"Education, Faculty of"@en . "Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Abdi, Klara"@en . "2009-08-26T17:36:46Z"@en . "2009"@en . "Master of Arts - MA"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Many young people today are growing up with two or more languages. The development of their heritage language (HL) plays a role in the learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 intellectual development, cultural identification, and family and HL community relations. Growing numbers of students are thus choosing to enrol in high school or post-secondary language classes for their HL development, posing challenges for teachers who generally have to teach them alongside other (non-HL) \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforeign language\u00E2\u0080\u009D (FL) students. Although this area of research, particularly in relation to the teaching of Spanish in the United States, is growing, few studies have looked at the interactions of HL and FL students in mixed classes at the high school level in Canada or elsewhere.\n\tThis ethnographic case study investigated the interactions and positionings of Spanish HL (SHL) students in intermediate high school Spanish FL (SFL) classes. Three classes were observed over a six-month period and interviews were conducted with all participating students and teachers. One class was then chosen for in-depth analysis for this thesis. The goal of the study was to analyse the nature of the interactions of SHL and SFL students in order to provide insights into how best to accommodate various types of students in one language course.\n\tThe study found that the SHL students were positioned in various ways depending on the instructional (whole class or group) setting and the nature of the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 relationships to those they were working with. Their various types and levels of language expertise was one factor in how they were perceived, with greater oral expertise at times making their cultural heritage more salient to their teacher and classmates. The SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ages and social group affiliations were also important factors affecting their status in class. In fact, their ages or particular groups of friends were sometimes found to be greater factors in how their classmates and teacher perceived them than their language expertise.\n\tThe study offers new insights into the complex nature of teaching SHL and SFL students in one class at the high school level and offers implications for pedagogy, theory and future research."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/12569?expand=metadata"@en . "1868053 bytes"@en . "application/pdf"@en . " SPANISH HERITAGE LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN CANADIAN HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH CLASSES: NEGOTIATING ETHNOLINGUISTIC IDENTITIES AND IDEOLOGIES by KLARA ABDI B.A., University of British Columbia, 1998 B.Ed., University of British Columbia, 1999 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Modern Language Education) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2009 \u00C2\u00A9 Klara Abdi, 2009 ii Abstract Many young people today are growing up with two or more languages. The development of their heritage language (HL) plays a role in the learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 intellectual development, cultural identification, and family and HL community relations. Growing numbers of students are thus choosing to enrol in high school or post-secondary language classes for their HL development, posing challenges for teachers who generally have to teach them alongside other (non-HL) \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforeign language\u00E2\u0080\u009D (FL) students. Although this area of research, particularly in relation to the teaching of Spanish in the United States, is growing, few studies have looked at the interactions of HL and FL students in mixed classes at the high school level in Canada or elsewhere. This ethnographic case study investigated the interactions and positionings of Spanish HL (SHL) students in intermediate high school Spanish FL (SFL) classes. Three classes were observed over a six-month period and interviews were conducted with all participating students and teachers. One class was then chosen for in-depth analysis for this thesis. The goal of the study was to analyse the nature of the interactions of SHL and SFL students in order to provide insights into how best to accommodate various types of students in one language course. The study found that the SHL students were positioned in various ways depending on the instructional (whole class or group) setting and the nature of the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 relationships to those they were working with. Their various types and levels of language expertise was one factor in how they were perceived, with greater oral expertise at times making their cultural heritage more salient to their teacher and classmates. The SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ages and social group affiliations were also important factors affecting their status in class. In fact, their ages or particular groups of friends were sometimes found to be greater factors in how their classmates and teacher perceived them than their language expertise. The study offers new insights into the complex nature of teaching SHL and SFL students in one class at the high school level and offers implications for pedagogy, theory and future research. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ....................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ...................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgments................................................................................................ viii Dedication ............................................................................................................ x Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1 1.0 Background ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Statement of the Research Problem ................................................... 2 1.2 Researcher Positionality..................................................................... 5 1.3 Research Questions............................................................................ 6 1.4 Significance of the Study................................................................... 7 1.5 Thesis Outline .................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................... 9 2.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 9 2.1 Terms and Definitions........................................................................ 9 2.1.1 Heritage Language Learner.......................................................... 9 2.1.2 Hispanic or Latino/a?................................................................... 15 2.2 Benefits of Heritage Language Learning........................................... 16 2.3 The Relationship between HL Proficiency and Identification with the Heritage Culture ................................................................. 18 2.4 Identity and Positioning Theory......................................................... 19 2.5 Language Ideology............................................................................. 22 2.6 Language Expertise, Affiliation and Inheritance Model.................... 25 2.7 Demographics and Enrolment in SHL Classes: The United States and Canada ........................................................... 26 2.8 Teaching HL Students in Mixed Classes ........................................... 28 2.8.1 HL Learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Negative Experiences in Mixed Classes ............... 29 2.8.2 HL Learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Positive Experiences in Mixed Classes................. 30 2.9 Summary............................................................................................ 32 Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................... 34 3.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 34 3.1 Research Questions............................................................................ 34 3.2 Ethnographic Case Study Design....................................................... 34 3.3 Case Selection, School Access, and Ethical Considerations ............ 37 3.3.1 Site ............................................................................................... 40 3.3.2 Participants................................................................................... 41 3.3.2.1 Ms. Lopez ........................................................................... 43 iv 3.3.2.2 Tony .................................................................................... 44 3.3.2.3 Princess ............................................................................... 44 3.3.2.4 Pat ....................................................................................... 45 3.3.2.5 Claude ................................................................................. 46 3.4 Data Collection Procedures................................................................ 47 3.5 Data Analysis Procedures .................................................................. 48 3.6 Summary............................................................................................ 50 Chapter 4 SOCIAL GROUPINGS, AGE AND GENDER ................................ 51 4.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 51 4.1 Classroom Configuration and Seating Plans...................................... 51 4.2 Friendship Groups.............................................................................. 52 4.3 The Issue of Age ................................................................................ 57 4.4 Gender................................................................................................ 66 4.5 Summary............................................................................................ 72 Chapter 5 ORAL EXPERTISE AND PERFORMANCE ................................. 73 5.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 73 5.1 SHL Students as Idealized Speaker Models and Language Experts........................................................................ 73 5.2 SHL Students as Co-Teachers ........................................................... 81 5.3 Contestation in Whole-Class Interactions.......................................... 88 5.4 Resistance, Withdrawal and Intimidation .......................................... 92 5.5 A Whole-Class Interaction Example ................................................. 105 5.6 Summary............................................................................................ 116 Chapter 6 NEGOTIATING LITERACY PRACTICES: GRAMMAR, TRANSLATION AND SPELLING........................... 118 6.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 118 6.1 Tony and Princess: Weak Literacy Skills .......................................... 118 6.2 Pat and Claude: Strong Literacy Skills .............................................. 122 6.3 Valued Language Expertise and Marks ............................................. 137 6.4 Group Work Interaction Examples .................................................... 140 6.5 Summary............................................................................................ 156 Chapter 7 HERITAGE, CULTURE AND NATIONALITY ............................. 158 7.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 158 7.1 Bringing Language Resources from the Home.................................. 158 7.1.1 The Hispanic Home as a Place of Language Learning ................ 158 7.1.2 The Hispanic Home as a Place of the Uneducated Immigrant .... 159 7.2 Visibility and Cultural Stereotypes .................................................... 164 v 7.3 Displays of National and Cultural Affiliation during Class Activities .................................................................................. 173 7.3.1 Nationality Exercise..................................................................... 173 7.3.1.1 Tony ....................................................................................... 174 7.3.1.2 Pat .......................................................................................... 175 7.3.1.3 Princess .................................................................................. 177 7.3.2 Hispanic Artist Project ................................................................. 179 7.4 Summary............................................................................................ 182 Chapter 8 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS........................................... 183 8.0 Introduction........................................................................................ 183 8.1 Summary of Findings......................................................................... 183 8.2 Implications for SHL Theory............................................................. 187 8.2.1 SHL Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Language Proficiency and Use............................ 187 8.2.1.1 Orality and Literacy Skills ..................................................... 188 8.2.1.2 Language Variety and Language Ideology............................ 190 8.2.2 SHL Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 National and Cultural Affiliations....................... 194 8.2.3 SHL Students in High School Spanish Classes: The Importance of Social Context ............................................... 198 8.2.4 Re-examining Theories of Positioning, Identity and Language Ideology....................................................................... 199 8.3 Pedagogical Implications ................................................................... 200 8.3.1 Getting to Know Your Students................................................... 201 8.3.2 Student Groupings ....................................................................... 204 8.3.3 Instructional Activities and Strategies ......................................... 205 8.4 Directions for Future Research .......................................................... 208 8.5 Scope of the Study ............................................................................. 209 8.6 Concluding Remarks.......................................................................... 211 References............................................................................................................ 213 Appendix A Certificate of Approval.................................................................... 225 Appendix B Recruitment Letter........................................................................... 226 Appendix C Informed Consent and Assent Forms .............................................. 227 Appendix D Questionnaires................................................................................. 233 Appendix E Interview Questions ......................................................................... 246 Appendix F Transcription Conventions............................................................... 253 vi List of Tables Table 2.1 Focus of Instruction for HL Students ................................................ 11 Table 3.1 Class Demographics........................................................................... 41 Table 3.2 Participant Demographic Information ............................................... 42 Table 4.1 SHL Students and Their Friendship Groups ..................................... 53 vii List of Figures Figure 2.1 Linguistic and Cultural Continua of HL and non-HL Students......... 13 Figure 4.1 Seating Plan 1 (September 20)........................................................... 52 Figure 4.2 Seating Plan 2 (November 10) ........................................................... 60 Figure 4.3 Seating Plan 3 (January 4) ................................................................. 62 Figure 6.1 Seating Plan 4 (February 2) ............................................................... 126 viii Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the support of many people. First, I would like to thank the three participating teachers who, generously and courageously, allowed me the opportunity to observe their classes as well as their students (along with their parents), who overwhelmingly agreed to participate in my study. I would like to thank the school boards which agreed to support my study as well as Dr. Wendy Carr, who enthusiastically assisted me in the recruitment process. My sincere appreciation goes to my committee members. First, Dr. Patsy Duff, who has supported me from our very first meeting and always showed great faith in my potential. I invariably left our meetings with much greater insight, understanding and excitement; she was truly a great mentor and role model. Dr. Steven Talmy has been a great source of encouragement and has been especially helpful in the development of my discourse analytic skills, as well as constantly challenging my understanding of various theoretical concepts. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Monique Bournot-Trites for taking on the task of reading my lengthy thesis and offering her wisdom, insights and support at a very busy time. My thanks also goes to other faculty members of LLED who have contributed to my knowledge through courses or other interactions, as well as offering support in other ways, including Drs. Geoff Williams, Bonny Norton, Carl Leggo, Margaret Early, George Belliveau, Theresa Rogers, Ken Reeder, and Jim Anderson. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Carmen Medina, an original member of my committee, who always showed me great warmth, as well as support for my work. My peers have been a source of encouragement and support, both academically and personally. I appreciate the support of the three \u00E2\u0080\u009Camigos,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sandra Zappa-Hollman, Martin Guardado, and Jeremie Seror \u00E2\u0080\u0093 you have been great mentors and friends throughout my program, never turning down a request for help. Also, a special thanks to Diane Potts for always making time to hear my quirky ideas and scaffolding my learning, as well as making me laugh. I would like to thank Kim Lenters, my fellow peer advisor in the first year of my program \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I enjoyed working with you and learned much from you. I am grateful for many other peers and friends with whom I shared time, classes and thoughts, including Lyndsay Moffatt, Chiyo Mori, Ena Lee, Jean Kim, Mi-Young Kim, Beverly Binder, Yanping Zhao, Jenny Gallant, Noreen Cross, Reg D\u00E2\u0080\u0099Silva, Harriet Mutonyi, and Mia Perry. A note of thanks to Rachel Wang who helped me with my final formatting and printing. A special thank you to my mother who has supported and encouraged me endlessly, even through the hardest times. She has also taught me much about courage, perseverance and positive thinking through her life\u00E2\u0080\u0099s example. Thank you also to my dear friends in the Baha\u00E2\u0080\u0099i Community for their support and encouragement, including the Jauca family, the Nourredin family, the Akhavan family, Erika and Juliet Hastings, Juliet Ghodsian, and Lorena Stewart. You are all great role models in all aspects of life. ix The biggest thank you of all goes to my wonderful family, Peiman, Roya and Milad. You have shown amazing patience, support, and self-sacrifice during these long years. Without such a supportive husband, I could never have completed this work. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through their award of a Master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Scholarship that supported this research project. I am also thankful to the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC for various travel awards which allowed me to present my research, as well as the Department of Language and Literacy Education for the Service to the Department Award. x Dedication To my beloved family: Peiman, Roya and Milad. 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background With increasing globalization and immigration, many young people today are growing up with two or more languages. While the learning of English among immigrant children and youth in Canada, the United States, and other English-dominant societies is clearly important, the development of their first language, if other than English, commonly referred to as their heritage language (HL) 1 , also has great potential value and significance in their lives. The development of the HL plays a role in the learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s intellectual development, cultural identification with their heritage culture and family and HL community relations. The home is an important site for the development of children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and youth\u00E2\u0080\u0099s HLs and over the last two decades several studies have focused on the role of socialization in the home in HL maintenance (Bayley & Schecter, 2003; Guardado, 2002, 2008; Schecter & Bayley, 1997, 2002; Tannenbaum, 2005; Tannenbaum & Berkovich, 2005; Tannenbaum & Howie, 2002; Thomas & Cao, 1999; Wong Fillmore, 1991; Zentella, 1997, 2005). Aside from HL support that may be provided by parents in the home, many families choose to place their children in community HL programs. These programs have also been a topic of study (Bae, 2004; Curdt-Christiansen, 2006; He, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006; Hu, 2007; Jia, 2006; Lo, 2004; Maloof, Rubin & Miller, 2006; Silver, 2004). Finally, growing numbers of students choose to enrol in high school or post-secondary language classes for their HL development. With this influx, the face of language education is changing. No longer are languages other than English taught exclusively to groups of (monolingual) English speakers learning a language \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforeign\u00E2\u0080\u009D to them. This diversification of language learners creates an interesting dynamic in classrooms, where these HL students may interact in particular ways with their fellow HL and foreign language (FL) classmates and teacher, while also having their own distinct language learning needs. For example, linguistic and cultural expertise may be negotiated to a greater extent among HL students, and between them and their teacher, than would occur in a traditional foreign language classroom. 1 See Chapter 2 for a detailed definition of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cheritage language.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 2 1.1 Statement of the Research Problem The challenge of teaching Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) and Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) students in the same class is one currently faced by many secondary, post-secondary and, to a lesser extent, elementary Spanish teachers in metropolitan centres throughout Canada and the United States. In Canada, the number of Hispanic immigrants has steadily increased since the 1970s and native and heritage Spanish speakers are now the fifth largest minority language group 2 in Canada according to the 2006 Census figures (Statistics Canada, 2007a). In the United States, the teaching of Spanish to native or heritage speakers gained importance in the 1970s (Roca, 1997) and continues to increase as that country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Hispanic population grows. The number of Spanish speakers residing in the United States grew from 11.1 million in 1980 to 17.3 million in 1990 to just under 28.1 million in 2000, two decades later (Ingold, Rivers, Chavez Tesser & Ashby, 2002; United States Census Bureau, 2003; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 1997). These numbers represent an ever-growing percentage of the United States total population, rising from 5% in 1980 to 7% in 1990 to 12.5% in 2000 3 (Garcia & Sanchez, 2008; United States Census Bureau, 1993a, 1993b, 2003). In fact, the percentage increase of the Hispanic population between 1990 and 2000 was 58 percent, a much higher rate than that of the general population which was 13.2 percent. Another significant trend in the United States was that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdespite the continuous immigration flow from Latin America, a larger portion of the Latino population increase \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 was due to a high birthrate rather than immigration\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Garcia & Sanchez, 2008, p. 61). According to Suro and Passel (2003), cited in Garcia & Sanchez, projections indicate that second-generation Hispanics will emerge as the largest component of the Hispanic population in the next twenty years. For the education system, this ever-increasing proportion of U.S.-born Hispanics means that there will be more and more SHL students trying to reconnect with their linguistic and cultural roots. Consequently, most of the research conducted in HL education has been done in the United States, especially at the post-secondary level (Blake & Zyzik, 2003; Dunlap, 2003; Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino, 2000; Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino, 2001; Potowski, 2002; Webb & Miller, 2 After the official languages of English and French, the minority languages of Chinese, Italian, German and Punjabi have more speakers than Spanish. 3 Since the United States census takes place every ten years, these are the most recent statistics. 3 2000). However, in spite of the large numbers of SHL speakers in the United States, only a small percentage of that country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s post-secondary institutions offer separate classes for this population. A survey conducted in 1990 (Wherritt & Cleary, 1990) found that 26% of post-secondary institutions with Spanish programs offered separate classes for this population (40% response rate), and in a 2002 survey (Ingold, Rivers, Chavez Tesser & Ashby, 2002) only 18% of the responding institutions reported offering such programs. These surveys are important first steps to producing a national picture of educational options available to SHL students in the United States. 4 Whatever the accurate figure is, the number of special classes for SHL speakers appears to be quite low compared to the numbers of Hispanic students present at these institutions, which grows every year. Furthermore, no surveys looking at SHL course offerings have been conducted at the secondary level. In Canada, with its much smaller numbers of SHL speakers, HL classes at schools and universities, aside from the few offered on a non-credit basis by cultural communities themselves, are virtually non-existent, except perhaps in Toronto or Edmonton. Mixed classes are therefore the norm in both countries (Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino, 2000). The research literature (e.g. Hancock, 2002; Peyton, Lewelling, & Winke, 2001; Roca & Colombi, 2003; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2000), however, strongly recommends separate classes for SHL learners, who are often more linguistically advanced and have different needs, and only a few studies (Dunlap, 2003; Potowski, 2002) have looked at effective (and ineffective) practices in mixed classes to accommodate the different needs of the SHL and SFL student populations. Moreover, these studies were conducted at the post-secondary level. At the secondary level, a research project jointly conducted by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and Hunter College examined three successful inner- city heritage language classes in New York City over a three year period (Webb & Miller, 2000). The focus of the study was to identify effective methods for teaching and connecting with HL students. However, although one of these classes was actually a mixed class, with advanced FL students as well as advanced HL students, very little mention is made of this fact or any possible implications for pedagogy. As a result of this lack of research into effective instructional practices and curriculum for mixed classes, 4 However, the low response rates preclude generalizations beyond those institutions to all others. 