In:Advances in Spanish as a Heritage Language
Edited by Diego Pascual y Cabo
[Studies in Bilingualism 49] 2016
► pp. 237–258
New directions in heritage language pedagogy
Community service-learning for Spanish heritage speakers
Published online: 20 July 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.49.13low
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.49.13low
This chapter discusses how community service-learning (CSL) meets specific pedagogical challenges in Spanish heritage language (SHL) education. The integration of community service with academic instruction enhances student academic and civic learning and simultaneously strengthens communities. This chapter presents the multiple ways student CSL experiences can contribute to heritage language (HL) and cultural development, such as fostering positive identities and relationships with local communities, raising awareness of sociolinguistic and sociopolitical issues, developing language skills, career and professional goals, among others. The chapter provides a how-to guide for instructors to successfully design a course that takes advantage of all CSL has to offer to both HL learners and communities.
References (54)
Hispania special focus issue: The scholarship of community engagement, 96(2). (Hellebrandt, J. & Jorge, E. (Eds.), 2013).
Intersection of service and learning: Research and practice in the second language classroom. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. (Thompson, G.L., 2012).
Learning the language of global citizenship: Service-learning in applied linguistics. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co. (Wurr, A.J. & Hellebrandt, J. (Eds.), 2007).
Juntos community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP Professional Development Series Handbook, Vol. V). Boston: Heinle. (Hellebrant, J., Arries & Varona, L.T. (Eds.), 2004). Fundamentals of service-learning course construction. (Heffernan, K., 2001).
Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (American Association for Higher Education series on service-learning in the disciplines). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education. (Hellebrandt, J. & Varona, L.T. (Eds.), 1999).
A Practitioner’s guide to reflection in service-learning. Nashville, TN: U.S. Corporation for National Service. (Eyler, J., Giles, D.E. Jr., & Schmiede, A., 1996).
Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning. Ann Arbor, MI: OCSL Press. <[URL]>
National Service Learning Clearinghouse. <[URL]>
Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. <[URL]>
Abbott, A., & Lear, D. (2010). The connections goal area in Spanish community service-learning: Possibilities and limitations. Foreign Language Annals, 43, 231–45.
Achugar, M., & Pessoa, S. (2009). Power, history and place: language attitudes towards Spanish in a bilingual academic community in Southwest Texas. Spanish in Context, 6(2), 199–223.
Carreira, M. (2000). Validating and promoting Spanish in the United States: Lessons from Linguistic Science. Bilingual Research Journal, 24(4), 423–442.
Center for Learning through service (CELTS) at Berea College (n.d.). Faculty Service-Learning Handbook. Retrieved from: <[URL]>
Darias, T., Gómez, A., Hellebrandt, J., Loomis, A., Orendain, M., & Quezada, S. (1999). Community video: Empowerment through university and community interaction. In J. Hellebrandt & L.T. Varona (Eds.), Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (pp.149–169). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Díaz-Barriga, M. (2003). Spanish in the social sciences: Notes on the challenges of service-learning among Mexican migrants in Pennsylvania. In J. Hellebrandt, J. Arries, & L. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Juntos: Community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series Handbook Vol. 5) (pp. 154–161). Boston, MA: Thompson Heinle.
Ducar, C. (2012). SHL learner’s attitudes and motivations. In S. Beaudrie & M. Fairclough (Eds.), Spanish as a heritage language in the United States: The state of the field (pp. 161–178). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Eyler, J., Giles, D.E. Jr., & Schmiede, A. (1996). A practitioner’s guide to reflection in service-learning: Student voices and reflections. San Diego CA: Learn & Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.
Fiske, E.B. (2002). Learning in deed: The power of service-learning for American schools (A Report for the National Commission on Service-Learning). Battle Creek, MI: W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Hale, A. (1999). Service-learning and Spanish: A missing link. In J. Hellebrandt & L.T. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (American Association for Higher Education Series on Service-Learning in the Disciplines) (pp. 9–31). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Howard, J. (Ed.) (2001). Service-learning course design workbook (Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Companion Volume). University of Michigan: OCSL Press.
Jorge, E. (2003). Dialogue and power: Collaborative language curriculum development. In J. Hellebrandt, J. Arries, & L. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Juntos: Community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series Handbook Vol. 5) (pp. 17–28). Boston, MA: Thompson Heinle.
Julseth, D.C. (2003). The Hispanic achievers program: An interdisciplinary model for service learning. In J. Hellebrandt, J. Arries, & L. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Juntos: Community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series Handbook Vol. 5) (pp. 140–153). Boston, MA: Thompson Heinle.
Lafford, B., Abbott, A., & Lear, D. (2014). Spanish in the professions and in the community in the US. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 1(2), 171–186.
Lear, D., & Abbott, A. (2008). Foreign language professional standards and CSL: Achieving the 5 C’s. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 14(2), 76–86.
Leeman, J. (2005). Engaging critical pedagogy: Spanish for native speakers. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 35–45.
Leeman, J., Rabin, L., & Román-Mendoza, E. (2011). Identity and activism in heritage language education. The Modern Language Journal, 95(4), 481–495.
Lowther Pereira, K. (2010). Identity and language ideology in the intermediate Spanish heritage language classroom. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Accession Order No. AAT 3402888).
