ELS is a collection of activities based on critical pedagogies that serves to introduce students to a range of concepts in sociolinguistics and critical inquiry into language ideologies. Some of the activities are written in both English and Spanish, and resources are also in both languages. Working in two languages will allow students to reproduce the linguistic practices of bilinguals. Heritage learners of Spanish should find these practices familiar, and students learning Spanish as a second language will benefit from the scaffolding of using some English.
Moreover, language development for both profiles of students can be enhanced with the techniques of intercomprehension, outlined in the “Guide to intercomprehension” in the resource section below.
Instructors can decide what language(s) students should use to participate and respond (Spanish, English, Spanglish), depending on their local context, student level, and course objectives.
This is an unordered list of activities; there is no implied sequencing.
ELS is an open educational resource (OER). Our Creative Commons license is displayed at the bottom of each page on the site. You can use, adapt, and repurpose our activities, as long as you include an attribution to the original authors and this site.
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Holguín Mendoza, Claudia, Davis, Robert L. & Weise, Julie. (2018). La pedagogía crítica y las ciencias sociales: Estrategias para empoderar a los estudiantes de español como lengua de herencia y de L2. Hispania, 101 (3), 368-380.
Holguín Mendoza, Claudia. (2018). Critical Language Awareness (CLA) for Spanish Heritage Language Programs: Implementing a Complete Curriculum. International Journal of Multilingualism. 1-15. DOI: 10.1080/19313152.2017.1401445.