4 Roca (1997) identified this area of research as one of the current needs in the field. Furthermore, Lacorte & Canabal (2003) and Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (1997) both emphasized the difficulties that FL teachers face when teaching traditional FL students alongside HL learners. Aside from the issue of how to effectively teach HL students in mixed FL classrooms, it is also important to look at how both the HL and FL students in such classes interact on both a pedagogical and social level. Lacorte & Canabal propose that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe analysis of classroom interaction from different theoretical and methodological perspectives could provide better and more comprehensive explanations of classroom phenomena\u00E2\u0080\u009D in FL classrooms with HL learners (p. 120) and that such research \u00E2\u0080\u009Cneeds to account for the different levels of interaction between all classroom participants\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 121). For example, teachers might interact with various HL students differently and position them differently than their FL classmates as part of their instructional practices and interactions. Such positionings could include, for example, those of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexpert,\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillegitimate learner,\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Crole model,\u00E2\u0080\u009D among others. HL and FL students may also position one another in various ways. Such positionings may impact the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social groupings and learning in class. For all these reasons, it is important to conduct further studies in the area of mixed Spanish classes at the secondary level. Therefore, the purpose of the present study will be to look closely at the interactions of SHL students, SFL students and their teachers, within the context of a regular secondary-level SFL classroom. It will also analyse how learners of Spanish are positioned, intentionally or unintentionally, on the basis of their \u00E2\u0080\u009CFL\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009CHL\u00E2\u0080\u009D status. The analysis will draw on \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpositioning theory\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9, 1990; Harr\u00C3\u00A9 & van Langenhove, 1999), in which discourse is analyzed to show how identities are produced and negotiated in social interaction. 5 The ways in which HL students are positioned in classroom interaction as, for example, \u00E2\u0080\u009Clanguage experts\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural models\u00E2\u0080\u009D, can influence their own, as well as their HL and FL classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099, participation, retention and language learning. This study will serve secondary SFL teachers by giving them insights into ways of creating effective and inclusive classrooms, as well as advancing the state of 5 This concept will be described in detail in Chapter 2 5 research around the issue of how best to accommodate HL learners in general language courses. 1.2 Researcher Positionality My own interest in this area stems from having taught SHL students in a high school Spanish class some years ago. After finishing my education degree as a teacher of Spanish and French, I was hired to teach French in a private Jewish school where students were also learning Hebrew. During my first year at the school, during a school promotional event at the local Jewish elementary school, I was approached by several parents who had recently immigrated from various Latin American countries. Having found out that I was also a qualified Spanish teacher and very interested in teaching that language, they spoke to me about helping them start a Spanish program at the secondary school, which their children would eventually attend. While my own background is Czech-Canadian, I have always been very interested in learning languages and have a particular interest in the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. Although their children were in grade 6 at the time and would only begin their Spanish classes from grade 9, these parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and my own enthusiasm for the idea resulted in the program being offered the following year. When the HL students reached grade 9, they were enrolled in my beginners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Spanish class (Spanish 9) in spite of having received schooling in Spanish in their home countries for the first few years of elementary school. Based upon their Spanish language ability I had felt that the best placement for them would have been in Spanish 11, a more advanced course generally offered to students who had previously completed Spanish 9 and 10. Spanish 10 would have been too easy for them while Spanish 12, which was not offered that year and which included a provincial examination, would have been too advanced. However, due to the small size of the school and scheduling issues, it was impossible for them to take Spanish 11. I finally succeeded in having them come to one Spanish 11 class every two weeks (the Spanish 11 class met for 2 hours per week) in addition to regularly attending the Spanish 9 class in which they were placed by the administration. That year, in my beginner Spanish 9 class, it was hard to balance the teaching of true beginners of the language learning to greet each other while also teaching students who were already completely fluent in oral Spanish but needed to work on their 6 literacy skills. After consultation with them, I had the more advanced (SHL) students read Harry Potter in Spanish and practice their writing about themes from the book for their Spanish 9 course. However, only one of the three really engaged with the reading. The other two were not very academically inclined and felt that this work was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cextra,\u00E2\u0080\u009D while also finding the actual reading more difficult than the former student. At the same time, in my Spanish 11 class, I planned to help the students for one hour every two weeks with the grammar points that I was teaching the rest of that class while also having them speak to the SFL students in the class to help improve the SFL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and their oral skills. But the HL students struggled with gaps in their grammar knowledge from not having learned metalinguistic concepts the rest of the students had learned in Spanish 9 and 10. Furthermore, the fact that they were actually present in the class only once every two weeks did not allow for any continuity in their instruction in that class. As for their conversational practice together, the FL students were very uncomfortable speaking with these very advanced and only occasional classmates. Overall, I felt that my teaching of these HL students was not a success. The lingering question of how I might have taught these students better was one of the reasons I decided to pursue my MA and focus on this research area. Although perhaps an extreme case in a fledgling program, the issues encountered are similar to those reported by others integrating HL and FL students. 1.3 Research Questions This study addresses how teachers of Spanish conduct classes in which SHL students are studying their heritage language alongside SFL students studying a language foreign to them. While the Spanish 5-12 Ministry of Education curricular guide for British Columbia calls Spanish an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinternational\u00E2\u0080\u009D language, the target population for the course are students studying it as their \u00E2\u0080\u009Csecond\u00E2\u0080\u009D, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnew\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforeign\u00E2\u0080\u009D language (BC Ministry of Education, 2001, p. 2). This is further reinforced in the description of the rationale for studying the language, which states that \u00E2\u0080\u009Clearning Spanish enhances the learning of first and additional languages\u00E2\u0080\u009D (BC Ministry of Education, 2005, p.1), which shows that Spanish is not seen as being the target students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 possible first language. Furthermore, another rationale for Spanish language study is that it \u00E2\u0080\u009Cencourages the development of positive attitudes toward Hispanic and other cultural groups, and 7 increases students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 awareness of their own cultures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid). The implication, again, is that the \u00E2\u0080\u009CHispanic\u00E2\u0080\u009D culture would not be a student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cown\u00E2\u0080\u009D culture. This raises the important question of how to teach and integrate this group of students in a setting and with a curriculum not designed, by definition, to meet their needs. Specifically, this study is concerned with how SHL students are perceived and positioned in classroom interactions in terms of their Spanish language and cultural expertise, when learning Spanish alongside SFL students and the influence that such positionings have on various classroom interactions among the students and their teacher. The three guiding research questions of this study are: 1. How do the SHL learners identify and position themselves and how are they positioned by their teacher and classmates with respect to their prior knowledge of Spanish, as well as their various Hispanic backgrounds and cultural affiliations? 2. What are the different factors (e.g., oral versus written expertise, age, social groupings in the class) that impact the various positionings of the SHL learners? 3. How do these positionings impact the classroom interactions among the SHL students, their SFL classmates and their teacher? 1.4 Significance of the Study The Spanish as a heritage language student population in Canada is generally not large enough to allow for separate Spanish classes for these students and in some contexts (e.g., British Columbia) the policy and curriculum for international languages like Spanish is not intended for HL students. Many SHL students do, however, wish to improve their Spanish language skills and therefore frequently attend SFL high school classes. Having such students in the SFL class can be challenging for teachers and students, as my own experience revealed; yet it may also provide unique opportunities, if a skilled and experienced teacher is able to build on the strengths and interests of both SHL and SFL students. This study is therefore significant because it explores ways in which this can be accomplished, as well as obstacles which need to be overcome if such classes are to be a success. This study, then, is meant to contribute to the limited research in this field, especially in Canada, but also to assist Spanish secondary school teachers facing these kinds of issues in their classrooms. Insights from this study can also have applicability for the teachers of heritage students of other languages. Knowing how to 8 enhance HL development for bilingual students and second language learning for monolingual students in our global age has great importance and relevance. 1.5 Thesis Outline The thesis is structured as follows. In Chapter 2, I define key terms and present the theoretical framework and research literature related to the benefits of HL learning and the teaching of SHL students in mixed FL classes. I also discuss ways of theorizing identity, especially in relation to language learning and the concept of language ideology. In Chapter 3, I present the research methodology employed in the study. In Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7, I present my main research findings. Chapter 4 deals with the social positioning of the SHL students, specifically in relation to their friendship networks in the class, the significance of students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ages within the context of a multi-age class and gender. In Chapter 5 I analyse the positioning of the SHL students in relation to their oral language expertise, while in Chapter 6 I focus on their literacy skills. Chapter 7 deals with various issues related the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 heritage, such as the role of the home in their language learning and their cultural and national affiliations. Finally, in Chapter 8, I discuss the research findings in relation to the SHL literature and propose how the research can contribute to the field of HL learning, as well as to improve pedagogy. 9 Chapter 2 TEACHING HL STUDENTS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, I first introduce a few key terms used throughout this thesis. I then review previous research illustrating the benefits of HL education under the sub- themes of benefits of HL learning and the relationship between HL proficiency and identification with the heritage culture. In the next sections, I explain key theoretical constructs used in this thesis, namely positioning theory, language ideology and the language expertise, affiliation and inheritance model. I then provide more detail about several surveys which report on the demographics of SHL student enrolment in SHL classes reported in Chapter 1. Finally, I review previous research on the teaching of SHL students in mixed SFL classes. 2.1 Terms and Definitions 2.1.1 Heritage Language Learner The term heritage language (HL) education is reported to have originated in Canada in the 1970s (Baker, 2001; Duff, 2008a; Hornberger & Wang, 2008) whereas the United States has been using the term since the 1990s (Hornberger & Wang, 2008; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2001). The definitions of heritage language also vary in the two contexts. In Canada, the term refers to languages other than the two official languages, English and French, or the aboriginal, indigenous or \u00E2\u0080\u009CFirst Nations\u00E2\u0080\u009D languages (Cummins, 1992; Duff, 2008a). In the United States, on the other hand, heritage language refers to any language other than English spoken by Americans at home (i.e. not a FL/international language they speak or learn), and has been used only more recently. Other terms have also been used to refer to this population. In specific reference to Spanish, the term Spanish for native speakers, has and continues to be used to some extent (see, for example, Peyton, 2008). Since the term heritage learner is more accurate and also broader than native speaker and is now the most widely-used term as well as the term used in Canada, I will be using it throughout my thesis. The phrase Spanish for native speakers will only be used when it appears in a direct quotation. Many definitions have been proposed for HL learner in the research literature due to the great diversity of the population described by the term (Hornberger & Wang, 10 2008). One way in which definitions of HL learners differ is in the emphasis they place on language proficiency and the relationship of the HL to the dominant language in the community. For Spanish, definitions have been more based on language proficiency because they have been used mainly in the context of discussions of how to teach this group of students. For example, the most common definition, from Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (2001), is that a heritage language learner is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca language student who is raised in a home where a non- English language is spoken, who speaks or at least understands the language, and who is to some degree bilingual in that language and in English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 38). Fishman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1999, 2001) definition, on the other hand, emphasizes HL learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 heritage language\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationship to the United States. He categorizes heritage languages into three major groups, namely indigenous languages, colonial languages, including French, German, Italian or Spanish, brought by earlier European settlers and immigrant languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian or Korean. One problem with Fishman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s definition is that Spanish, for example, could be classified as both a colonial and an immigrant language, depending on each learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s personal history. Carreira (2004) summarizes the various definitions of HL students in the field. The purpose of her paper is not just to create comprehensive definitions of the term but also to suggest how students from each definition category should be taught. She presents three criteria or defining characteristics for HL students, which are based on the HL group they are from. Her first defining factor is membership in the HL community, which applies to those belonging to communities with low numbers of native speakers of the ancestral language, such as some indigenous and immigrant groups. The key features of those belonging to this group are that they have a strong heritage culture or language identity, and that the community has a limited number of speakers of the HL and is trying to reverse language shift. Carreira calls these HL learners HLL-1. The second factor in her work is a personal connection through family background, which applies to those individuals who have been residing in the United States (or Canada) for three generations or more or those whose language is rare and not commonly taught and who then choose to study a related language. For example, Ghambir (2001, as cited in Carreira, 2004) gives the example of native speakers of a Dravidian language enrolling in Hindi classes out of a perceived affinity between the two 11 languages but little personal linguistic history with or exposure to either language. Carreira also cites Giengreco (2000) who grew up speaking Sicilian as a child and \u00E2\u0080\u009Csought to rekindle his connection to his roots by studying Italian\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 7) as an adult. These HL learners are designated HLL-2. Finally, for Spanish-speaking and most other major immigrant groups, linguistic proficiency is the defining factor for Carreira. This last definition is one typically used in the HL literature. Both Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (2001) and Carreira stress that the use of a definition based on proficiency stems from its use by foreign language educators who are, for professional and practical reasons, most affected by this factor. Carreira further subdivides the last factor, proficiency, into those who are more (HLL-3) or less (HLL-4) linguistically proficient and who would therefore be placed in either the heritage or regular language track, respectively. In Canada, where there are insufficient numbers for such a track, the students from these two categories would all be placed into the regular Spanish program, perhaps at different levels. Carreira then summarizes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe main concepts underlying instruction for each of the categories proposed\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20), using the table below: Table 2.1 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Focus of Instruction for HL Students (Carreira, 2004, p. 20) HLL Type Focus of instruction HLL-1 Group notions of culture, membership in the HL community, the learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s part in preserving the cultural and linguistic legacy of his community. HLL-2 Individual notions of culture, the search for personal identity, the learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s prerogative to define himself in terms of his ancestry. HLL-3 Building linguistic and cultural skills that are consonant with external realities of how the HL is used outside the classroom. HLL-4 Countering identity negation, tapping into background knowledge, student as resource. While her instructional strategies for HLL-1 and HLL-2 students seem more related to their identity than linguistic needs, probably due to having defined those learners and their communities in those terms, her suggestions for HLL-3 and HLL-4, of which Spanish HL learners are one example, do provide interesting insight. She suggests that teachers of HLL-3, namely those more proficient in their HL, build on their linguistic skills, reinforcing what these students have learned from their uses of the HL outside the classroom. For HLL-4, she suggests \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctapping into their background knowledge\u00E2\u0080\u009D and 12 using them as resources. This is presumably not mentioned for HLL-3 since those students would be placed in HL tracks while the HLL-4s would be placed in mixed FL classes. The suggestions for both HLL-3 and HLL-4, then, focus on building on their more or less extensive experiences with the HL. The various definitions of HLLs have a significant impact on how these students are viewed. For example, Carreira\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2004) suggestion for teaching HLL-4, who she defines as a lower proficiency HL learner group, includes \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccountering identity negation\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20). This implies that a student with a lower language proficiency would also have a corresponding lower identification with their heritage culture. This is an assumption which teachers may bring to their classes and which may be erroneous. 6 According to Beaudrie and Ducar (2005), language proficiency and personal cultural background may not come hand in hand. They give two examples of students they would include in the definition of HL student. The first are students who have no linguistic background in the language but it is part of their cultural heritage and they wish to reconnect with it. Their abilities and language acquisition process would most likely parallel those of FL students, although they may have some latent receptive skills. The others are students who have no cultural background in the language but who learned it by living in a country where the language was spoken or who were exposed to it in other ways, such as through a nanny, etc. In this case, HL is really a misnomer \u00E2\u0080\u0093 it is actually experiential background, not HL background. As well, according to Hornberger and Wang (2008), the definitions do not account for children of inter-racial or multi-racial marriages or adoptions. For example, students with mixed backgrounds may have several heritage languages and cultural affiliations and various proficiency levels. For the purposes this study, I would make a distinction, like Beaudrie and Ducar (2005), between the language proficiency and cultural background of HL students. The term HL most clearly connotes a language associated with one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage. Therefore all students who have a cultural connection with the language they are studying through their heritage or ancestry should be considered HL students, regardless of their language proficiency in that language. However, since language teachers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 main focus is with their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language proficiency and language learning needs, we can talk about those 6 The relationship between HL proficiency and identity will be explored in more detail in section 2.3. 13 learners with extensive exposure to a language, such as an extended period of living in a country, as well as those with exposure in the home, whether the language is part of their heritage or not, as those with a linguistic profile most often associated with a HL learner. These students can be called HL (if the language is part of their cultural background) or HL-like (if it is not) learners, meaning that their language proficiency and learning needs are similar to those of HL learners. Their greater language proficiency is most often in the area of orality as a result of their extensive, informal exposure to the language. Those students who have a cultural background in the HL but low exposure to and proficiency in the language, we could call beginner HL students, as Beaudrie and Ducar also designate them. Figure 2.1, below, is a graphic representation of the four types of students. Figure 2.1 Linguistic and Cultural Continua of HL and non-HL Students + ancestral cultural (+/- experiential) background variable (inheritance) affiliations HL students beginner HL with a HL students linguistic profile (+/- written) - (oral) + (oral) expertise expertise non-HL students non-HL students with a HL-like linguistic and some experiential / cultural profile 7 - ancestral cultural (+/- experiential) background (inheritance) 7 For example, those with extensive out-of-class exposure to language of study, such as from having lived abroad for a significant period of time 14 In Figure 2.1, the students in the top half of the diagram are HL students, while those below are non-HL students. The HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language expertise should not take away from their HL status and identification with their cultural background. In terms of their linguistic abilities and needs, the students on the right and left sides are most similar, whatever their cultural heritage, and can be taught in similar ways. While the figure may appear complicated, this is because the profiles of HL students are also full of complexity. Overall, I feel that language teachers should not be concerned only with their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 linguistic needs, therefore grouping them only in those terms, but should also be aware and acknowledge their cultural backgrounds (inheritances) and affiliations, and that these two dimensions should remain separate and important aspects of their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 profiles. One important problem with many of the current definitions of HL students (and the reason why such definitions are often contested and elaborated on) is that they present an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cetic\u00E2\u0080\u009D definition which is necessarily limited and cannot account for the many diverse types of HL students. A more \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemic\u00E2\u0080\u009D definition would be more easily adaptable to a greater range of HL students. Drawing on the Language Expertise, Affiliation and Inheritance Model 8 proposed by Rampton (1990), I put forward the following definition of a HL learner: \u00E2\u0080\u009CA language student with an inheritance in the (minority) 9 language of study, who may have variable levels of affiliation to the language and who may have a certain (oral and/or written) expertise in it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This definition recognizes that HL learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 affiliations to their HL may vary under different circumstances or situations and may also change over time, independently from, for example, their level of expertise, which may also change over time. Furthermore, their expertise may be oral and/or written and so they may not conform to the widely accepted view that most HL students are orally proficient but have difficulties with their written skills. There are also various ways of calling the non-HL learners in a language class. In the United States and Europe, the term foreign language students is most commonly used. However, in Canada, the additional language courses offered in secondary and 8 See Section 2.6 for a detailed description of this model. 