. (2015). Developing critical language awareness via service-learning for Spanish heritage speakers. Heritage Language Journal 12(2), 159–185.
Martínez, G. (2003). Classroom based dialect awareness in heritage language instruction: A critical applied linguistic approach. Heritage Language Journal, 1(1), 1–14.
. (2010). Medical Spanish for heritage learning learners: A prescription to improve the health of Spanish–speaking communities. In S. Rivera-Mills & J.A. Trujillo (Eds.), Building communities and making connections (pp. 3–15). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Morin, R. (2010). Making connections: Spanish for medical purposes and service learning. In S. Rivera-Mills & J.A. Trujillo (Eds.), Building communities and making connections (pp.16–39). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Mullaney, J. (1999). Service-learning and language- acquisition theory and practice. In J. Hellebrandt & L.T. Varona (Eds.), Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (pp. 49–60). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Office of Leadership and Service Learning at the University of North Carolina. (n.d.). <[URL]>
Olazagasti-Segovia, E. (2003). Second language acquisition, academic service learning, and learners’ transformation. In J. Hellebrandt, J. Arries, & L. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Juntos: Community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series Handbook Vol. 5) (pp. 5–16). Boston, MA: Thompson Heinle.
Plann, S.J. (2002). Latinos and literacy: An upper-division Spanish course with service learning. Hispania, 85(2), 330–338.
Rivera Mills, S.R. (2010). Building communities and making connections in the 21st century: A new role for higher education. In S. Rivera-Mills & J.A. Trujillo (Eds.), Building communities and making connections (pp. i–xv). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Ruiz, R. (1984). Orientations in language planning. National Association for Bilingual Education Journal, 8, 15–34.
. 2010. Reorienting language-as-resource. In J.E. Petrovic (Ed.), International perspectives on bilingual education: Policy, practice, and controversy (pp. 155–172). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Tesser, C. (1999). Foreword. In J. Hellebrandt & L.T. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (American Association for Higher Education series on service-learning in the disciplines) (pp. 9–31). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Thompson, G. (2012). Intersection of service and learning: Research and practice in the second language classroom. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Urciouli, B. (2008). Whose Spanish? The tension between linguistic correctness and cultural identity. In M. Niño-Murcia & J. Rothman (Eds.), Bilingualism and identity: Spanish at the crossroads with other languages (Studies in Bilingualism 37) (pp. 257–277). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Valdés, G. (2001). Heritage language students: Profiles and possibilities. In J.K. Peyton & S. McGinnis (Eds.), Heritage languages in America: Preserving a national resource (pp. 37–77). McHenry, Illinois and Washington, DC: Delta.
Varas, P. (1999). Raising cultural awareness through service-learning in Spanish culture and conversation: Tutoring in the migrant education program in Salem. In J. Hellebrandt & L.T. Varona (Eds.), Construyendo puentes (Building bridges): Concepts and models for service-learning in Spanish (American Association for Higher Education series on service-learning in the disciplines) (pp. 123–135). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Varona, L.T., & Bauluz, M.V. (2003). When everyday life becomes the focus of attention in intermediate Spanish courses. In J. Hellebrandt, J. Arries, & L. Varona (Vol. Eds.), Juntos: Community partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Professional Development Series Handbook Vol. 5) (pp. 69–82). Boston: Thompson Heinle.
Villa, D. (1996). Choosing a 'standard' variety of Spanish for the instruction of native Spanish speakers in the U.S. Foreign Language Annals, 29, 191- 200.
. (2003). Heritage language speakers and upper-division language instruction: Findings from a Spanish linguistics program. In H. Byrnes & H. Maxim (Eds.), AAUSC Issues in Language Program Direction (pp. 88–98). Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle.
. (2004).
No nos dejaremos: Writing in Spanish as an act of resistance. In M. Hall Kells, V. Balester, & V. Villanueva (Eds.), Latino/a discourses on language, identity & literacy education (pp. 85–95). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
. (2010). ¿¡Cómo que Spanglish!? Creating a service learning component for a Spanish heritage language program. In S.V. Rivera-Mills & J.A. Trujillo (Eds.), Building communities and making connections (pp.120–135). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Wade, R.C. (1997). Community service-learning: A guide to including service in the public school curriculum. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
. (2000). From a distance: Service-learning and social justice. In C. O’Grady (Ed.), Integrating service learning and multicultural education in colleges and universities (pp. 93–111). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Weldon, A., & Trautmann, G. (2003). Spanish and service-learning: Pedagogy and praxis. Hispania, 86(3), 574–585.
Zapata, G. (2011). The effects of community service-learning on L2 learners’ cultural understanding. Hispania, 94(1), 86–102.
Zapata, G., & Tokarz, W. (2008). Community service learning and L2 students’ intercultural communicative competence. In M. Mantero, P. Chamness, & J. Watzke (Eds.), Readings in language studies, Vol. 1: Language across disciplinary boundaries (pp. 281–297). Wilmington, DE: International Society for Language Studies.
Cited by (9)
Cited by nine other publications
Gómez Soler, Inmaculada
Carreira, Maria M.
Burgo, Clara
Carreira, Maria & Olga Kagan
Lacorte, Manel
Pascual y Cabo, Diego & Josh Prada
Colina, Sonia & Barbara A. Lafford
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
