Doug toured overseas with the military. He relayed that prior to departure they were given little background in the culture or language beyond some basic cultural differences. Here he describes his other language learning experiences.

I: (and) prior to that had you had any experience with learning other languages D: uh I’ve studied three languages actually German French and Spanish um German was the most recent so those are the only (.) history in languages that I have I: Were they at the university level D: um one le- one year of German was at the university level but all of the others were high school level I: what were your experiences like at the high school level D: um they were good um it was different because you don’t get to experience the culture like you don’t get to put yourself in the setting and a lot of people around you speak English so you don’t get to practice the language a lot to basically just dive head first into it in order to learn it from experience

Reflections – Notice that a student’s self-identity as a heritage language learner may be more culturally than linguistically rooted, and, thus, less visible in the classroom. How do your students identify themselves? Do you feel that understanding identity plays an important role in the language learning classroom to either you as the teacher or to the students themselves? Why or why not? Have you noticed ways in which student identity has positively or negatively affected the classroom dynamic? Explain.

These students as language learners are motivated to enrich their cultural heritage to build on a cultural immersion, or pursue a general interest in language. What other factors may motivate your students? How do these factors differ for domestic versus heritage learners? Do you find one group is typically more motivated than the other? How are you able to build on student motivation to enhance language learning in the classroom?

Doug 2

---