9 I use the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cminority\u00E2\u0080\u009D rather than \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2001) since it recognizes that the majority language of many countries is not English. For example an Anglo-Canadian child growing up in China would have English as her HL. 15 post-secondary institutions are most often referred to as international languages or modern languages. These terms are broader and do not connote the kind of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cus\u00E2\u0080\u009D versus \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthem\u00E2\u0080\u009D notion that the term foreign language does. However, since foreign language (FL) is the term we most often find in HL literature, which mainly comes from the United States, and using phrases such as Spanish international language learner or Spanish modern language learner would be awkward, I will use the phrase Spanish foreign language (SFL) learner to designate the non-HL learners in my study. 2.1.2 Hispanic or Latino/a? Another term which needs to be addressed is the one used to refer to SHL learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural background. In order to analyse the terms used for this population, one must look to how they are used in the United States where large populations of Spanish- speaking peoples from Latin American countries (and elsewhere) reside and where the uses of various terms has been debated for a long time. According to Garc\u00C3\u00ADa (2003), prior to the 1970s, ethnicity in the United States was largely described in terms of national and ancestral origin (e.g. Mexican American, Cuban American, etc.). In the 1970s and 1980s, various factors led to the increasing use of a pan-ethnic label for the population. One of the main examples of this was the introduction of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009CHispanic\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the 1980 Census. Although the Census Bureau is often credited with creating this term, Garcia and Sanchez (2008) state that this is a myth whereas in fact, the term was suggested and coined by Hispanics themselves at a meeting in Washington, DC, of the Lyndon Johnson\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Committee of Spanish Speaking Americans in the 1970s. Furthermore, according to Garc\u00C3\u00ADa, it was, in fact, Mexican American policy groups that sought to introduce the Spanish-origin category into the census as a way to insure greater accuracy in the counting of Mexican Americans and other Hispanics. Nevertheless, critics like G\u00C3\u00B3mez (1992) suggest that the term was a product of United States media outlets and government bureaucrats. According to Garcia and Sanchez, advocates of the term Latino/a feel that it has many advantages over Hispanic. First, it is a Spanish language word and clearly refers to residents of Latin America rather than Spain, while also emphasizing the indigenous side of Latinos\u00E2\u0080\u0099 backgrounds. Oboler (2002) and Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez and G\u00C3\u00A1ndara (2005) view the choice of Latino/a as a political one in which Latinos identify themselves with their struggle for social justice in the United 16 States. Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez and G\u00C3\u00A1ndara distinguish between the two terms, stating, \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E2\u0080\u0099Hispanic\u00E2\u0080\u0099 emphasizes historical connections among people of Spanish-speaking origin, whereas \u00E2\u0080\u0098Latino\u00E2\u0080\u0099 points to political differences between these people and the Anglo population\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 396). However, according to various surveys conducted in the 1990s and cited in Garcia and Sanchez (2008), 10 Latin Americans in the United States prefer labels referring to their national origin (e.g. Mexican American, Cuban American, etc.). When asked to choose a pan-ethnic label, they have consistently chosen Hispanic (over 50%) over Latino (around 11%). While Garcia and Sanchez feel that the preference for Latino has since increased, especially in the media, they also suggest that the two are increasingly being used interchangeably as is the case in their own book. In the Canadian context, terms such as Hispanic and Latino/a are also often used interchangeably and do not seem to carry the same political connotations. In my own years of Spanish language study and use, as well as my interactions with Latin American people, I have consistently heard and used the term Hispanic. That is why in this study, use the term in interview and elsewhere. The various participants in the study have also used different terms, most frequently using the term Spanish, a conflation of the language and cultural background of Spanish-speaking individuals. 2.2 Benefits of Heritage Language Learning The literature shows that there are many benefits to heritage language development. Cummins and Danesi (1990) provide an excellent summary of these benefits. In terms of positive benefits for the individual heritage language speaker, these include an increased sense of confidence, cognitive growth, and success in acquiring additional languages. Attaining a high level of proficiency in additional languages, however, appears to depend on the level of first (heritage) language development. When first language skills, especially literacy skills, are not adequately developed, learners are not able to transfer skills from one language to the other. Swain and Lapkin (1991) report on two studies (Bild & Swain, 1989; Swain, Lapkin, Rowen & Hart, 1991) examining the impact of heritage language literacy on third language learning. The results of both 10 Latino National Political Survey (de la Garza, Falcon, Garcia & Garcia, 1990), Garcia, F. C. (1995). U.S. Department of Labour, Bureau of Labour Statistics 1995 17 studies show that those children who were literate (rather than just having oral/aural skills) in their heritage language outperformed both the non-literate minority students and the majority students in all four language skills on French language proficiency tests. Heritage language development in English-speaking countries also allows for more personal contact with parents and grandparents who may not be fluent in English, and beyond that, with the larger ethnic community to which the speaker belongs (Cummins & Danesi, 1990). Group interviews conducted with students from three high schools with heritage language programs (two in Spanish and one in French) as part of the ACTFL/Hunter College Project (Webb & Miller, 2000) support this finding. One of this project\u00E2\u0080\u0099s researchers, Romero (2000), describes how during their group interviews, many students spoke of language loss prior to their enrolment in HL classes, and described their enhanced language skills resulting in an improvement in communication with their parents as a consequence of taking these classes. The teachers in this study, aware of this benefit, planned class assignments involving family interviews, letter writing to relatives living in the country of heritage and article writing from the point of view of the local heritage community. Another study, conducted by Cho and Krashen (1998), reports related results. In their study, Cho and Krashen interviewed 12 Korean Americans and administered a survey to 60 Korean Americans about conflicts they experienced in their daily lives as a result of HL loss. The results show that a large majority of the participants encountered problems communicating with family and HL community members. A few also reported having problems when travelling in their country of heritage since people there expected them to be fluent. However, most of the participants in both studies (all participants in Romero and 66/72 in Cho and Krashen) were students in heritage language classes, presumably there because they felt a need to improve their heritage language skills, which might not have been as important to students not enrolled in heritage language courses. Nevertheless, the two studies support the social and interpersonal benefits of improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage language, as outlined by Cummins and Danesi (above). Cummins and Danesi (1990) also discuss benefits of heritage language development for society at large. They point out that in the increasingly global world, having additional language skills is highly valuable. Specifically, business people and 18 diplomats with multilingual competence are in increasing demand and the language training of monolingual English speakers in other languages is not only costly but does not guarantee a high level of proficiency. The training and/or maintenance of heritage language competence, however, is much more likely to produce a bilingual individual and is also more cost-effective. Cho (2000), similarly, found that the Korean American participants in her study described how developing their HL competence had professional benefits for them, while they also saw their HL competence as a resource for society. For all these reasons, it is in the best interest of the individual, the community and the society at large to promote heritage language instruction for children and youth. 2.3 The Relationship between HL Proficiency and Identification with the Heritage Culture A number of studies have also been conducted to assess the relationships between HL proficiency and cultural identification with the heritage culture. Cho (2000) conducted a questionnaire (n=98) and interview (n=16) study of Korean Americans, who were either born in the United States or arrived at an early age to investigate the positive consequences of HL proficiency. According to Cho (2000): Those who had \u00E2\u0080\u0098strong HL competence\u00E2\u0080\u0099 had a strong sense of who they were (i.e., being proud of their culture and ethnicity), were strongly connected to their ethnic group (i.e., had strong group membership, had no fear or avoidance of HL speakers), and had greater understanding and knowledge of cultural values, ethics, and manners. These factors enabled them to have better relationships with HL speakers, both in and outside the HL community (p. 338) Two studies (Lee, 2002; Triantafillidou & Hedgcock, 2007) found that participants with higher HL proficiency were more likely to embrace their bicultural identities. In a questionnaire study of 40 second-generation Korean-American college undergraduate and graduate students, Lee found that a high level of Korean proficiency was correlated with a stronger identification with the heritage culture as well as American culture. Therefore, the same students also identified themselves as being more bicultural. Thus, Lee concluded that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthose who are more proficient in the heritage language are also more successfully balancing the two cultures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 129). Triantafillidou and Hedgcock found a similar result in their exploratory study of how HL (n=26) and FL (n=16) adult students of Greek differed in terms of language proficiency, motivation, learning styles, 19 metalinguistic awareness and sociocultural affiliation patterns. With regards to HL proficiency and sociocultural affiliation, they found that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthose who identified most strongly with their ethnolinguistic backgrounds and who embraced their biculturalism outperformed their peers (both Greek American and non-Greek American) on measures such as the Greek OPI [Oral Proficiency Interview] and classroom performance\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20). The results of both studies show that those with high levels of HL proficiency not only identify strongly with their heritage culture but also embrace their biculturalism more strongly. These participants then appear to be better adjusted to living in their new culture while being able to retain pride in their heritage culture. Maloof, Rubin and Miller (2006) examined the role a Vietnamese HL school played in cross-cultural adaptation by analyzing the relationship between two variables, namely language competence and integrated cultural identity. Thirty-three HL students took part in this qualitative and quantitative study. The findings indicated that the HL school experience was correlated with HL proficiency but had little impact on cultural identity. As for the correlation between HL proficiency and cultural identity, the study found that proficiency in and frequency of use of the HL were both positively correlated with Vietnamese cultural beliefs. However, proficiency in English was also strongly correlated with an affinity toward the Vietnamese culture. These findings point to a complex relationship between HL and English proficiency and affinity with the heritage culture. 2.4 Identity and Positioning Theory While the studies described in the previous section show interesting relationships between HL proficiency and cultural identity, they conceive of identities as relatively stable and independent of context. Bucholtz and Hall (2004) critique this view of identity when they state that \u00E2\u0080\u009C[one] of the greatest weaknesses of previous research on identity, in fact, is the assumption that identities are attributes of individuals or groups rather than of situations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 376). Presenting an alternative conception of identity, social constructionists (Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9, 1990; Edwards, 1997; Harr\u00C3\u00A9 & van Langenhove, 1999) have viewed it as interactionally and discursively negotiated and accomplished, using the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpositioning,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which allows us to focus on the dynamic nature of social encounters (Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9, 1999). Furthermore, Davies and Harr\u00C3\u00A9 (1990) note that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe 20 individual emerges through the process of social interaction, not as a relatively fixed end product but as one who is constituted through various discursive practices in which they participate\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 46). Using \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpositioning theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D discourse can be analyzed to show how identities are produced, negotiated and socialized in social interaction. Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9 (1990) define \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpositioning\u00E2\u0080\u009D as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe discursive process whereby selves are located in conversations as observably and subjectively coherent participants in jointly produced story lines\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 48), while Wortham\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2004) definition is \u00E2\u0080\u009Can event of identification in which a recognizable category of identity gets explicitly or implicitly applied to an individual\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 166). Within conversations, then, participants are constituted in certain ways; at the same time, they can use discourse as a resource to negotiate new positions or foreground others. People are viewed as having multiple and often contradictory \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidentities,\u00E2\u0080\u009D some aspects of which are taken up in and through discourse with others to create \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpositions.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Davies and Harr\u00C3\u00A9 make a distinction between \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinteractive positioning\u00E2\u0080\u009D where one person positions another and \u00E2\u0080\u009Creflexive positioning\u00E2\u0080\u009D where one positions oneself (in relation to others). Moreover, interactive and reflexive positioning may be concurrently achieved since positions are relational and complementary. For example, when one participant positions herself as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cteacher,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in a classroom, she is likely positioning her conversational partner as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstudent.\u00E2\u0080\u009D On the other hand, speakers may also assign similar positions to their interlocutors, such as when one student asks another what their teacher said, thereby positioning her interlocutor as knowledgeable fellow student. According to Pavlenko and Blackledge (2004), positioning is most clear and interesting when it is contested or constitutes a site of struggle; in other words, when there is a negotiation between interactive and reflexive positioning. They also point out that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin many contexts, certain identities may not be negotiable because people may be positioned in powerful ways which they are unable to resist\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001, p. 250). That is because acts of positioning are often influenced by relations of power between participants (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998; Holland & Leander, 2004; Leander, 2002). Various recent studies have applied positioning theory to study classroom discourse in primary and secondary schools (Black, 2004; Davies, 2001; Duff, 2002; 21 Leander, 2002; Wortham, 2004). In the area of (second, foreign or heritage) language classes, few researchers have conducted a detailed analysis of the interactions and positionings of language students as well as their effects on language learning. However, Talmy (2004) analysed how newcomer ESL students were positioned as fresh-off-the- boat (FOBs) by their Generation 1.5 classmates in a Hawaiian high school during the formers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 presentations of a pop-up holiday project. In this way, the Generation 1.5 students, who had lived in Hawaii for many years, resisted being assigned the negative subject position of ESL student by positioning their classmates in this way. Their resistance not only perpetuated the very stereotype they were trying to escape but also created a very negative atmosphere in the classroom, where little learning was accomplished. Talmy suggests changing the curriculum to allow students to critically examine the issues present in the class and society in order to interrupt the cycle of linguicism. Menard-Warwick (2007) analysed the positioning of Latina immigrant women in a community language class in California. During a unit on employment, she found that, although these learners exercised considerable agency in attempting to reposition themselves in ways consistent with their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpre-existing ideas of themselves\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9, 1990, p. 56), some were unable to resist the interactional positioning of their teacher, who took up society\u00E2\u0080\u0099s notions of realistic career goals for Latina immigrant women. Those whose reflexive positioning most closely matched these societal views were able to empower themselves to a much greater extent. Additionally, Menard- Warwick found that these students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 second language development was closely tied to their positioning in the classroom since those whose reflexive positioning was accepted were then empowered to speak and defend their ideas to a much greater extent. She therefore recommends that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceducators can best facilitate learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 constructions of L2 identities and voices when they listen for and support their diverse reflexive positionings\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 286). Furthermore, like Talmy (2004), she advocates \u00E2\u0080\u009Cintegrating language practice and social critique\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Menard-Warwick, p. 286). In the area of HL education, He (2004, 2006) has conducted studies where she analyzed the interactional construction of identity in a Chinese heritage language school. She proposed that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cheritage language development is grounded in learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation 22 in social practice and continuous adaptation to the multiple activities and identities that constitute the social and communicative realms they inhabit\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2006, p. 21). Furthermore, she proposed a theory of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) learner identity in order to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdescribe and predict the key variables responsible for CHL development\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid). Overall, these variables show the interrelationship between HL learner identity, their motivation for learning their HL, their interactions in and messages they receive about, their HL from various contexts (home, HL community, English-speaking community) and HL development. The above-cited studies show the importance of a detailed micro-analysis of classroom interactions (as well as a macro-analysis of the learning context) in order to gain a better understanding of the dynamic positionings taking place, as well as their effects on learning in the class. Bucholtz and Hall (2004) demonstrate a similar view when they urge researchers to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cattend closely to speakers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own understandings of their identities, as revealed through the ethnographic analysis of their pragmatic and metapragmatic actions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 371). 2.5 Language Ideology Woolard (1998) defines language ideology as people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s representations, either explicit or implicit, about language and language use, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthat construe the intersection of language and human beings in a social world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 3). According to Blackledge (2000), language ideology is a field of study that was originally developed \u00E2\u0080\u009Cas a means of interpreting cultural conceptions of language, and analysing collective linguistic behaviour\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 26). He goes on to characterize more recent studies of language ideology as \u00E2\u0080\u009Crecognising the social positioning, partiality, contestability, instability and mutability of the ways in which language uses and beliefs are linked to relations of power and political arrangements in societies (Gal, 1998; Woolard, 1998; Gal & Woolard, 1995; Blommaert, 1999; Blommaert & Verschueren, 1998; Kroskrity, 1998)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid). In other words, when there are struggles for power in a society, language ideologies serve as one tool for the validation and devaluation of various languages or language varieties. In this way, they \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccome into being in the context of power relations at local, national, state and global levels\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2002, p. 121). 23 Woolard (1998) describes various widespread language ideologies, all of which have potential importance in the areas of foreign and heritage language education. One such ideology is the nationalist language ideology in which people from a certain national background are expected to speak that country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language and practice its dominant culture (pp. 16-17). This historical, ideological construct impacts how people are perceived and judged by others and by society, with regards to the language(s) they speak as well as their cultural affiliations. Another prevalent ideology has been \u00E2\u0080\u009Can insistence on the authenticity and moral significance of \u00E2\u0080\u0098mother tongue\u00E2\u0080\u0099 as the one first and therefore real language of a speaker, transparent to the true self\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 18). This ideology affects multi-lingual individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 use of languages other than their mother tongue and impacts foreign and heritage language education. Finally, Woolard describes language ideologies related to language standardization and grammatical correctness (pp. 20-21), which often become relevant when HL students speak non-standard varieties of their HL. In the area of education, Woolard (1998) states that ethnographic studies of language and schooling \u00E2\u0080\u009Chave made early moves to incorporate dimensions of power and ideology into the analysis of communicative practices\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 15). Yet, Blackledge and Pavlenko (2002) argue, language ideology \u00E2\u0080\u009Chas not been sufficiently considered yet with regard to foreign language instruction\u00E2\u0080\u009D (pp. 129-130). Thus, they argue that Pomerantz\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2002) study makes an important contribution in the field by analysing how university Spanish as a foreign language students \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstruct themselves as legitimate speakers of Spanish in a society that discriminates against heritage speakers of Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 130). Other researchers have focussed more specifically on the language discrimination faced by SHL learners mentioned by Pomerantz. For example, Train (2007) addresses how the teaching of Spanish in the United States is based on the language ideology of a standard or \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Euro-centric version of the language and how such a view renders the Spanish of many (particularly HL learners) inadequate. He calls this the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009CNative Standard Language, \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 a constellation of hegemonic ideologies of language, (non)standardness, and (non)nativeness that has come to define within the dominant culture of standardization the constructed realities of language, community, and identity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Train, 2007, p. 209). It is also a colonial view in that it perpetuates the colonial hegemony. Similarly, he and other researchers have looked at how educational 24 institutions categorize SHL learners as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeficiently native speakers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Train, p. 229) in relation to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmonolingual native standard speaker model\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid; cf. Leeman, 2005; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 1998; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez, Garc\u00C3\u00ADa & M\u00C3\u00A1rquez, 2003, 2008; Villa, 2002). For example, Vald\u00C3\u00A9s et al. (2003) describe the hierarchies existing in SFL departments at five post-secondary institutions and the ranking of Spanish-speaking faculty and students. Although such rankings are very complex, reflecting \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnative and non-native ability as well as other characteristics such as regional origin, ethnicity, and class,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as well as issues related to the individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 specializations and distinctions in the field, the Spanish of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cethnic minority speakers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e. (former) heritage language speakers or descendants of U.S. Latino immigrants) was ranked as the least valued (p. 9). In fact, these Spanish speakers were ranked below their non-native colleagues, the highest ranking being given to native speakers from Spain (in particular those from Madrid rather than other areas). In another post-secondary HL learning context, Jeon (2007) addresses the conflicting ideologies between herself, a Korean as a heritage language teacher and advocate of two-way immersion and those of her students, young adult Korean HL students who value the Korean language but see it as belonging to the private realm and secondary to the knowledge of English. These students looked unfavourably on new Korean immigrants proficient in the Korean language but not in English, labelling them FOB (cf. Talmy, 2004). For them, knowledge of Korean, however important, was not as important as the knowledge of English. Therefore, when asked by Jeon, they were not in favour of two-way immersion for their future children. Similarly, studying the language use of grade 1 students in a 50-50 Spanish- English dual immersion class, Volk and Angelova (2007) argue that the children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language use was greatly influenced by their (American) society\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language ideology privileging the use of English. As a result, by the end of the year, although the English- dominant children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish competence was growing, they were not always comfortable using it in academic contexts; on the other hand the Spanish-dominant children felt more comfortable speaking in English, sometimes even as much or more than in Spanish. These studies show that language ideologies have an important impact on the kind of learning which takes place in different language learning contexts (a more detailed examination of the impact of some of these ideologies is presented in Section 2.9). 