TLU to Launch Pilot Course in Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program Next Fall

"Thanks to a Title V grant from the Department of Education, TLU will establish a Spanish for Heritage Speakers program starting in Fall 2025," says Dr. Fernando Varela, assistant Spanish professor at Texas Lutheran University.

Varela, along with Associate Professor Dr. Ariadne de Villa, recently returned from Chicago, where they both received training for the program. "'Spanish for heritage speakers' refers to those students who grew up speaking Spanish in their households," Varela explains. "Although relatively proficient, many of these students nonetheless need more help learning the language so that they are able, for instance, to make a business report or conduct a presentation in Spanish for a company. Another fundamental aspect of the program is that it also teaches students that their variants of the language, however different from its formal dimension, are just as valuable to their lives and their communities."

Varela and de Villa traveled to Chicago to learn from a similar program offered at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). "UIC's heritage program dates to the mid-80s and has since become very successful, particularly in the last decade," says Varela. "At UIC we spoke with Dr. Kim Potowski, a leading scholar in the field, and Dr. Angela Betancourt-Ciprian, who directs the program. It was a unique opportunity for Dr. de Villa and I to learn from these amazing colleagues the strategies needed to establish and sustain a Spanish for heritage speakers program. We learned, for example, how to more effectively identify and place heritage speakers in appropriate courses while also helping them overcome their anxieties. They also helped us adjust their strategies to small, teaching-focused universities such as TLU."

Approximately 43 percent of the TLU student body identifies as Latina/o/x, and more than half are first-generation students. "The main objective of the program is to offer courses for students who already know the language's elementary structure but still need help learning its more complex and formal aspects," says Varela. "In doing so, the program strives to prepare students to enter an international job market in which intercultural competence and multilingualism are essential skills for any competitive job applicant."

Varela will continue studying this fall by taking an online class with Dr. Potowski at UIC, and says a pilot course will be offered at TLU in Fall 2025, and will likely expand in coming years, with Varela and de Villa taking student feedback into account as the program moves forward. "As TLU's federal designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) continues to strengthen in the coming years, we're excited to offer a variety of courses for heritage speakers in the future to best prepare our students for the job market."