Describe your relationship with the Arabic community.

I: uh how large a community is there where you K: u:m the church I grew up in has uh like a thousand members (.) and and say (.) like (.) thirty percent of that are Arab (.) people like from different countries we have Ethiopians Egyptians uh Lebanese Syrian Palestinians all kinds of different Arab speakers there so

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?

Kat 3

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