25 Conducting a study at the high school level and in a Canadian context adds to the scope of the literature in this important area. 2.6 Language Expertise, Affiliation and Inheritance Model In contrast with the nationalist language ideology as well as those ideologies extolling the pre-eminence of the mother tongue and native speaker, the Language Expertise, Affiliation and Inheritance Model proposed by Rampton (1990) (see also Leung, Harris & Rampton, 1997; Rampton, 1995) recognizes that there are different characteristics of people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationships with the language(s) in their lives. He successfully argues that multilingual speakers have a variety of relationships with their various languages and that these may change situationally and over time. He encourages educators to look at each individual language learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationships to each of these components instead of making assumptions about how one aspect necessarily relates to the others. The first aspect is learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s level of expertise in the language. This expertise may be of different types (i.e. oral or written) and should be seen as independent of the student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationship to the language. For example, it is very important for teachers not to equate their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 level of expertise in a language and their affiliation to it. Just because a student does not have (written or oral) expertise in a language does not mean that they do not feel a strong affiliation to it and, conversely, proficiency in the HL may not imply affiliation. The second aspect is the learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s level of affiliation to the various languages in their lives. This refers to the language(s) that students feel an affiliation for, but that are not necessarily the language(s) they inherited as part of their family background. Although teachers often assume that students show a strong allegiance to their language(s) (as well as culture) of inheritance, this may not be the case and conversely, it is possible for learners of a language to feel an affiliation for a language to which they have no relationship of inheritance. Students can also show varying levels of affiliation to the cultures associated with these languages. The third aspect is the learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language inheritance. This refers to the language(s) students inherit from their family background and their allegiance to it. Rampton, however, points out that it may not always be the case that people show a 26 strong allegiance to such language(s) and in the case of mixed backgrounds, may show a preference for one part of their inheritance over another. Language inheritance is also tied to cultural, ethnic and national inheritance. The key point is that students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 relationships with these three inheritances are complex and cannot be assumed to be simple and straightforward. This model has interesting implications for the teaching of HL students. These students are often viewed as having certain language proficiencies and affiliations to their language of inheritance. In fact, there may be assumptions that students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 level of HL proficiency has a correlation with their level of affiliation to the language (see, for example, Table 2.1 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Focus of Instruction for HL Students \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Carreira, 2004, p. 20). Yet, students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 affiliations are not static, and may change over time or even in various situations when in the presence of various interlocutors. Such changes may or may not be linked to changing levels of language proficiency. Teachers must therefore attend to students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 levels of HL affiliation and not simply assume what they are by looking at their HL proficiency. 2.7 Demographics and Enrolment in SHL Classes: The United States and Canada As reported in Chapter 1, in Canada, the number of Hispanic immigrants has steadily increased since the 1970s, and native and heritage Spanish speakers are now the fifth largest minority language group in Canada according to the 2006 Census figures (Statistics Canada, 2007a). Their relative number is still quite low, however, accounting for only 1.1% of Canada\u00E2\u0080\u0099s population or 345,345 out of 31.2 million people in 2006. The concentration in urban centres is higher, with the percentage in the metropolitan area studied in this thesis being 1.3% (Statistics Canada, 2007b). This is a much smaller population than that of the United States where the number of Spanish speakers was 28.1 million in 2000, 11 accounting for 12.5% of the population (Garcia & Sanchez, 2008; United States Census 2003). Several surveys have been conducted about the availability of SHL classes at the post-secondary level in the United States. In the most recent survey of 240 randomly- selected higher-education (college and university) institutions (Ingold, Rivers, Chavez Tesser & Ashby, 2002), 26 institutions (18%) reported having SHL classes, 65 (45%) 11 Since the United States census takes place every ten years, these are the most recent statistics. 27 reported having no such classes, and 55 (38%) did not answer the question. When asked why SHL classes were not offered at their institution, 93% cited insufficient enrolments; 69% pointed to a lack of funding; 64% cited a lack of trained faculty; an important 48% stated that there was a lack of interest by heritage learners themselves and 44% indicated a lack of faculty interest. Also noteworthy is the percentage of SHL students who actually enrol in the special classes. Of those institutions which offer SHL classes, 15% reported that almost all their SHL students enrolled in the SHL classes; 7% reported about three-fourths enrolment; 19% reported about one-half; 37% reported one-fourth; and 22% reported almost none. These results show that even when such classes are offered, a majority of the SHL students choose not to enrol in them, opting instead to enrol in SFL classes. The reality then is that, not only are absolute numbers of SHL speakers too low at many institutions to warrant an offering of separate classes for this population, but also, when such classes are offered, most of the SHL students choose not to take them. 12 Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino (2001) conducted four surveys (in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001) of a combined total of 642 lower-level students of Spanish in her post-secondary institution, 482 (75%) of whom listed themselves as Hispanic. Only 42% of all respondents thought heritage courses should even be offered (but not required), 80% of the Hispanic students stated that they would not register for heritage classes (but rather prefer taking SFL classes) and 70% of them called themselves true beginners, even though more than half of them indicated hearing or speaking Spanish in the home, with the family or in the community. In terms of their feelings about mixed classes, 76% thought that they were helpful so that the less proficient could learn from the more proficient. This is in direct contradiction to what the literature (e.g., Hancock, 2002; Peyton, Lewelling, & Winke, 2001; Roca & Colombi, 2003; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2000) recommends for these students, namely specially-designed and separate classes or tracks. Not only did these students favour mixed classes, many of those whom the literature would call heritage speakers did not consider themselves so. Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino suggests that this latter finding may have something to do with how these students were treated in their previous Spanish classes in 12 It should be noted that this survey had a low response rate when it came to certain key questions (such as the number of SHL student enrolments and the offerings of SHL classes). 28 terms of their teachers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 views of their Spanish proficiency and/or variety. 60% agreed that although they were exposed to Spanish in the home, they were not \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish speakers.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 97) Some students also felt that HL classes would be too demanding and their wish to receive an A also had a strong influence on their choice of classes. Finally, 10% stated that offering two tracks was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiscriminatory.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid) The survey findings are also supported by enrolment data: in her previous article, Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino (2000) describes how at her institution, where minority Mexican heritage students make up almost 50% of the student population, there used to be lower-division SHL classes which heritage students objected to so strongly that they ceased to be offered. The results of these two surveys show us that there are many factors which stand in the way of the development of and enrolment in SHL classes at many post-secondary institutions. SHL student enrolment in SFL classes, then, continues to be a reality that must be addressed. In Canada, the numbers of SHL students at both the secondary and post-secondary level are not sufficiently high to warrant offering separate classes for them. Therefore any SHL students wishing to enrol in Spanish classes in those institutions must enrol in mainstream (SFL) Spanish classes. 2.8 Teaching HL Students in Mixed Classes As pointed out in several different studies (e.g., Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino, 2001; Ingold, Rivers, Chavez Tesser & Ashby, 2002; Potowski, 2002; Roca, 1997), many SHL students are being taught in SFL classes that are not designed for them and this situation requires further attention. Additionally, as Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez Pino\u00E2\u0080\u0099s survey shows, many such students enrol in mainstream Spanish classes even when given a choice of both types of classes. Because \u00E2\u0080\u009CSFL\u00E2\u0080\u009D represents \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmainstream\u00E2\u0080\u009D L2 education in Canada, SHL students have no choice but to enrol in SFL classes if they wish to take Spanish class in high school or at a post-secondary institution, though they are sometimes placed into higher level classes. For these reasons, it is important to look at what factors make a mixed SHL/SFL class successful in meeting the needs of all its students. In the next two sub-sections, I will look at the results of those studies which report on unsuccessful as well as successful mixed classes from the HL learner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s point of view to see what has been learned about how best to teach such classes and what remains to be looked at. 29 2.8.1 HL Learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Negative Experiences in Mixed Classes In her 2001 article, Kondo-Brown performs a thorough statistical analysis of the correlations between placement test (multiple choice and essay) results for incoming Japanese students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1998 and 1999 and the number of years of their high school Japanese study. She found that for non-heritage language students, there was a high positive correlation between the number of years of high school language study and the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 receptive and written skills; however, there was no detectable relationship between the two for heritage language students. Kondo-Brown attributes this finding to a mismatch between the needs of HL students and the goals of FL classes, inappropriate placements of HL students and negative attitudes toward them from their non-HL classmates, a finding in Kondo\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1998) earlier study. Kondo (1998) conducted case studies of six second-generation Japanese- American students that she interviewed extensively about their life histories, especially in relation to learning and maintaining their Japanese language skills. Four of these students had taken Japanese in high school, all with negative experiences. Three stated that their (FL) classes were too easy and boring and that they got an easy A without learning anything, although one said that her Japanese improved during that time because she starting using it more at home with her parents. The fourth student had a particularly negative experience in her high school Japanese classes. Her classmates criticized her about being in a beginners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 class and speaking Japanese with the teacher because they did not find this fair, to the point that she switched to a higher-level class. Even then the teasing and criticisms continued. HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 negative experiences in FL classes were also found in Potowski\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2002) study. Potowski interviewed 25 SHL learners enrolled in regular (SFL) first or second year university Spanish classes taught by approximately 50 Spanish graduate student TAs, half of whom were native Spanish speakers and half of whom were non- native speakers, while only two were SHL speakers. She, along with two other TAs, conducted four group interviews of these students, asking them about their experiences in the SFL classes. The results showed that many of these students felt that their variety of Spanish was inferior to that of their classmates, one of whom described her Spanish as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cghetto Spanish.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Furthermore, these students felt that although they had a certain 30 advantage over the SFL learners in oral fluency, pronunciation and comprehension, they actually had more disadvantages than advantages in comparison with these classmates. For example, they felt that they were at a disadvantage because they had less metalinguistic knowledge of grammar. They also mentioned having to deal with higher teacher and classmate expectations. In fact, some pointed out that they were afraid to ask questions in class since they felt that they were expected to know everything already. In terms of their results, they actually received lower grades than their classmates and felt that their TAs\u00E2\u0080\u0099 correction of their written work was excessively harsh. Potowski also interviewed seven TAs as part of her study. When asked about their SHL students, the TAs, much like these students themselves, emphasized their language weaknesses, such as faulty spelling, grammar and questionable vocabulary choices. The majority of the TAs engaged in traditional correction of the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 written work: they circled the form in question and offered their correct version, without further explanation (such as pointing out use of the wrong register or dialect differences). Only one described her dilemma of accepting different dialects while still trying to correct any incorrect forms. Furthermore, none of these TAs were aware of any students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 negative reactions to their correction. Potowski states that since SHL students are likely to continue to take SFL classes, we should focus on improving instructional policies and practices in those classes. She also asserts that TAs and other educators need to be trained in awareness of the profiles, needs, experiences, and language varieties of HL learners and effective teaching strategies for this population. 2.8.2 HL Learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Positive Experiences in Mixed Classes In contrast to the Potowski (2002) study described above, where the TAs\u00E2\u0080\u0099 negative attitudes and excessive correction of SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Spanish created a very negative experience for these students, Dunlap (2003) describes very positive outcomes for her SHL speakers and Spanish native speakers, 13 whom she used as pronunciation coaches in her upper-division Spanish phonetics classes. She describes how these students worked on pronunciation exercises with groups of three to four SFL learners. 13 Dunlap classifies those born in Spanish-speaking countries as native speakers (regardless of their age of arrival in the United States) and those born in the United States to Hispanic immigrant parents or grandparents as heritage speakers. 31 Since dialect awareness was one of the goals of her course, Dunlap had students working with different coaches throughout the term and also invited native speakers from other backgrounds to the class to talk about their particular dialect. She found that this strategy had many advantages, including improved pronunciation and dialect awareness for the SFL learners and increased confidence in their language skills for the heritage and native speakers. As part of her study, Dunlap sampled 16 out of 31 pronunciation coaches from five previous phonetics classes, ten heritage speakers and six native speakers. The results of her questionnaire were that 81% of these coaches believed that the SFL learners benefited from their help and 75% felt better about their Spanish speaking skills after being coaches. This study shows how teachers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and peers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 acceptance and valuing of their dialects increases SHL speakers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 self-confidence and perceived language proficiency. There are, however, a few possible flaws with Dunlap\u00E2\u0080\u0099s study. First, she was the teacher of the students she did her study on, and so could be biased in her interpretations of what went on in her class (i.e., supporting her phonetic interventions). Second, we cannot be sure if the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 improved pronunciation skills came from the work they did with the SHL speakers or from other activities which were part of the course, nor were the SFL students asked about their views of the usefulness of this instructional activity. Finally, Dunlap sampled only those students from her previous classes for whom she had email addresses, possibly the students who had enjoyed her class more and so maintained email connections with her. Blake and Zyzik\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2003) study also demonstrated how SHL students and SFL students can successfully work together to their mutual benefit. Although the SHL and SFL students in their study were not in the same class, these students do provide an example of successful collaboration between the two groups. In the study, 11 pairs of SHL/SFL students completed two-way apartment-hunting jigsaw tasks through computer-mediated communication. The one hour long interactions yielded 30 negotiations (24 lexical, 4 grammatical, 2 pragmatic) by the 11 pairs. Of these, 23 were resolved by the SHL learners, 5 by the SFL learners and 2 were self-corrections made by the SFL learners. 32 Although the corrections made by the SHL speakers clearly outnumbered those of the SFL learners, the SHL speakers nevertheless benefited from the interaction in several ways. First, they felt that they expanded their bilingual range by acquiring certain vocabulary which the SFL learners knew from their classroom learning and which was not part of the SHL speaker\u00E2\u0080\u0099s normal repertoire. Second they were reportedly able to gain some dialect awareness when they used terms unfamiliar to the SFL learner and had to come up with synonyms to explain their meaning. The SFL learners, on the other hand, seemed to learn a lot of new vocabulary from the SHL speakers, which they frequently used subsequently in their exchanges. Nevertheless, the study has certain limitations. First, it is not clear if students actually acquired the vocabulary items they were given by their partners since no post- test was administered. Second, there were very few grammatical negotiations, which the authors felt could have been improved had there been more of a focus on form in the task (such as having to co-write a paragraph about their apartment-hunting experience at the end). Although this study does not document SHL and SFL learner interactions in an actual mixed-class setting, it does present some insights into effective task-based instructional strategies that a teacher in such a classroom might use. 2.9 Summary It is clear that further research is needed in the area of SHL and SFL mixed classes, since such classes are a continuing reality in both the United States and Canada. The few studies that have presented HL student experiences in mixed classrooms (Dunlap, 2003; Kondo, 1998; Potowski, 2002) mostly looked at HL student experiences as reported retrospectively by these students. In the case of Dunlap\u00E2\u0080\u0099s study, although she was the teacher of her class and so was able to observe her participants, she did not do any qualitative analysis of the interactions taking place in her classes, choosing to report only the quantitative results of her questionnaires. These studies also clearly lack FL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perspectives, which is an important omission since these students need to function as well in their language classes as the HL students do. The Blake and Zyzik (2003) study shows what SHL/SFL student interactions could look like using computer- mediated communication but such interactions may or may not be similar in an actual mixed class setting with students working face-to-face. Furthermore, almost all the 33 mixed-class studies (with the exception of Webb & Miller, 2000) conducted thus far have involved students at the post-secondary level, the data from which may not be applicable to or representative of the secondary level when identity and social positioning may be particularly salient and sensitive, especially with adolescent learners. This is because the social dynamics of secondary classes often differ significantly from post-secondary ones due to the typically long-term relationships amongst the students who went to school together for many years and the common formation of peer groups or cliques (Eckert, 1989). These dynamics may then have an important impact on the kinds of interactions and learning which takes place in class. Finally, the mixed-class studies described here have all focussed in large part, on SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 self-reported learning experiences in the class and not very much on their observed interactions and positionings in the class. This is an area that warrants more investigation as students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions have a significant impact on their learning and on their sense of self (Gass & Selinker, 2008). It is therefore clear that studies need to be conducted in mixed classroom settings at the secondary level and such studies should present a detailed, qualitative analysis of the classroom interactions amongst SHL students, SFL students and their teacher to complement earlier quantitative surveys and to address questions of perhaps greater current interest in second language classroom research related to identity. 34 Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction In this chapter I describe the research methodology employed in this study. After describing the nature of my qualitative multiple-case study design, I present the research site and participants, including a detailed description of the teacher and the four SHL students that are the focal participants of this study. Finally I give a detailed description of my data collection procedures and data analysis methods. 3.1 Research Questions In this study, I sought to observe how SHL students were positioned in classroom interactions in terms of their Spanish language and cultural expertise, when learning Spanish alongside SFL students and the influence that such positionings had on various classroom interactions among the students and their teacher, as well as how these were viewed by the participants themselves. The three guiding research questions of this study are: 1. How do the SHL learners identify and position themselves and how are they positioned by their teacher and classmates with respect to their prior knowledge of Spanish, as well as their various Hispanic backgrounds and cultural affiliations? 2. What are the different factors (e.g., oral versus written expertise, age, social groupings in the class) that impact the various positionings of the SHL learners? 3. How do these positionings impact the classroom interactions among the SHL students, their SFL classmates and their teacher? 