Chapter 17

La enseñanza de la pronunciación del español en la clase con hablantes de herencia

Este capítulo se centra en la enseñanza de la pronunciación a un grupo de estudiantes muy específico: los hablantes de herencia, cada vez más presentes en las aulas de español como lengua adicional, pero con unas necesidades diferenciadas del resto. A partir de diversas caracterizaciones de los hablantes de herencia, que a menudo son considerados hablantes nativos o bilingües de español pero cuya competencia es variable, presentamos sus necesidades educativas en el aula atendiendo específicamente a su pronunciación, que suele corresponder a una de las diferentes variedades del español, y revisamos la investigación reciente al respecto. Igualmente, establecemos una serie de consideraciones pedagógicas y buenas prácticas sobre la enseñanza de la pronunciación a hablantes de herencia, y también su papel en las aulas mixtas con otros aprendices de ELE.

This chapter addresses the pronunciation of Spanish in a very specific setting: the Spanish language classroom where some or all of the learners are heritage speakers of different varieties of Spanish. In order to provide some context for this group, we start by describing the characteristics of heritage speakers, often considered native or bilingual speakers (Potowski, 2005). Regardless of their proficiency, these kinds of learners share cultural or family ties with Spanish, but most of them lack formal training in that language. Since their presence in language classes is growing in present days, teaching language to this heterogeneous group has developed into a fruitful professional field, heritage language teaching (Potowski, 2005, 2008; Johnson & Hall, 2010; Potowski & Lynch, 2014; Son, 2015), where Spanish heritage speakers are placed in specific programs tailored to address their needs (Vergara Wilson & Pascual y Cabo, 2019). Concerning pronunciation, the focus of this book, two questions arise with Spanish heritage speakers: (1) How should we teach them pronunciation when, in some cases, they show native-like oral proficiency? (2) In a class where different varieties of Spanish are spoken, including that of the teacher, which variety of Spanish should be taught? These difficulties become even bigger when we take into account that materials that focus on this topic are scarce. The second part of our chapter explores heritage speakers’ relationship with pronunciation, where language ideologies about prestigious and non prestigious varieties arise. In general, Spanish heritage speakers do not feel confident about their oral skills, which tend to be stronger than their written competence. They usually have a good command of colloquial Spanish, but need more training in formal registers, including pronunciation. Section three, in turn, is an overview of the available research on Spanish heritage speakers’ pronunciation, which has focused mainly on three domains: (1) heritage speakers’ perception of their pronunciation, (2) segmental and suprasegmental features of their pronunciation, and (3) their teaching needs concerning pronunciation (Boomershine & Ronquest, 2019). After reviewing these studies, we move to teaching practices involving pronunciation for heritage speakers. First, we emphasize the importance of respecting heritage speakers’ varieties of Spanish without making them feel as if they spoke broken or ‘bad’ Spanish. It is crucial to recognise diversity and adapt our teaching practices to the specific learning context by adopting local perspectives as often as possible. Some programs include critical pedagogies where languages and varieties are approached carefully. Second, a list of recommendations comprising several resources to work with Spanish heritage speakers are provided, together with different activities that can be done in the classroom to practice pronunciation. We conclude by highlighting the richness that Spanish heritage speakers bring to the Sociolinguistics of Spanish, together with their identities and pronunciations of our language. Teachers should be trained to adapt to diversity in their classes and promote respect and understanding among all students, regardless of their heritage, accents, and varieties.