MODULE 4:
Challenges and Strategies to Create a Heritage Spanish Program

Presented by Karen López Alonzo & Alex McNair
(Baylor University)

About the presenters:

Dr. Karen López Alonzo is from Western Central Nicaragua. She is the assistant professor of Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Baylor University. She teaches Spanish for Heritage Speakers as well Phonetics and Phonology. Her research focuses on Spanish in language contact situations in Nicaragua and in the United States. She works in dialectology, Spanish phonetics, and heritage Spanish teaching.

Dr. Alexander McNair, director of the division of Spanish and Portuguese at Baylor University. He has received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

About this module:

This module explores the different challenges and strategies to be considered when creating a Heritage Spanish program at any institution. Presenters Dr. Karen López Alonzo and Dr. Alex McNair share their experience and processes of building the Spanish for Heritage Learners program at the University of Baylor.

The module is organized in the following lessons:

• Lesson 1: The Context and the Students of our SHL Program
  • Analysis of various factors that contribute to the growth and development of a SHL program
  • Exploration of strategies for promoting an SHL program
• Lesson 2: Gaining Heritage Student Data
  • Presents the use of data collection instruments such as surveys and questionnaires to gain data about students’ abilities and needs