3.2 Ethnographic Case Study Design In order to answer these questions, an ethnographic case study was conducted of Canadian SHL students in a mainstream high school Spanish 11 courses. According to Gall, Gall, and Borg (2003), case study is the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmost widely used approach to qualitative research in education\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 433), and Duff (2008b) characterizes this research method in applied linguistics as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery productive and influential\u00E2\u0080\u009D and instrumental in the development of various models and theories in the field (p. 36). Duff states that \u00E2\u0080\u009C[most] definitions of case study highlight the \u00E2\u0080\u0098bounded\u00E2\u0080\u0099, singular nature of the case, the importance of context, the availability of multiple sources of information or perspectives 35 on observations, and the in-depth nature of analysis\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 22). The nature of this study, in which I examine the interactions between a teacher and her students in the natural context of a high school SFL classroom, relying on the multiple perspectives of the researcher, teacher and students involved, lends itself to this type of research method. Highlighting the need for emic or triangulated perspectives, central to a qualitative research design, Marshall and Rossman (2006) stress that \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman actions cannot be understood unless the meaning that humans assign to them is understood\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 53). Duff (2008b) further elaborates this idea, stating: Qualitative researchers in the social sciences and humanities, especially in the 21 st century, believe that the same phenomenon or event may be viewed from different perspectives or interpreted and explained differently by the research participant, researcher, or another observer \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Because of differences in the way individuals perceive, interpret, and remember an event or behaviour, accounts from different participants naturally vary \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It is this recognition of diverging observations and multiple realities that underlies interpretivism, which is arguably the most common approach to qualitative case studies in the social sciences (including applied linguistics) at present (emphasis in the original, p. 29) It is therefore important that the researcher analyse the data from multiple participant perspectives in a triangulating fashion in order to seek to understand the complexities of the phenomenon as well as any (apparent) contradictions. This is, according to Duff, one of the advantages of conducting ethnographic case study research in that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cby concentrating on the behaviour of one individual or a small number of individuals (or characteristics of sites), it is possible to conduct a very thorough analysis (a \u00E2\u0080\u0098thick\u00E2\u0080\u0099 or \u00E2\u0080\u0098rich\u00E2\u0080\u0099 description) of the case to include triangulating perspectives from other participants or observers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 43). Furthermore, triangulation can involve more than the inclusion of the researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perspectives. Data collection methods can also be triangulated (Duff, 2008b). I therefore combined observations and in-depth interviews in this study. Through my observations, I sought to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiscover complex interactions in [a] natural social [setting]\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 99). I took on the role of a participant- observer, immersing myself in the classroom setting, becoming a kind of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cco-participant within the local culture\u00E2\u0080\u009D of the classroom (Duff, 2008b, p. 138). My role in the class changed over time as did my focus. I began with observing the general participation 36 patterns and the types of interactions taking place in the class as a whole. For example, I wanted to see which students were asked questions first or more often, as well as the types of questions they were asked (e.g., about cultural knowledge, grammar, etc.), what language was used to address them, and so on. Over time, although I continued to focus on whole-class discussions, I also began to focus more on the SHL students and their interactions at their table groups. The purpose was to analyse the possible differences between how these students were interacting with their teacher and classmates in various participation structures. For example, I wanted to examine the setting(s) in which the various SHL students would be positioned as language experts by their interlocutors and how they might take up this positioning differently in different settings and with different interlocutors. To understand the subtleties of the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions and positionings in the class and what they tell us about the relationships among the different classroom participants as well as their own self-concepts and identities, I conducted an in-depth, detailed and systematic qualitative analysis of classroom behaviours and perceptions of those behaviours (Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p. 16). Therefore, aside from observing their behaviours in class, I interviewed all my participants in order to become more aware of their understandings of their own and others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 classroom interactions as well as how they presented these understandings to me (i.e., how they positioned themselves and others in their interviews, as language experts or novices, idealized speakers or cultural models, for example). However, according to Duff (2008b), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit is important to recognize that a research interview is a \u00E2\u0080\u0098construction\u00E2\u0080\u0099 or joint production by interviewer and interviewee (Briggs, 1986; Coughlan & Duff, 1994; Mishler, 1986)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 133). It cannot therefore be taken as a reflection of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctruth\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfact\u00E2\u0080\u009D and must be analysed as any other interaction, as socially situated. This research project makes use of an embedded case study design, with multiple subunits of analysis. On one level, my initially sampled cases were the three Spanish 11 classes. I chose Spanish 11 because it is a more advanced course generally offered to students who had previously completed Spanish 9 and 10. It is a level at which SFL students may be advanced enough in their study of Spanish to be able to interact at least at a basic level with any SHL students. At the same time, the coursework is also 37 advanced enough for SHL students to be challenged, in contrast to Spanish 9 and 10, which would likely be too simple for them. Different schools have different placement procedures for SHL students. Some allow them to take whatever level they wish while others try to place them in higher levels. In some schools, they are discouraged from taking Spanish class altogether. In many schools, Spanish 11 is also the most senior Spanish class since many universities recognize this level of Spanish as a fulfillment of their entrance language requirement. Furthermore, where it is offered, Spanish 12 is often a small class whose curriculum is often specifically geared to the Spanish 12 provincial examination. 14 Within each case, I focused specifically on the SHL students in the class, who became my focal participants (described in detail below). In this way, I was able make comparisons between these individual cases within one setting. Furthermore, I attempted to relate what I observed at the classroom micro-level to social, cultural and pedagogical issues at the macro-level (Duff, 1995, 2002, 2008b). The goal was to examine how SHL students were positioned in interactions taking place in their SFL classes while, at the same time, analysing the impact these positionings had on their interactions in the class, that is, in a dynamic, two-way interaction. 3.3 Case Selection, School Access, and Ethical Considerations After passing an ethical review of my research protocol at the University of British Columbia as well as a review by several school boards, I began the process of identifying possible research sites (initially suitable schools and then Spanish courses). I wrote a letter of introduction for my study and placed it in the letterboxes of Spanish teachers throughout the approved school districts. I was then contacted by two interested Spanish teachers and set up meetings with both. In one of the schools, the teacher also introduced me to a colleague who was teaching Spanish in the Francophone program 15 based in the same school. After meeting with three teachers, they all consented to participate in my study. In what follows, the names of the schools, teachers and students 14 This examination was still mandatory at the time of the research. Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 final grades were based on their coursework (60%) and this examination (40%). 15 In a Francophone program, all courses are taught in French. Children with at least one parent with a Francophone background or who previously attended a French school are accepted into the program. Some students were therefore immigrants who had lived in Quebec or France and attended French schools there. 38 are all pseudonyms. The students and teachers chose their own pseudonyms. In order to further protect the identity of the participants, some biographical details have been changed. The classes I designated as A and B were regular Spanish 11 classes in mainstream English school programs and Class C was an intermediate Spanish class taught within the Francophone program. The intermediate Spanish class was the second in a series of three classes taught to native speakers of French. It differed from the Spanish 11 classes in several ways. First, students began their study of Spanish upon entering high school, in grade 8, instead of grade 9. The curriculum was somewhat more condensed as they took three courses instead of four to reach Spanish 12 (though the same number of classes per week, typically 2\u00C2\u00BD). In this way, it was somewhat similar to students in regular high schools who took Beginner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish 11, Spanish 11 and then Spanish 12, the first course covering the curriculum for both Spanish 9 and 10 but in that case, generally offered to students in grade 10 or higher who had not begun taking Spanish 9 in the regular track. The students in this class were therefore much younger than those in the other class, most being in grade 9, with two in grade 11. 16 As well, the teacher used a textbook of her own choosing, called Soleado (Mart\u00C3\u00ADn Clavero, 1996), which was not one of those recommended by the Ministry of Education. This book was written by a local author in Western Canada and designed for adult learners of Spanish. One reason the teacher gave for choosing this particular book was that it was written entirely in Spanish except for the stated objectives at the beginning of each unit which were written in English, French and Spanish. Since she was teaching in a Francophone program, the teacher used only French and Spanish in class and did not want to have a textbook written in English. In order to gain the consent of parents of prospective student participants (as well as the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own assent, as minors), I went to one class and presented my study, answering questions and handing out consent and assent forms. I then returned in one week and collected the signed forms. As a result of being contacted by the teacher in Class A and gaining access to that class first, I began observing it at the end of September 16 The grade 9 students were those who had taken the beginner Spanish class in the school the previous year while the grade 11 students had moved to the city from Quebec at the beginning of the year and had previously taken Spanish there. 39 2005. In Classes B and C, I presented my study to the classes in early October but was unable to commence observations due to a two week province-wide teachers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 strike, which also interrupted my observations of Class A. I therefore began my observations of Classes B and C in late October. I observed Class A for a six-month period, ending in late March 2006 and Classes B and C for a five-month period ending in early March 2006. In Class B, I found out that one student identified as a HL student by his teacher was actually not Hispanic but had lived and studied in Mexico for several years. 17 That student was also absent from the class for a period of several weeks and tried to drop the class altogether. The only HL student in the class was a girl with certain learning and behavioural difficulties who, aside from taking this regular Spanish class, had all her other classes as part of an alternative program in the school. Although I found her to be a very interesting participant and wanted to explore the ways that she might find some success and validation in the class as a result of her oral expertise, she unfortunately had a hard time connecting with her classmates and her expertise was, for the most part, unacknowledged by them. Furthermore, she was, sadly, expelled from the school two months into my fieldwork. Finally there was another interesting participant in that class. Although not a HL student by birth, he had a Hispanic stepfather and his mother was a high school Spanish teacher. This student, who was also in French immersion at the school, had very good literacy skills in Spanish, although he was not more orally fluent than his classmates. His teacher, however, did not see his skill set as any different from those of his classmates and did not single him out in any way. In spite of this interesting participant, I limited the amount of time I observed this class for several reasons. One was that the very traditional grammar-translation method of teaching employed by the teacher did not lend itself to many interesting interactions (or much learning, I would argue) in the class. Second, the other two cases were much more compelling and had \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D HL students in them and due to scheduling conflicts between the classes, I had to choose which to focus on more. I therefore continued to observe this class only one time per week with the intention of doing analysis of some of the interesting conversations I recorded there to publish in future publications. 17 I will explore the implications of this situation as part of Chapter 8. 40 I typically observed Classes A and C two times per week. 18 They were both very interesting and I completed my observations, interviews and analysis of both. However, having completed my data analysis, I realized that the Francophone class (Class C), having only one SHL student, 19 being taught in such a different context and presenting in many ways very different data from the other class, did not answer my research questions as well as the regular Spanish class (Class A). The latter class, on the other hand, had four SHL students, all very interesting and distinct cases yielding rich data that answered my research questions very well. In addition, the Spanish class in the regular program seemed to represent a much more common or typical setting for secondary-level Spanish instruction in Western Canada than the Francophone program did. At that stage, in consultation with my supervisory committee, I decided to write up my research of that one case only for the thesis. 20 Below, I describe the research site and participants, providing a detailed description of the four SHL focal participants. 3.3.1 Site Ansler High School was a school serving just over 1000 students from grades 8 to 12, located within Greater Vancouver (now called Metro Vancouver). Many staff members and students talked about the closeness and diversity of its population, including a range of socio-economic levels. Close to 50% of the students spoke a language other than English at home and the largest minority ethnic groups in the school were Chinese and Italians, with the Italian students usually being 2 nd -generation Canadians or more. The school had well-developed extra-curricular programs, diverse course offerings and prided itself on encouraging student participation and service. Outside the staff room a bulletin board displayed clippings from local newspapers reporting Ansler student service and achievements. The collegiality and closeness of the staff were evident inside the staff room, where warm interactions and conversations were often heard, as well as outside of school grounds, e.g. when many staff, including student 18 Each class took place in alternating periods of two and three times per week but due to the aforementioned scheduling conflicts between them, I was not able to attend all the classes. 19 This class was small, with only 12 students, one of which (the SHL student) was half-Mexican and half- French. Another student in the class had lived in Mexico two times for a total of one and a half years, in a similar way to the student in Class B. He was therefore transferred from the beginning to intermediate class at the beginning of the year but had did not do well in class, having many gaps in his Spanish knowledge. 20 However, I plan to do an analysis of the Francophone class for future publications. 41 teachers, came out to celebrate the focal teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s birthday at a restaurant, and from the comments of different staff members. 3.3.2 Participants There were a total of 22 students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish 11 class, with 21 taking part in the study (the various seating plans used in the class are illustrated in Chapter 4). Below is a breakdown of the participants from the class by first language and gender (see Table 3.1): Table 3.1 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Class Demographics First Language # of Students Gender Participants 21 English 7 1 M; 6 F Ben, Funk Machine, Katrina, Marissa, Janet, Silvia Spanish 4 1 M; 3 F Tony, Princess, Claude, Pat 22 Portuguese 23 2 2 M Terry, Cristiano Asian languages 24 6 1 M; 5 F Rusty, Kimiko, Honey, Rose, Jiffydam, Jo Ann Other languages 25 3 1 M; 2 F Prince, Kelly, Julia In order to provide a better sense of the different participants, many of whom, although not focal students, are mentioned in various parts of the thesis, Table 3.2 gives more demographic details about each participant. The first four are the (focal) SHL students in the class (in bold), after which I have listed the rest of the participants in order from the most recent Canadian arrivals to those whose families had resided in Canada for the greatest number of generations. 21 Where the group includes both male and female participants, the male participants are listed first in order to make clear each participant\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gender. 22 Although Pat put English as her first language, she also stated that she learned both English and Spanish at \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbirth\u00E2\u0080\u009D. I am therefore including her in this group for that reason. 23 I listed Portuguese separately since it is in the same language family as Spanish, impacting how easily native speakers of it learn Spanish. 24 This includes Cantonese, Mandarin, Filipino and Thai. 25 This includes Russian, Persian and Arabic. 42 Table 3.2 Participant Demographic Information Students Gender; Grade First Language Dominant Language Birthplace (Heritage \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Mother/Father) Age began learning English (Context) Number of Generations in Canada (Age of Arrival) Tony Montana M; 11 Spanish English / Spanish El Salvador 5 (school) 1.5 26 (2) Princess F; 9 Spanish English Canada (Salvadorian) 6 (school) 2 nd Pat Ruiz F; 11 English / Spanish English Canada (Honduran/Canadian) birth (home) 2 nd Claude Monet F; 11 Spanish English Mexico (Canadian/Mexican) 10 (ESL) 1.5 (10) Terry Smith M; 12 Portuguese Portuguese Brazil (Japanese) ? (EFL in Brazil) 1.5 (15) Kelly Smith F; 12 Arabic English Jordan 4 (EFL in Jordan) 1.5 (15) Julia F; 11 Russian English/ Russian Russia 10 (EFL in Russia) 1.5 (12) Jiffydam F; 11 Chinese English China 10 (ESL) 1.5 (10) Rusty Shackleford M; 11 Thai English Thailand (Thai/British) 1 or 2 (home) 1.5 (9) Cristiano Ronaldo M; 12 Portuguese English Canada (Portuguese) 5 (school) 2 nd Jo Ann F; 11 Tagalog English Canada (Filipino) 4 (pre- school) 2 nd Rose F; 11 Cantonese English Canada (Chinese) 3 (pre- school) 2 nd Kimiko Chang F; 11 Cantonese English Canada (Chinese) ? 27 2 nd Prince of Persia M; 11 Farsi English Canada (Persian) 2 (pre- school) 2 nd Honey F; 11 English English Canada (Guyanese) Birth 2 nd Ben Dover M; 11 English English Canada (Canadian/Italian) Birth 2 nd (dad; mom not indicated) 26 Generation 1.5 students are children of first-generation immigrants who received at least part of their compulsory schooling in Canada (Harklau, Losey & Siegal, 1999; Kim, 2008; Talmy, 2005) 27 Kimiko did not fill out a questionnaire or otherwise specify when she learned English. In her interview she talked about how she spoke English, Cantonese, Mandarin and a little of another Chinese dialect (she called it Chin Chinese) with different relatives. 43 Students Gender; Grade First Language Dominant Language Birthplace (Heritage \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Mother/Father) Age began learning English (Context) Number of Generations in Canada (Age of Arrival) Marissa F; 11 English English Canada (Czech) Birth 2 nd / 3 rd The Funk Machine F; 11 English English Canada (Ukrainian/Irish / New Zealander) Birth 3 rd / 2 nd Janet F; 12 English English Canada (Scottish) Birth 3 rd Silvia Smith F; 12 English English Canada (heritage not indicated) Birth Not indicated Katrina Smith F; 11 English English Canada (heritage not indicated) Birth Not indicated Looking at the student demographics, the class can be divided into roughly four groups: SHL students (who will be described in detail below); Generation 1.5 students who arrived in Canada with their families between the ages of 9 and 15, most of whom began learning English before their arrival; 2 nd generation Canadians whose parents are both from the same background and who began speaking their HL at home and began learning English in pre-school or school; and those 2 nd generation (or more) Canadians with various backgrounds whose first language was English. As a group, the SHL students were quite diverse in terms of their HL abilities, backgrounds, etc. Below, I will provide a detailed description of Ms. Lopez, the Spanish teacher in this class as well as each SHL student. 3.3.2.1 Ms. Lopez Ms. Lopez was an experienced teacher of Spanish and French. She was in her early 40s and had been teaching for 13 years. Her parents were French and she identified strongly with her French roots. She had previously been married to a Mexican-Canadian and had kept her married name, which she felt helped her gain more credibility with her students, especially the Hispanic ones. She loved the Spanish language and considered herself fluent and at ease speaking it. She also enjoyed teaching Hispanic students, feeling they added to the class atmosphere and were able to demonstrate authentic language use to the other students. 44 3.3.2.2 Tony Tony was a Salvadorian-Canadian student who moved to Canada at the age of 2 and was raised by his mother who spoke to him only in Spanish since, according to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own statements on several occasions, she did not speak English. As a result of having to speak only Spanish at home, Tony was completely fluent and comfortable speaking Spanish. Tony had not taken Spanish class previously and did not learn Spanish literacy skills at home. He was therefore the most orally proficient student but struggled with his literacy skills. In terms of personality, Tony was a very outgoing and dominant student in class. He enjoyed speaking Spanish with the teacher, making jokes with his friend Cristiano and generally trying to make his classmates laugh. He also listened to popular Spanish music in class on his MP3 and would sometimes, in the middle of class, sing a few lines from these songs, along with Cristiano. Tony was new to Ansler High School, having begun going there at the beginning of the school year. He had previously attended various schools, changing schools frequently (once every year or two). Many of his school changes were as a result of being expelled for fighting. He also spent time with gangs and had been in trouble with the police on more than one occasion. At Ansler, he began the year well but soon began spending most of his time with troubled students in the school. By the end of my observations, he had been suspended two times for fights and had skipped more and more classes as the year went on. Although he attended Spanish class much more than his other academic classes, his truancy in that class was also increasing. His grade in Spanish also suffered, going from a B in Term 1 to a C- in Term 2. When I visited Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class in September 2006 (one year after the start of my fieldwork), I found out that Tony had been expelled the previous May but was back at the school in September with various strict conditions. He, along with the other three SHL students, was taking Spanish 12. That was my last contact with the class. 3.3.2.3 Princess Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s background was also Salvadorian and she was born in Canada soon after her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s arrival there. Her parents were divorced and her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boyfriend was also Salvadorian. She grew up speaking Spanish at home, not learning any English 45 until she began school. She was also forced to speak Spanish at home, especially by her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boyfriend. Otherwise, however, Princess preferred to speak English with her Salvadorian cousins and friends. Like Tony, Princess was very comfortable speaking Spanish and orally proficient. At the beginning of the year, Princess enrolled in Spanish 9 (since she is in grade 9) but found it too easy and transferred, with Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s encouragement, into Spanish 11. Again like Tony, Princess was not literate in Spanish from her exposure to Spanish at home and therefore found writing to be a challenge in this course. She received average marks in the class and was also an average student in her other academic classes. At the beginning of the school year, Princess participated a lot in class discussions, especially when asked about her own Spanish language use by Ms. Lopez. However, she did not talk to other students very much as she did not know any well due to her lower grade level. She then began speaking and working with Pat, who sat near her and gradually with other students, like Marissa, as well. However, Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation changed dramatically when she was seated with three grade 12 students. She became very silent in class and no longer participated in class discussions. This topic will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4, Section 4.2. 