísticas y pedagógicas de la enseñanza del español a la población bilingüe de EE.UU., enfocándose en algunos retos que se presentan a todos los niveles educativos: (1) la heterogeneidad sociolingüística y cultural; (2) los fenómenos evidentes en sus repertorios comunicacionales así como en los aspectos lingüísticos, afectivos y académicos que inciden en su adquisición y uso del español, y (3) la implementación de aproximaciones pedagógicas más adecuadas para esta población.

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There are almost 50 million people in the United States (US) who speak Spanish. It has been estimated that 40% are foreign-born, whereas the other 60% are born in the US, the majority of the latter being children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of immigrants. Because they were exposed to Spanish in the home or through community and family social networks, many have acquired communicative abilities in the language, although they are principally English-speaking. They have been termed “heritage speakers,” “bilinguals” or even “native speakers” in educational circles; teaching Spanish to such students is known as heritage language teaching or Spanish for heritage speakers (SNS). This article considers sociolinguistic and pedagogical underpinnings of teaching Spanish to bilinguals in the US, focusing on some of the challenges they present at various educational levels: (1) their sociolinguistic and cultural heterogeneity; (2) some of the linguistic phenomena present in their communicative repertoires and some of the linguistic, affective and academic aspects that influence their acquisition and use of Spanish; and (3) pedagogical approaches that are most appropriate for this population.

Given the immense potential of cognitive linguistics for second language teaching and the need to produce more robust empirical evidence of its effectiveness for a range of learners in real classrooms, the current study set out to investigate the effectiveness of a novel cognitive linguistics-inspired approach for teaching Spanish prepositions and aspect to novice learners (n = 30). Animated videos, which were created collaboratively with students to ensure their comprehensibility, presented Principled Polysemy Networks for the prepositions por and para and the concept of boundedness for aspect (preterite and imperfect). After presentation, practice, and feedback cycles, learners made significant gains on controlled production tasks and performed as well as more advanced learners recruited in prior studies, suggesting that the cognitive linguistics approach was effective for these novices. The study found no statistically significant correlations between learning outcomes and individual difference measures of executive function, working memory, motivation, or learning style, which was cautiously interpreted as suggesting that the applied cognitive linguistics approach benefited all learners, not just a subset with particular abilities.

El presente trabajo pretende concienciar a los profesores de segundas lenguas de la importancia del adecuado manejo de los libros de texto, para favorecer una enseñanza eficaz del vocabulario. Para ello, proponemos un análisis de manuales a partir de dos propiedades esenciales del aprendizaje léxico: la profundidad del procesamiento y la práctica distribuida, también denominada reciclaje. Ambos aspectos se han examinado en el tratamiento de diez adverbios transitivos de relación locativa en catorce manuales de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) de niveles iniciales. A través de estos datos, podremos valorar si los libros de texto favorecen la integración de estos adverbios en la memoria a largo plazo y proponer algunas sugerencias para su introducción en el aula.

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This study aims to raise the awareness of language teachers about the adequate use of textbooks in the classroom, in order to promote efficient vocabulary teaching practices. Therefore, we propose a procedure for textbook analysis that is based on two essential properties of lexical learning: depth of processing and spaced practice, or recycling. We exemplify this procedure by analyzing the treatment reserved to ten location adverbs in fourteen elementary Spanish language learning textbooks. Based on those data, we evaluate to what extent the textbooks that we analyzed promote a long-term storage of a form-meaning relation for these adverbs and we offer som

Repeated listening—listening to a passage several times for content and information—is considered an effective strategy to improve listening comprehension, but so far, no study has reported how much understanding increases with each repetition. This study is exploratory in nature and analyzes quantitatively how much 48 students with different degrees of listening ability understand after each repeated listening. The study shows that although the amount of total comprehension relates to learners’ listening ability (low, medium, high), comprehension gains—new information understood after the first and second repetition—do not relate to learners’ listening ability. The data indicate that understanding increased at a similar rate after the first repetition, 14% more, and after the second repetition, 9.3% more, in the three groups. These results suggest that there is benefit in repeated listening and propose its use as an independent learning tool that works at different levels of listening ability.

