Nick 2

How do you think challenges of a heritage language learner may differ from your own?

I: let me ask you about that one student that you feel that is a heritage language learner

N: uh huh

I: do you feel that he has u:h uh instructional challenges that are different from yours or (.) or not

N: I suppose that, well I mean being at college versus high school you’re obviously not at home and I’m not sure where his family is from but say he would have problem had a problem he could go to parents I guess versus everyone else who doesn’t really have that option um you know for extra learning I mean we can go to the teacher and all that but that’s a limited time he has that fall back I guess you could say, um that if he’s not getting something he doesn’t know what the word means he might be able to just call his father up and just say you know what does this mean (.) um versus us there’s always methods though especially with the internet now you can, you know just use an Arabic glossary online or dictionary (.) so I guess he wouldn’t really have anything too, too much more than we would have

Reflections – Both Doug and Nick feel that heritage language learners have an advantage over domestic learners by exposure and access to authentic input through their families. Does this perception affect the self-confidence of the domestic learners and, thus, their performance in the classroom? If so, how have you dealt with this challenge?

Nick 3


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