3.3.2.4 Pat Pat was born in Canada to a Honduran mother and a Anglophone Canadian father. Since her father was an only child, all of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s other relatives were Hispanic. She had never been to Honduras but frequently visited her relatives in Miami. She also had many Hispanic friends who did not attend Ansler and with whom she spent time on weekends. She was therefore surrounded by a great deal of Spanish and understood it completely. However, Pat was uncomfortable speaking Spanish and she hardly ever did, either in or out of class. She indicated that the only person she was comfortable enough to speak some Spanish with on rare occasions was her mother. However, she enjoyed being in a Spanish-speaking environment and encouraged those around her to speak Spanish to her. Pat had previously taken both Spanish 9 and 10. Although the pace of those courses as well as this one was too slow for Pat, she nevertheless attended them because she did not want to have any gaps in her knowledge of Spanish and she felt that if she skipped a grade she might miss out on some (grammatical) knowledge. Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother had 46 previously enrolled her in community HL classes when she was in grade 4 but she did not attend for a long time, finding that she did not learn much there. Finally, Pat had also enrolled in night school Spanish at the beginning of the year but dropped the class because it was too easy for her. She planned to enrol again at a higher level. In the future, Pat wanted to travel and live abroad in Latin America. She was a very motivated learner who embraced her Hispanic heritage. As a result of her discomfort in speaking Spanish, Pat did not participate very much in class discussions. She answered Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions with short responses and on several occasions refused to read aloud in Spanish during class. Although she did not participate very actively, her written abilities were excellent. She, along with Terry and Jo Ann, were the top students in the class and she was often sought out for her Spanish ability by her friends and tablemates. She was also the student who generally finished all her work first and sometimes complained of boredom. 3.3.2.5 Claude Claude had an interesting linguistic history. Her mother was Anglo-Canadian (though highly proficient in Spanish) and her father was Mexican. She was born and lived for 10 years in Mexico where she went to school and gained Spanish literacy skills. She was largely spoken to in Spanish at that time since her father did not want her speaking English. She speculated, in her interview, that perhaps even though she was in Mexico he feared the influence of English on her Spanish abilities. Her parents then divorced and she moved to Canada with her mother at the age of 10. She stated that this was when she really began learning English, taking a one year ESL class upon arrival. Claude took Spanish 10 (instead of the typical Spanish 9) when she was in grade 9, did not take Spanish in her grade 10 year, and then enrolled in this class in her grade 11 year. She explained that she was taking Spanish because she felt she was forgetting it. In class, she would sometimes forget words and expressions and would complain to her friends. However, she also searched for English words when translating for them. Overall, however, Claude did very well in class, both in oral and written work. Her Spanish skills were the most balanced of all the SHL students in the class. Nevertheless, Claude did not participate in class in the same way as Tony and Princess. She appeared to be comfortable answering Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions but did not often 47 engage in a more extended discussion with her as the other two did. Still, on occasion, she was singled out for her Spanish knowledge and accepted this role. Although she did not speak Spanish at home, except occasionally for fun with her sister, she did speak Spanish with her Hispanic friends (who did not attend this class). They often code-switched between English and Spanish, sometimes in front of their other non-Hispanic, mostly Asian, friends. 3.4 Data Collection Procedures In my fieldwork, I began as an observer, sitting in the back of the class. During my observations, I took extensive field notes and audio-recorded each class. At first my recorder(s) 28 were placed at the back and sides of the class but over time, when my participants became more comfortable with my presence, I would ask their permission to place recorders at their tables for better recording quality of their group interactions. I also sought to gain the trust and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinsider\u00E2\u0080\u009D point of view (Yin, 2003, p. 94) of my participants by engaging with them gradually in class. This was a process that developed over time. I began my observations sitting in the back of the class alone and interacting minimally with the students. After a few weeks of observations, I would sometimes come to their tables at the end of classes when they had finished their work or at other times and talk to them. This was a two-way process in that it was initiated at different times by both myself and the participants. My purpose in interacting with the students was to gain their trust and establish a greater rapport between us, as well as to informally ask them about various comments they were making or had made in previous classes. Since I was transcribing my recordings after each observation and doing some informal thematic analysis, I would notice interesting discussions which had taken place and the following class I might ask them to clarify some of what they had said. Duff (2008b) refers to this kind of process when she states, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFrom the earliest data collection and transcription stages, \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 data analysis is already taking place\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 159). My participants, on the other hand, were often eager to tell me about their social networks, families and 28 During different times, I had between one and three recording devices. I chose not to use a video recorder for several reasons. First, due to the difficulty of passing ethical review and possibly having more difficulty obtaining participant consent. Second, because the video would have been more intrusive and may have also affected participant behaviour to a greater extent. And third, because I wanted to give all my attention to observations rather than worrying about where the camera was pointing (even a well-placed camera could miss certain things and if I was busy with it, I would miss them too.) 48 world-views as well as ask me for help with their Spanish. In this way, my role gradually changed from observer to participant-observer. At that time, I also handed out questionnaires to the students, which I used to gain background knowledge about their family backgrounds and their past and present language learning and use. Finally, at the end of November, I began interviewing my participants, using a standardized open-ended interview format. According to Gall, Gall and Borg (2003), this interview format introduces consistency in data collection as the same set of questions is asked of all participant groups, while allowing for freedom to follow a line of response initiated by the interviewee. I interviewed Ms. Lopez two times, in late November and mid-January for a total time of over two hours. I interviewed my 21 student participants once either alone or in pairs. The interview times ranged from 20 minutes to over an hour. By combining questionnaires, participant-observations and in-depth interviews, I was able to analyze interactions from both etic (outsider) and emic (insider) perspectives. Combining these various collection methods and conducting recurrent analysis throughout the observation period also facilitated data triangulation. Stake (2005) speaks to this ongoing analysis when he states that case study research \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgains credibility by thoroughly triangulating the descriptions and interpretations, not just in a single step but continuously throughout the period of study\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 443). 3.5 Data Analysis Procedures As mentioned above, I engaged in recurrent analysis of my various data. According to Duff (2008b), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cqualitative case studies are increasingly associated with iterative, cyclical, or inductive data analysis\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 159, emphasis in the original). During my fieldwork, I tried to type up my field notes and listen to my recordings as soon as I could after observations. At that time, I conducted a thematic analysis of my data by \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidentifying salient themes, recurring ideas or language, and patterns of belief\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 158), coding my data according to these themes, and compiling interactions within each theme in separate Word documents. For example, some of my themes for this class were: interpersonal, 29 language expertise, Hispanic culture, 30 29 Discussions in which students would directly discuss their relationships with each other or in which indirect reference to these was made. 49 heritage, teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s identity, desire to learn (or resistance), seating arrangements and participation, researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s role, and so on. Some themes came from previous research (e.g., Chapter 2) and some from the data itself. I would also type up a summary overview of each class, making note of the important themes which came up. This, in turn, impacted what I looked for during my subsequent observations and asked about in my interviews. During my fieldwork and afterward, I continued to go back to my field notes and transcripts in order to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbecome intimately familiar with those data\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 158). Having compiled my coded data excerpts under themes, I selected the most striking or representative examples of various themes and conducted discourse analysis on these excerpts using Positioning Theory (Davies & Harr\u00C3\u00A9, 1990; Harr\u00C3\u00A9 & van Langenhove, 1999) in combination with microanalytic tools for the investigation of social interaction. For example, when looking at the theme \u00E2\u0080\u009Clanguage expertise,\u00E2\u0080\u009D I analyzed extracts according to who (the student or teacher) initiated the interaction. If the student volunteered his or her expertise, by correcting a classmate\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pronunciation, offering a new lexical item, and so on, I coded this occurrence as an example of reflexive positioning of \u00E2\u0080\u009Clanguage expert,\u00E2\u0080\u009D whereas if the teacher or a classmate initiated the interaction, it was an example of interactional positioning. I also made note of whether the student would support or reject the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning of him or her as expert or, in the case of reflexive positioning, if the teacher sanctioned or rejected the student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self- positioning as expert. With such analyses, I took note of patterns regarding who was positioned by whom as language expert, in which situations (e.g., whole class discussions or group work), and the type of language he or she was positioned an expert of (e.g., pronunciation, spelling, grammar, etc.). For example, I could see that some students, while seldom positioned as experts in whole-class interactions, were nevertheless positioned that way by their classmates in group work, or students would be positioned as experts in relation to one but not other types of expertise. These kinds of patterns were important because they showed that SHL students might or might not be seen or see themselves as experts of various types of linguistic knowledge. As well, the patterns showed that various other factors (such as age, friendship groups, etc.) can mitigate 30 Interactions in which reference was made in some way to one of the Hispanic cultures. 50 certain SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 positionings as experts. Having discovered the different themes and patterns, I used them to come up with an effective way to structure the results chapters and then chose those excerpts which I felt demonstrated well the patterns I found to include in these chapters. 3.6 Summary In this chapter, I described my qualitative multiple-case study design. I then explained how I found and selected my primary or focal case, going on to describe the site and participants. Finally, I described my data collection and analysis procedures. In the next three chapters, I present my study results. Chapter 4 describes with the friendship groupings in the class and their impact on interaction patterns, as well as issues of age and gender as they relate to various SHL students in the class. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the positioning of the SHL students in relation to their oral and written language expertise, respectively. Chapter 7 examines various issues related to the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 heritages and their cultural and national affiliations. 51 Chapter 4 SOCIAL GROUPINGS, AGE AND GENDER 4.0 Introduction In this chapter, I describe and analyse the social groupings of the Spanish 11 class in Ansler High School and how the SHL students fit into these groupings. Particularly in a high school setting, students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 networks of friends can have a significant impact on their participation and interaction patterns. As well, when SHL students enrol in regular Spanish high school classes (i.e., those designed in terms of curriculum and policy for students without a Spanish background), they may be placed in higher-level classes where they may be one or more years younger than their classmates. In a high school setting, this age difference can have an important impact on these students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions in the class, as well as on their confidence or sense of legitimacy. Gender also has an impact on students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions and participation. Boys are often more dominant in classes and girls may be reluctant to participate if it means \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccompeting\u00E2\u0080\u009D with a particularly dominant boy. These themes are explored and illustrated in greater depth below. 4.1 Classroom Configuration and Seating Plans Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish 11 classroom was configured into seven large tables, each made up of four small tables pushed together. Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 chairs were on the right and left sides of each table and students usually faced each other across the table. This created groups of four for group work, except for the few tables that had a smaller number of students. When Ms. Lopez was lecturing and writing on the overhead projector, students would sometimes turn their chairs to look at her. She would lecture from the front of the class but also move around to other parts of the class, especially to stand by tables where students were talking and not paying attention. She would seldom go her desk at the back of the class, except to retrieve a teaching resource. Likewise, she only went to her computer when inputting student marks, typically at the end of the term while students did group work. I normally sat between her desk and the computer desk unless I went over to students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 tables to talk to them during group work. Windows covered the wall to 52 the left of the class and the right side had two doors to the hall, one in the front and one in the back. Figure 4.1, below, is the first seating plan of the beginning of the year: 31 Figure 4.1: Seating Plan 1 32 (September 20) 4.2 Friendship Groups From the start of my observations, it quickly became obvious what the friendship groupings in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish 11 class were. As is the case in most high schools (Bucholtz, 1999; Duff, 2002; Eckert, 1989; Talmy, 2004), the students at Ansler High formed friendship groups or cliques over their years together. These friendships had a significant impact on how students interacted in class and who they interacted with, both on a social and academic level. Furthermore, two of these groups were very disruptive in class and were therefore resented by their classmates who commented on how little was 31 Further seating plans are inserted, where relevant, throughout the chapter. 32 Grade 12 students are in bold. Students making up the two popular groups are in italics. SHL students are underlined. \u00E2\u0080\u009CFemale\u00E2\u0080\u009D is a non-participant in the study. Princess joined the class on September 20. She first sat at the front table indicated in the diagram. On October 27 the teacher moved her beside Patricia, where there is a \u00E2\u0080\u009C(#)\u00E2\u0080\u009D on the diagram. 53 being accomplished in class as a result. Table 4.1, below, shows the membership of the main friendship groups of each SHL student 33 in the class (see Chapter 3, Section 3.3.2 for a more detailed description of these and the rest of the class participants). Table 4.1: SHL Students and Their Friendship Groups 34 Students Gender Grade Birthplace (Heritage) 35 Gr. 11 \u00E2\u0080\u009CPreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D 36 Girls: Pat Ruiz F 11 Canada (Honduran/Canadian) Kimiko Chang F 11 Canada (Chinese) Katrina Smith F 11 Canada Gr. 11 \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Preppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D Girls: Claude Monet F 11 Mexico (Canadian/Mexican) Jiffydam F 11 China Rose F 11 Canada (Chinese) Jo Ann F 11 Canada (Philippines) Gr. 12 Group: Tony Montana M 11 El Salvador Cristiano Ronaldo M 12 Canada (Portuguese) Janet F 12 Canada (Scottish) Silvia Smith F 12 Canada Other: Princess F 9 Canada (Salvadorian) In Ansler\u00E2\u0080\u0099s eleventh grade, there had been a group of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls since Grade 8, several members of which had been friends since elementary school. Membership in the group had changed and grown over the years but the core group consisting of seven girls had been in place for years. Three girls from this group, Pat, Kimiko and Katrina, were in the Spanish 11 class I observed. The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls were very proud of their 33 There was no one term used to describe these groups. The members of the first grade 11 group did not have a name for themselves, while the most common term used by non-members to describe them was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls. As for Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group, she, herself defined it in terms of non-membership in the \u00E2\u0080\u009C:preppy group\u00E2\u0080\u009D, telling me when I asked her who her friends in the class were: \u00E2\u0080\u009CAll the girls in grade 11, not the preppy ones.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 34 SHL students are in bold italics. 35 For students whose parents had different ethnicities, the mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage is written first in the parentheses, followed by the father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s. The heritage is omitted when it is the same as birthplace. 36 Cf. \u00E2\u0080\u009CJocks and Burnouts\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Eckert, 1989) 54 group of friends. In fact, on November 2, during one of the earliest times I went to sit with Pat and Kimiko at their table near the end of class, Kimiko suddenly took out a picture of their group of friends and began telling me about them. She described the group as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery multicultural\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/2/06-TR17) and went on to list their ethnic backgrounds. Some of the other Grade 11 girls in the class, however, did not see this group of girls in a very favourable light. In fact, in this and other classes, 37 there was a rift between the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-preppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls. This was the result of the non-preppy girls resenting the disruptive behaviour of the preppy girls in the classes they had together. Claude began to stand up to these girls and conflict ensued. In our interview, Claude described this incident in the following excerpt (Interview 11/28/05): 38 They all transferred into [biology] class. So now they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re like all over the class and they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re really obnoxious. I feel like they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re taking away from my learning. Taking away from me by like (.) the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just like doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to deal with it cause they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re so many. One time we spent one hour and thirty minutes to copy like (.) a page of notes. It was really bad. So I like walked out. Xx remarks. You\u00E2\u0080\u0099d tell them to like be quiet and they would mock you kind of like. You can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t stand up to them cause it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just wrong. Can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do that. They mock you and xx. And I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not gonna take that. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s my right. So I just walked away. Yeah. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s what started the whole thing. In the Spanish class, although there were few confrontations between the two groups, this tension between the preppy girls and Claude and her friends created a kind of split in the class. There was practically no interaction between the two groups and when the class had free seating such as during movie watching or library research, the two groups sat separately. This split had an impact on learning since students were not able to benefit from interacting with others who were not part of their friendship group. In other words, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends did not have the opportunity to interact with Pat and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends with Claude, thereby missing out on learning that could have resulted from such academic interactions. Moreover, the preppy girls also disrupted class with their almost constant talking and contributed to the slow pace of the class. 37 Both members and non-members of the group described this rift to me in their interviews and made some comments about it during class. 38 For transcription conventions used throughout the thesis, see Appendix F. 55 An interesting friendship pair in the class was Pat and Tony, whose relationship was quite different in and out of class. In class, Tony frequently copied Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work, though they also had social interactions such as when they shared Latino music on their iPods. Outside of school, however, the two were close friends who often went out and had some of the same Hispanic friends. In his interview, Tony stated, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI hang out with Pat Ruiz a lot\u00E2\u0080\u00A6She lives two blocks away from me, I always go to her house xx. We\u00E2\u0080\u0099re really good friends\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 1/24/06). None of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s other Hispanic friends attended Ansler but she reportedly spent \u00E2\u0080\u009Cevery weekend\u00E2\u0080\u009D with them (Interview 11/30/05). Pat therefore had two distinct friendship groups: her multiethnic girlfriends from school and her Hispanic (mostly male) friends outside. Aside from his interactions with Pat, Tony spent most of his time with Cristiano, Janet and Silvia. Together they formed the Grade 12 group, though Tony was actually in Grade 11, having started school one year late, but was the same age as them. Even when they were not sitting together, according to the seating plan, Tony and Cristiano, especially, would cross the class to sit with each other. Led by Tony and, to a lesser extent, Cristiano, members of this group received the most attention in class and took up the most class time. Tony and Cristiano would often make loud and frequently funny comments in class or even regularly broke into song, singing several lines from various, currently popular Spanish language songs. The group members themselves admitted how much attention they took up in class in their interviews. For example, in their pair interview, Janet and Silvia described how much of the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s attention different students in the class generally received, with Silvia stating that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTony gets 50%, we get 20%, Pat and them get 20% and the rest of class gets 10%\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 1/16/06). She later rephrased her estimate to, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTony 60%, Cristiano and us 30%, Pat and them 10% and the rest of class 2%.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked why the rest of the class received so little, they said, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccause they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not loud, or pushy\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe most they talk is when you talk to them.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Ms. Lopez also admitted paying more attention to this older group of students. When she mentioned she spent a lot of time in class talking to the Grade 12 group and Tony and I asked her why, she said: I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, I get carried away with them, I just do, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know why. I think because I have favourites. Janet and Silvia go back a long way 56 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I taught them since Grade 9, for four years. Antonio 39 is mine \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I think he\u00E2\u0080\u0099d be considered teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pet, for sure \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m totally biased. I spend way too much time with them. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know why \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I do. I think that I probably ignore other kids when I shouldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t. Sometimes I give more attention to Hispanic students than I do the others. (Interview 1/16/06) In this excerpt, Ms. Lopez described getting \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccarried away\u00E2\u0080\u009D and spending \u00E2\u0080\u009Cway too much time\u00E2\u0080\u009D with Janet, Silvia and Tony. Her explanation for having Janet and Silvia as her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfavourites\u00E2\u0080\u009D was that she had taught them for four years. Tony, however, was a new student that year. Yet, she referred to him as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmine,\u00E2\u0080\u009D a very possessive and protective statement, and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cteacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pet.