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La audición repetida, escuchar un pasaje auditivo varias veces prestando atención al mensaje, es una estrategia eficaz para mejorar la comprensión auditiva, pero, hasta ahora, ningún estudio ha dado cuenta de cuánto aumenta la comprensión con cada repetición. Este estudio es exploratorio y analiza empíricamente cuánta información nueva entienden cuarenta y ocho estudiantes con diferentes niveles de habilidad auditiva después de cada audición. El estudio muestra que aunque la cantidad de comprensión total se relaciona con el nivel de habilidad auditiva (baja, media y alta), la información nueva entendida durante la primera y segunda repetición aumenta a un ritmo similar en los tres grupos: 14% más después de la primera repetición y 9.3% más después de la segunda repetición. Estos resultados apoyan el beneficio de la audición repetida y proponen su uso como herramienta independiente y que funciona con distintos niveles de habilidad auditiva.

The present study applies critical race theory and a raciolinguistic perspective to understand the orientations of language programs in the United States towards developing bilingualism. More specifically, the study draws on survey and in-depth interview data from self-identified Latinx Spanish-English bilinguals who participated in English-dominant and bilingual curricula. We establish that the practices and policies of extant programs are grounded in injurious ideologies that result in the racialization of Latinx students. In particular, the results point to multiple factors—student assessment and placements, teachers’ linguistic and social profiles, and instructors’ corrective feedback—all of which racialize heritage Spanish speakers by essentializing and homogenizing them and by linking them to notions of ‘other’, often with enduring consequences. The findings from the study provide valuable insights into the ways in which institutions that are meant to promote equality and inclusion instead serve to reproduce marginalization, as part and parcel of an ideologically racializing system.

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El presente estudio aplica la teoría crítica de la raza y una perspectiva raciolingüística para comprender las orientaciones de los programas lingüísticos en los Estados Unidos hacia el desarrollo del bilingüismo. Más concretamente, el estudio se basa en datos de encuestas y entrevistas en profundidad de latinxs que participaron en programas de estudio bilingües y de predominio del inglés. Establecemos que las prácticas y políticas de los programas existentes se fundan en ideologías perjudiciales que resultan en la racialización de los estudiantes latinxs. En particular, los resultados apuntan a múltiples factores —devaluación y nivelación de estudiantes, perfiles lingüísticos y sociales de los profesores, y sus prácticas de retroalimentación correctiva— de los que racializan a los hablantes de español de herencia al esencializarlos y homogeneizarlos y al vincularlos a las nociones de “otro”, a menudo con consecuencias duraderas. Los resultados del estudio proporcionan una valiosa visión de las formas en que las instituciones que se supone que promueven la igualdad y la inclusión sirven, en cambio, para reproducir la marginación, como parte de un sistema ideológicamente racializante.

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As emotions research in the field of second language acquisition continues to evolve, it is equally important to explore the impact of social–emotional variables that are specifically relevant to heritage language (HL) contexts. Anchoring on foundations in critical heritage language education (HLE), this study examines the discomforts of the HL classroom from a diverse heritage speaker (HS) perspective. Additionally, comforts that support the HL classroom as a safe space for emotional security and well-being for HSs across HLs are explored. Examining the HL classroom from the perspective of HL practices and knowledge systems, this study ultimately aims to: (a) outline the emotional complexity of HL pedagogical spaces, and (b) provide concrete and meaningful recommendations for supporting HS well-being and HL development from a transformative positive psychology lens. Data for the current qualitative study were provided through two separate methodologies. First, 64 HSs of Spanish responded to a qualitative questionnaire probing the emotional reactions and memories instigated by authentic HL classroom reading material on sensitive topics of racism, bilingualism, and immigration. The themes identified in written narrative data through an inductive thematic approach were then used as a foundation for semistructured interviews with language learners (n = 6) and educators (n = 8) from eight different HL backgrounds. Findings revealed feelings of comfort and discomfort, and even trauma and healing, in HLE spaces rooted in (a) language learning experiences, (b) social memories of (dis)comfort, and (c) intergenerational histories. Together, the data suggest how the HL classroom can act both as a trigger of social injustice, linguistic insecurity, and family conflict and, at the same time, as a space instigating affective reactions associated with social rebellion, linguistic confidence, intergenerational healing, and emotional refuge. Specific pedagogical recommendations are made to equip educators with a concrete toolkit for the HL classroom.