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Her final statement about giving \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmore attention to Hispanic students than I do the others\u00E2\u0080\u009D was interesting since, as she herself mentioned, Tony was the only Hispanic student that she spent extended periods of time interacting with. Yet, for her, he seemed to be a kind of representative of the Hispanic students in the class. 40 Although almost all students mentioned Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s classroom behaviour in their interviews, their reactions to it ranged from amusement to indifference to indignation. His friends Cristiano, Janet and Pat found him funny and liked having him in the class. For example, Janet described her reaction to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviour on her first day in class as: \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt was hilarious, with Tony running around. I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know what to think the first day. I just sat here and kind of like just observed everything. What the hell\u00E2\u0080\u0099s going on?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 1/16/06) Some of the other students also commented on him being funny or cool and during class, his actions frequently elicited laughter. However, others felt bothered by his behaviour. Jiffydam, for example, was particularly upset by his disruptions, which, she claimed, interfered with her learning. She called him \u00E2\u0080\u009Creally annoying\u00E2\u0080\u009D and when I asked her why, she explained, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccause he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so loud and he can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t stop, and he can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t keep his mouth shut\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 3/7/06). However, unlike with Tony and the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girl group, the other students in the class did not make many comments about the amount of attention the other three members of the Grade 12 group received. Although they received greater attention from Ms. Lopez than Kimiko, Pat and Katrina did, the other students did not seem to resent 39 Ms. Lopez always called Tony by the Hispanic form of his name. 40 This idea and Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning in the class in general will be explored in detail in Section 4.3. 57 them as much. This could be because of the cumulative effect of having more classes with the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D girls and their disruptions in the other classes, as well as being in the same grade and interacting more closely over their high school years together. The disruptive behaviour of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D Grade 11 group and the Grade 12 group had a significant impact on how much got done in class. In our interview Jiffydam talked about this, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt takes so much time, like a whole period for one reading activity.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked if she got bored in class as a result, she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWell, I usually, sometimes get bored, but usually I just do other work.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She went on to say that the teacher did not ever say anything to her about doing other work and her reasoning for this was that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not giving other work to people, you would expect them to do something else\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 3/7/06). Other students made comments during class about being bored or getting little done. They were clearly frustrated by the situation. When it came to who students preferred working with in class, almost all students said that they preferred working with their friends, regardless of their Spanish ability. For example, Kimiko told me in class that if she and Pat were not friends, she would not be working with her, no matter how good her Spanish was (11/2/05-TR17). It therefore cannot be assumed that students who have SHL classmates in their classes would seek out these students to work with, by virtue of their Spanish language expertise. In conclusion, friendship groups and students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions and/or conflicts with one another had a significant impact on this Spanish class. Particularly among those in the same grade, interactions both outside of class and in other classes also affected the interactions in this class. The effects impacted not only who students interacted with socially and wanted to work with but also the general class atmosphere and level of productivity. 4.3 The Issue of Age When SHL students are placed in mixed SFL classes, they sometimes go into higher level classes. This means that they can be significantly younger than their classmates, which has an important effect on their interactions in the class, particularly at the high school level where age and grade are very salient, and associated with social status. In this class, Princess was one such case. She transferred to the class from Spanish 9, which was too easy for her, on September 20 and so was not only a new 58 student but the youngest, being two to three years younger than the other students in the class. She did not have any friends in the class and only knew some of the students from having gone to the same elementary school. Interestingly, Princess also went to elementary school with Pat but, at the time, they \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdid not like each other.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In her interview, Pat described their relationships as follows: We went to elementary school together and we did not like each other at all and the only time we ever liked each other was because of this class, because we ended up having to sit beside each other, and we started talking and um, yeah, I like her, like we talk and I say \u00E2\u0080\u009Chi\u00E2\u0080\u009D to her in the halls and stuff like that outside of school. (Interview 11/30/05) Princess and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationship developed gradually in the class. At first they hardly spoke because Pat worked and socialized with Kimiko. However, on Oct. 5, when Kimiko was away, Ms. Lopez asked the two to work on a dialogue together. Having quickly finished the assignment, they gradually began talking about some students they both knew. That class was followed by a two week teacher strike. The second time the class met after school resumed, Ms. Lopez moved Princess to sit beside Pat at her table. This soon led to more interactions between the two, both related to work and of a social nature. In fact, the two, along with Kimiko, Cristiano and Tony (who sometimes came to their table during class), had various discussions about nationality and family background, which will be discussed in Chapter 7. On November 8, Princess initiated a discussion with Pat about how they did not like each other in elementary school and much like in Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s later interview, the two credited the class with bringing them closer together. Princess also had interactions with Marissa during which they helped each other with their work. For the first few weeks of classes, Princess was singled out almost every class by Ms. Lopez for her linguistic expertise or volunteered such expertise herself during class discussions. She then began interacting more with her table mates, both socially and academically. However, on November 2 nd , in order to illustrate the use of menor [youngest] and mayor [oldest], Ms. Lopez positioned Princess as the youngest student in the class, explicitly stating her grade compared to the rest of the class (11/2/05-TR14): 59 Entonces, \u00C2\u00BFqui\u00C3\u00A9n es la menor en nuestra clase de espa\u00C3\u00B1ol? \u00C2\u00BFQui\u00C3\u00A9n es la menor estudiante? ((Princess smiles slightly and laughs self-consciously)) \u00C2\u00BFNo saben? Es Princesa (.) que est\u00C3\u00A1 en grado nueve. Ustedes est\u00C3\u00A1n en grado once y doce, \u00C2\u00BFverdad? Translation: So, who is the youngest in our Spanish class? Who is the youngest student? ((Princess smiles slightly and laughs self-consciously)) You don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know? It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Princesa (.) who is in Grade 9. You are in Grade 11 and 12, right? Princess was clearly uncomfortable at being singled out as the youngest in the class. Rather than being positioned as the language expert in the class, as she had been previously, her age was explicitly identified as her defining characteristic in this interaction. Comparing her age to her classmates made the age gap between them even more overt. Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s age contrast with the rest of the students became even more salient when Janet transferred into the class and Ms. Lopez seated Princess at the same table as the Grade 12 group of friends: Cristiano, Janet and Silvia. When Janet first transferred into the class on November 8, she sat in Cristiano\u00E2\u0080\u0099s seat, across from her friend, Silvia, as Cristiano had not yet arrived in class. An argument with Ms. Lopez ensued, in which Ms. Lopez tried to persuade Janet to move beside Kimiko, across from Princess. Finally Ms. Lopez and Janet went outside and Janet did not come back to class that day. The next class, Ms. Lopez created this new seating plan (see Figure 4.2, below): 60 Figure 4.2: Seating Plan 2 41 (November 10) Neither Princess nor the Grade 12 students were happy with the new seating plan and both Princess and Janet commented on it in their interviews. Describing her first day in class, Janet mentioned being a 12 th grader going into an 11 th grade class and only knowing Silvia and Cristiano. Then she went on to say: Not only does she make me go sit with someone I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know but the girl\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in ninth grade! She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in ninth grade! So what am I supposed to do? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know her. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know anyone else in the class. And it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not like I can associate with her and have anything in common cause she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so much younger than me. (Interview 1/16/06) Princess began her new seating plan with a positive attitude, engaging her new tablemates in interaction. However, Janet and Silvia found her comments strange and inappropriate, as described by Janet in their interview: 41 Grade 12 students are in bold. Students making up the two popular groups are in italics. SHL students are underlined. Shaded tables indicate those from/to which various students moved. 61 When Cristiano and Silvia moved over, she \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a lot of younger girls like the older guys, like they think they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re hot or whatever and she was asking Cristiano if he liked her friends, if he loved them, if he\u00E2\u0080\u0099d marry them and stuff and we\u00E2\u0080\u0099re kind of sitting there like, ((Janet and Silvia laugh)) she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHow would you rate her from 1 to 10? Do you think she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s hot? Would you marry her?\u00E2\u0080\u009D Those kind of questions. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s what I mean, the different mind frames of like a ninth grader and twelfth grader, cause you do develop so much between those couple of years. (Interview 1/16/06) In these comments, Janet was positioning Princess as a young and immature ninth grader, not a Spanish language expert or an expert in any other facet of life. In terms of their relationship, Janet precluded the possibility that they could not have one, as a result of the significant age gap between them. This rift between Princess and the Grade 12 students was evident almost immediately after the move. When I had my recorder on their table, an entire class would go by and I would hear almost nothing said by Princess. When I asked Princess in our interview who she preferred working with in class, she stated that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou know, actually, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really care as long as it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not the Grade 12s.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Further along in the interview she commented that she did not feel that she could talk to the Grade 12s because she did not know \u00E2\u0080\u009Canything what they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re talking about\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 11/24/05). Princess even talked about not wanting to sit with the Grade 12 students during class. On November 22, she asked me to ask Ms. Lopez to move her because she felt \u00E2\u0080\u009Cantisocial\u00E2\u0080\u009D sitting with the Grade 12 students (11/22/05-TR24). I did not feel that it was my place to ask on Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behalf, especially during class in front of other students, so I resisted her positioning of me as a social mediator and instead encouraged her to ask Ms. Lopez herself. Ms. Lopez told her that she could only move if she traded seats with someone else. Princess then unsuccessfully attempted to switch with several classmates. Ms. Lopez told her that Tony was probably the only one who would be willing to switch with her since he was friends with the Grade 12 students but at the time Princess did not want to switch with him because she did not know Rusty, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tablemate, either. However, after winter vacation she changed her mind and took Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s seat. 42 Funk Machine, who had been (unhappily) sitting with the preppy girls then switched to Rusty 42 Tony was not in class until the second day after winter break and when he saw Princess in his seat, went to sit with his friends at the Grade 12 popular table. 62 and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s table as well. Over time, Princess and her new tablemates developed a good working relationship where she felt valued for her Spanish expertise. Figure 4.3, below, illustrates this third seating plan in the class: Figure 4.3: Seating Plan 3 43 (January 4) Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interactions with her table mates during the various seating plans also had an impact on her participation in whole class discussions. During her time of sitting at the Grade 12 table, Princess became silent. She did not engage in class discussions nor did she have anything but minimal interactions with her table mates. Even after she moved to her new seat, Princess never went back to her enthusiastic participation of the first seating plan. At that time, she had frequently engaged Ms. Lopez and Tony in discussions about vocabulary and happily chatted with her tablemates. In her third 43 Grade 12 students are in bold. Students making up the two popular groups are in italics. SHL students are underlined. Shaded tables indicate those from/to which various students moved. 63 seating place, she did befriend and assist her tablemates and shared laughter but she had stopped volunteering her participation in classroom discussions. Since Tony had two classes with Princess, he was able to share his perspective on her interactions in the two classes. In our interview, Tony described how Princess behaved in her P.E. class, 44 where she was with her friends and classmates her age: She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a very loud girl. In this class, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s very quiet. Oh, my God, in other classes. In P.E. class, oh my goodness. She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like me in a girl version, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the centre of attention. She\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll do the funniest thing, the stupidest thing, things that people wouldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even do, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll do it. (Interview 1/24/06) To describe Princess as a girl version of himself speaks to her usually very outgoing and loud nature. In Spanish class, however, we only had a few small glimpses of this side of Princess (cf. Morita, 2004). In fact, in a class exercise where students were to describe their classmates, several described her as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cserious.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This shows how much \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexpertise,\u00E2\u0080\u009D competence, silence or outgoingness are socially situated, co-constructed, and fluid. Princess was not the only one who felt uneasy around the Grade 12 students. In her interview, I asked Claude who she liked to work with in class and she replied, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really matter, just someone that I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m comfortable with cause like some of the kids are kind of intimidating too.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked her who she was referring to, she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSome of the Grade 12s, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re just kind of like (.) I guess because of the age or whatever\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Interview 11/28/05). This shows that even a Grade 11 student can feel intimidated by Grade 12 students. In my interview with Marissa and Jo Ann (2/20/06), we discussed Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s presence in the class and the topic of having students of different ages in the class. First Marissa began talking about Princess, saying that when she sat near Princess during the first half of the year, she \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctalked to her [Princess] all the time.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She continued, saying \u00E2\u0080\u009CThat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s how I met her pretty much cause I\u00E2\u0080\u0099d never seen her before and yeah we became (friends).\u00E2\u0080\u009D She described how she and Jo Ann sat with Princess during a field trip to a Mexican restaurant at the beginning of the year and talked to her about her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfamily\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 44 Tony was in Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s P.E. class because he did P.E. leadership, i.e. was an assistant to the P.E. teacher in her class (interestingly a role he also often \u00E2\u0080\u009Cunofficially\u00E2\u0080\u009D sought in the Spanish class). 64 \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbackground\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Clife in general.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Marissa then asserted that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit was cool cause she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like two years younger and you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like, people don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t usually talk to kids who are two years younger, right? That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just not right. ((we all laugh)).\u00E2\u0080\u009D Jo Ann agreed, repeating \u00E2\u0080\u009CJust not right.\u00E2\u0080\u009D And adding, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have any classes or hardly even see them cause \u00E2\u0080\u0093 \u00E2\u0080\u009D and Marissa overlapped her utterance, saying \u00E2\u0080\u009CThat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s what I like about our class, cause there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Grade 12s and then there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Grade 9s.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In this interaction, Marissa described having the opportunity to meet Princess as a result of being in the same class as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccool\u00E2\u0080\u009D; however, her subsequent description of the generally unacceptable practice of talking to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckids who are two years younger\u00E2\u0080\u009D nevertheless positioned Princess as one of those \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckids.\u00E2\u0080\u009D On the other hand, Marissa said she appreciated the fact that there were students from various grades in their Spanish class. Therefore, in Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statements there is contradictory discourse with regard to older students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perceptions of younger ones and sentiments about Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status in the class. A little later in the interview, I brought up the subject of Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s age again: Excerpt 4.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Klara: Jo Ann: Marissa: Klara: Marissa: Klara: Marissa: So, I guess like it must be hard for Princess in the class cause she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s [so much younger [Um, [hm. [Yeah, but she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s outgoing so Yeah she was, I think now she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more quiet, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. Yeah, I noticed that too! Did you notice that? Like she seemed to participate more in the class before. I wonder why that is. I began the conversation by putting the focus on Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s younger age, making it a salient issue in the interaction. Although in other parts of our interview, I had positioned Princess as a HL student with excellent oral skills, here I was positioning her as the youngest student in the class, much as Ms. Lopez had done in the class interaction described earlier. Jo Ann and Marissa, though mildly agreeing, did not appear to think it was such a big problem since as Marissa put it, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe\u00E2\u0080\u0099s outgoing\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 4). I, however, continued with my positioning of Princess, now as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cquiet\u00E2\u0080\u009D young student (line 5). To this Marissa strongly agreed, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, I noticed that too!\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 6) However, when I reiterated that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe seemed to participate more in the class before,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Marissa responded 65 with, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI wonder why that is.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Clearly then, Marissa did not make a connection between Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s significantly younger age, the salience of that age difference as it related to that of her Grade 12 tablemates, and her later lack of participation. Although she mentioned in the first part of our interview that Princess, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmoved to the other side cause she didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like sitting with that other group,\u00E2\u0080\u009D she was probably not aware of the extent to which Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s being seated for six weeks with the Grade 12 students affected her behaviour. When it came to interacting with Princess, then, Marissa described how strange it was for students of different grades to interact but did not see this phenomenon from the younger student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) point of view. Ms. Lopez also did not appear to realize that Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s younger age was a problem for her in the class when I brought it up in our interview (1/16/06): Excerpt 4.2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Klara: Ms. Lopez: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Do you think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a problem that Princess is in a class where she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so much younger \u00E2\u0080\u0093 and other kids who are in her position? Do you think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s [difficult [No, 2 years I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t think is \u00E2\u0080\u0093 2 years I think is easy to handle for any kid like the maturity level is not (1.3) you know, we do it all the time in French where we have a French immersion student going into a French or go from \u00E2\u0080\u0093 they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t go to French 8, they go straight to French 10 so they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be Grade 8 kids in a Grade 10 class. Yeah. When we talked about among our department heads, we felt that two years was reasonable and that there was enough social (1.1) commonalities that they would get along well. Now Princesa didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like sitting with the Grade 12s if you noticed.= Yeah. =So I let her sit with the \u00E2\u0080\u0093 now she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sitting with the \u00E2\u0080\u0093 who\u00E2\u0080\u0099s she sitting with? Funk Machine? Yeah, Funk Machine. And Rusty. When did that happen? Well, after I moved the seating plan she came and said to me \u00E2\u0080\u009CCan I sit somewhere else\u00E2\u0080\u009D\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 In this part of our interview, I asked Ms. Lopez if she thought that it was a problem for Princess to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin a class where she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so much younger\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 1-2) and Ms. Lopez explained that she thought that it was not and that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctwo years \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 is easy to handle for any kid\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 4-5). She then went on to explain that putting students in classes two 66 grades higher was also being done with students who came from French immersion in their elementary school and that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdepartment heads\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 felt that two years was reasonable and that there were enough social commonalities that they would get along well\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 11-13). She did then bring up the fact that Princess did not like sitting with the Grade 12 students and that she let her move (lines 13-4, 16). However, it was clear that Ms. Lopez was not aware of this until Princess asked to sit somewhere else (lines 21- 22). Interestingly, as Ms. Lopez suggested, Princess did not seem to have as many problems sitting with students two years her senior. But Ms. Lopez did not take into account her age and its implications when she moved her to the Grade 12 table. Not only were the Grade 12 students so much older but they were also the highest step in the high school hierarchy. Clearly, then, Ms. Lopez was not aware of the importance of age in her high school students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social relations and did not take this issue into account when she considered how to best integrate Princess into the class. In fact, the question of age in relation to SHL students in SFL classes is an important one. Since the regular SFL course sequence is often too easy for the SHL students, some, like Princess, chose to switch to higher level classes. While the higher grade level is generally a better match for their language skills, it has a significant impact on their interactions and participation in the class and thus, potentially, their language learning. In a high school setting, as aptly pointed out by Janet, two or three years\u00E2\u0080\u0099 difference in age is a considerable gap for the SHL student to negotiate. It is clear from Janet\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comments that she was positioning Princess not as a confident and competent SHL student but as a young and immature ninth grader. Princess described feeling \u00E2\u0080\u009Cantisocial\u00E2\u0080\u009D while seated with the Grade 12 students and during her time seated there, became silent in both class and group interactions. After finally moving to a new seat, she regained confidence in displaying some of her social behaviour when interacting with her new table group but no longer singled herself out as a class language expert with her own form of (linguistic/cultural) authority and credibility in whole class discussions. 4.4 Gender Gender also played a role in how the four SHL students interacted in class. Being the only male SHL student, having a dominant personality and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D image, Tony created a very overpowering presence in class. The three other SHL students, Claude, Pat 67 and Princess, on the other hand, kept mostly to their own groups of friends. Princess was the only one who came into class with a strong presence and whom Tony described as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca female version\u00E2\u0080\u009D of himself but as we saw in the previous section, her young age, perhaps coupled with her gender, did not allow her to showcase this personality and she soon faded into the background. Tony also had a unique relationship and dynamic with Ms. Lopez. On the one hand, she had very low expectations of his ability to do well in an academic setting, partly due to his own actions and partly as a result of her views of male (Hispanic) students as being weaker academically than female ones. On the other hand, perhaps having been previously married to a Hispanic, she expressed a certain attraction to his personality and heritage. Various studies have found that in mixed-gender classes, boys, particularly low- achieving ones, often dominate classroom interactions more than girls. Younger, Warrington and Williams (1999) found that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe noise level of the boys, their off-task activities, their poor behaviour pattern and apparent limited attention span, inevitably attracted more attention\u00E2\u0080\u009D from their teachers (p. 329). While they found that teachers directed more questions to boys and boys also responded more to questions directed to the whole class, they found that much of the teachers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 attention directed to boys focussed on management rather than teaching and learning. On the other hand, they found that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cregardless of the subject, girls interacted more inquisitively with the subject matter being taught, participated more in the enquiry process, and showed more interest and intellectual curiosity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 338). They concluded that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cboys appear to dominate certain classroom interactions, while girls participate more in teacher-student interactions which support learning\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 325). In a recent Norwegian study, Aukrust (2008) studied the participation of boys and girls across four grade levels (first, third, sixth, and ninth). Although boys participated more than girls at all grade levels, the participation gap was greatest in ninth grade and least in first grade. Boys were also found to have more overlapping utterances with the teacher and made more uninvited comments. The majority of girls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 turns were in response to the teacher calling on them to speak. Summarizing three decades of research in the area of differential teacher attention to boys and girls, Beaman, Wheldall and Kemp (2006) concluded that in more recent studies, the type, rather than the amount, of teacher attention has been identified as more significant. 68 Furthermore, they stated that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe influence of a few boys in the class with externalizing behaviours, not boys per se, has been demonstrated\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 361 emphasis in the original). In Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, while Tony and, to a lesser extent, his friend, Cristiano, were often at the centre of attention in class, the girls tended to chat with their friends and tablemates. Although some of these groups of girls, such as the preppy girl group, which included Pat, and the Grade 12 group were disruptive due to their loud socializing, Tony and Cristiano disrupted (and participated) in a way that took over whole-class discussions. Not being able to stop their dominating behaviour, Ms. Lopez instead tried to harness their attention and focus it on her lesson, allowing them to have extended interactions with her during class. Hearing Tony speaking Spanish with Ms. Lopez, however, was only helpful to his classmates to a certain extent since it also limited their ability to participate in class and showcase their knowledge (this is discussed in detail in Chapter 5). In terms of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction and the findings of the studies mentioned above, it is interesting to note that although Tony was a low-achiever in most of his classes (and in Spanish class to a lesser extent), he was able to showcase his excellent oral Spanish skills in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class. His utterances in this class could therefore be seen as being \u00E2\u0080\u009Con- task\u00E2\u0080\u009D because they were spoken in Spanish; however, he would sometimes change topics or overelaborate on Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions. In significant ways, Spanish class allowed Tony to dominate classroom discourse in more positive ways while at the same time allowing him to showcase his abilities in ways that may have been harder to do in his other academic classes. His oral skills therefore gave him a kind of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cright to speak\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 1977) in this class. As described by Beaman, Wheldall and Kemp (2006), Tony was one of those \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfew boys in the class with externalizing behaviours.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A researcher simply counting the number of turns spoken by male and female students in this class would find that male student utterances significantly outnumbered those of female students. However, it was this one male student that participated significantly more than his (male and female) classmates. Therefore, studies looking at the participation patterns of male and female students must also look at who is participating rather than simply which gender is participating more. And, as rightly pointed out in the Younger, Warrington and Williams (1999) study, a variety of aspects of student 69 participants, such as their achievement level, should be studied so gender is not given over-exaggerated importance. In addition to being a dominant male student, Tony also personified the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the class (and school). 45 In his other courses, Tony also had problems. On my last day, Tony was absent from class but I found him outside the building with his friends. At that point, he had missed three out of the last four Spanish classes. He shared with me that his overall average went down from 73% to 40% between terms 1 and 2. He also said he was failing all his classes aside from Spanish, P.E. leadership and cooking. In fact, he told me that he had skipped all but one or two English classes that term and was getting 12%. When relaying this information, Tony seemed a little disappointed but rather resigned and not surprised by this outcome. He described, wistfully, becoming trapped by the reputation he had created and friends he had made at the school. 46 By the end of my observations, Tony had also been suspended two times for fights. When it came to disciplining Tony for coming late to class or leaving for extended periods of time, Ms. Lopez told me in our interview, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t be too strict or he\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll rebel\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06). With this statement, Ms. Lopez showed that she recognized Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s negative tendencies. She described how she talked to him once about coming late to class and he told her that he was late for all of his classes. She then told him that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe understood because she was the same,\u00E2\u0080\u009D perhaps referring to her own school days, though she was still late at times to her class and her students relayed to me that when their class had been during first period, she was often late. 47 In fact, Ms. Lopez repeated this statement two times in our interview. With it she expressed a certain understanding of his behaviour and a kind of kinship and empathy she felt with him. When he told her that he would only come late to one class per week, she told me that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Che set himself a higher goal than I would\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This shows that Ms. Lopez (perhaps rightly so) had quite low expectations for Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviour and felt that the best approach to use with him was to encourage him to use and be confident in his Spanish rather than disciplining him too harshly and losing him altogether. 45 See Section 3.3.2.2 for more detail on his behaviour and performance in the Spanish class. 46 See Section 7.2 for more on this topic. 47 The course schedule changed four times during the year so all classes would be in all different time slots during the year. 70 As for Tony, he appeared to enjoy being the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D in class, which formed a part of his rebellious identity. This can be seen in his interactions with his classmates. For example, when he was working with Marissa in a group work activity, and their interaction changed to a discussion of their grades in English class, he told her with a smile and proud tone of voice, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t study. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do my homework at all. She still passes me\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/10/05-TR6). 48 With this statement, he was portraying himself as a poor student who was able to pass classes with no effort whatsoever, perhaps just by using his charm. He made similar statements about how he did not need to do any of the written work in Spanish class either. For example, when I once confronted him about copying Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work, he told me that he did not need to learn to write, that he \u00E2\u0080\u009C[didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t] care\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that he would \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstill pass,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which is what he really \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccared about\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/8/05-TR14). 49 In fact, he did not pass but was expelled from the school in May. However, the following year he was in the Spanish 12 class so perhaps he had received a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstanding granted\u00E2\u0080\u009D grade. In class, Ms. Lopez did not show very high expectations of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ability to improve his literacy skills. For example, one time just before a test, he was asking her what would be on the test. She mentioned a few things but then told him, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even bother studying. Just wing it. See what you know\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/04/05-TR3). To this Tony answered, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099m gonna wing it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Of course, it was rather late at the point to be asking about a test he had not known about; still her comment was somewhat uncharacteristic of a teacher. During tests, Ms. Lopez would often give a lot of help to Tony and a few other students who were struggling and asking many questions. She also seldom made any comments when Tony frequently copied Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. In our interview (1/16/06), Ms. Lopez revealed, perhaps partly based on her own past experience, that she had generally low expectations of male Hispanic students. For example, when I asked her about her experiences with SHL students in the past, she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery few Hispanics are academically inclined,\u00E2\u0080\u009D then added that the ones who were so inclined were \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmostly girls \u00E2\u0080\u0093 girls are more academically inclined than boys.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Later on in the interview, she related that she had \u00E2\u0080\u009Chad some top academic achievers \u00E2\u0080\u0093 always girls. 48 For a detailed analysis of the interaction, see Chapter 5, Excerpt 5.5. 49 For a detailed analysis of the interaction, see Chapter 6, Excerpt 6.3. 71 The boys wouldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t write, had poor grammar. I think it goes back to the literacy thing \u00E2\u0080\u0093 boys don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t read, you know. That generation of boys didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t read.\u00E2\u0080\u009D With these two statements, Ms. Lopez makes strong generalizations about the academic abilities of male Hispanic students, which no doubt affected how she interacted with these students. Although Ms. Lopez does not specify why she thinks that boys don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like to read, it nevertheless affects how she looks at her male Hispanic students, in this case, Tony, and the kinds of expectations she has of his ability and motivation to improve his literacy skills. Tony, then, fit Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s stereotype of a male Hispanic student quite well and perhaps that is part of the reason why she accepted his behaviour in class and felt that his oral participation was as much as she could expect from him. Finally, the fact that Ms. Lopez had a strong affiliation to the Hispanic culture and had been married to a Hispanic affected how she saw Tony. By way of describing the kind of interactional relationship that Ms. Lopez had with Tony, she stated in her interview, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAntonio 50 is mine \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I think he\u00E2\u0080\u0099d be considered teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pet, for sure\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06). When I asked her, in response, how Tony became the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cteacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pet\u00E2\u0080\u009D she elaborated: He started talking to \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I just like \u00E2\u0080\u0093 because he rep-, he \u00E2\u0080\u0093 cause I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m attracted to Hispanic people, right. So I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m attracted to the Hispanic culture. And so his, his, I like his sense of humour, his looks, his friendliness, his interest in music, the way he talks is so beautiful to listen to and so I found myself quite intrigued by him and so I have to be careful about that because I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t wanna \u00E2\u0080\u0093 and he can hook me, he knows how to hook me, right, how to get me to give him what he wants. So I gotta be careful, I gotta keep my distance. Here Ms. Lopez is expressing that being attracted to Hispanic people and their culture had an effect on her interaction with Tony. Her description shows that her attraction to his way of being is rooted not only in his cultural background but also his gender. For example, she talks about \u00E2\u0080\u009Chis looks\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that she found herself \u00E2\u0080\u009Cquite intrigued by him.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She further elaborates that her attraction to Tony gives him a kind of power since \u00E2\u0080\u009Che knows how to \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 get me to give him what he wants.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Tony had this kind of power with many of his female classmates as well and it affected how much his classmates and 50 Ms. Lopez always called Tony by the Hispanic form of his name. 72 teacher would tolerate or even encourage his interactions with them and how much he was allowed to dominate the class. Gender, therefore had an impact on the kinds of interactions and participation that the four SHL students exhibited and were expected to exhibit. Tony, with his outgoing and dominating personality, his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D persona, and his low academic inclinations, displayed greater tendencies for both participation and domination in whole class discussions. This behaviour was also sanctioned by Ms. Lopez who had low academic expectations of Tony, due to both his own behaviour as well as that of her previous male Hispanic students. At the same time, Ms. Lopez showed high expectations of Tony culturally and interpersonally. 4.5 Summary It is clear that friendship groups, age and gender all played a significant role in the positioning of SHL students in the class and in their interactions. Claude and Pat, along with their respective friendship groups, positioned one another in negative ways and avoided any kind of interaction in class. Tony, along with his friend, Cristiano, was very outspoken and dominated class interactions. Princess, being the youngest student in the class, was positioned particularly by her Grade 12 tablemates as young and immature rather than as a competent Spanish speaker, which led to her feeling \u00E2\u0080\u009Cantisocial\u00E2\u0080\u009D and being effectively silenced in class. Who students worked and socialized with and how was therefore primarily based on their friendship groups, on their age and grade, and their gender. Yet, the few HL studies conducted at the high school level (Webb & Miller, 2000) did not undertake an in-depth analysis of classroom interactions of HL or HL/FL students in the classes they observed nor discussed the importance that social context plays in high school settings. Where student groupings were discussed (e.g. Blake & Zyzik, 2003; Dunlap, 2003), such groupings were made purely on the basis of HL/FL student status, perhaps due to the (post-secondary) setting in which the studies took place. I contend that the HL literature, particularly when referring to the teaching of HL students at the high school level, needs to take into account such social factors as described in this chapter when discussing the grouping of students in productive ways, rather than limiting their discussions to students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 HL/FL status or language proficiency. 73 Chapter 5 ORAL EXPERTISE AND PERFORMANCE 5.0 Introduction One significant way in which SHL students were often positioned was in relation to their Spanish language expertise. Although they were often looked to by their classmates and teacher as language experts, they were not expected to show the same amount of expertise in literacy as they were in orality. Ms. Lopez, as a result of her previous experiences with SHL students, had a certain understanding of the kinds of expertise which they generally possess. Specifically, she expected SHL students to be orally proficient and to demonstrate their expertise in class. Moreover, she linked certain SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (and one SFL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) performed oral abilities to their heritage. Their performed abilities played a large part in giving them the status of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidealized speaker model\u00E2\u0080\u009D or even \u00E2\u0080\u009Cco-teacher\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the class. In the following sections, I will describe how the four SHL students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class were positioned with regard to their oral abilities and the effects of these positionings on them, their classmates and the class. 5.1 SHL Students as Idealized Speaker Models and Language Experts Ms. Lopez was very enthusiastic about having SHL students in her Spanish classes. In her interview, she talked about the advantages associated with their presence in the class. She felt that by speaking Spanish in class, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey can provide an authentic learning experience, immersion for our students\u00E2\u0080\u009D (12/8/05). Her use of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cauthentic\u00E2\u0080\u009D shows that she felt that SHL speakers spoke much like native speakers of the language would. She also explained that when her SHL students spoke to her in Spanish, she, in turn, spoke Spanish back to them. She explained that in a class of only FL students, she would not speak as much Spanish because she would find it unnatural but, she explained, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhen I look at Princess, I talk Spanish; when I look at Antonio, I speak Spanish, and the kids benefit from that, so I will speak more Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D (12/8/05). So aside from hearing Spanish from the SHL students themselves, they would also hear more Spanish from their teacher. Interestingly, while Spanish was not her native language, Ms. Lopez felt very comfortable speaking it. Her comments as well as my observations in class showed that she was not intimidated by her SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Spanish oral proficiency and that she felt comfortable conversing with them. However, her comments also had an 74 important implication for her language use with her SFL students. After all, one of her roles as a Spanish teacher was to speak to her students in Spanish. If she felt unnatural doing that with her SFL students, she was less likely to address them in Spanish in class, something which I did in fact observe. Most of Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comments in Spanish were addressed to Tony. In fact, the two often had extended interactions in Spanish, typically on the topic being covered. Ms. Lopez spoke to the other three SHL students much less frequently and such exchanges were not always in Spanish, though some began in Spanish. The SFL students were most frequently addressed in English. According to Ms. Lopez, then, one of the roles of SHL students in the class was to carry on Spanish conversations with the teacher which the FL students could listen to and learn from. This is significant since the FL students were not expected to participate in Spanish conversations with SHL students but merely listen to them. Having SHL students in the class then, according to Ms. Lopez, helped FL students improve their listening comprehension but not their speaking skills. For example, Ms. Lopez told me in her second interview that in some of her previous classes, the SHL students only wanted to work together because they were friends and they did not want to do all the work which they felt they did when they worked with FL students. She therefore let them work together and explained that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cif Hispanic kids work together, you can challenge them to use more idiomatic expressions and the class benefits because they hear an authentic conversation\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06, emphasis mine). This principle makes the SFL students peripheral participants or auditors in the classroom with respect to Spanish oral discourse and Spanish-mediated interactions (cf. Lave & Wenger, 1991). Some students mentioned Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to have more frequent interactions with certain SHL students as something negative. In her interview, Claude asserted that the fact that Ms. Lopez singled out Tony and Princess in class was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cquite bad\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). When I asked her why she thought this, she answered: Cause the other students need to interact obviously, they need to have that and she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s doing too much of \u00E2\u0080\u0093 and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m finding that like when we start an activity and you put your hand up or whatever, and um one of them are always giving one of the answers like out of all the kids, out of all the kids that are in the classroom, those two are the ones that always put their hand up or that she always singles out for answers. 75 When Tony and Princess were given too much participation time in class, then, this took away from the time given to the other students in the class and their ability to improve their Spanish through interaction. Having students like Tony and, to a lesser extent, Princess being idealized speakers in the class was therefore only beneficial to a certain extent since merely hearing them would at best improve the SFL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 listening skills; however, not having enough opportunities to speak themselves would adversely affect their abilities to improve their speaking skills. Moreover, it also did not allow them the opportunity to be showcased and ratified as valued or idealized speakers, good students, and so on. I use the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidealized speaker models\u00E2\u0080\u009D to describe a certain kind of positioning of (some of) the SHL students. The reason for my use of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidealized\u00E2\u0080\u009D is twofold. First, it shows that the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (oral) Spanish abilities are idealized in that they are seen as being the same as those of (monolingual) native speakers of the language or perhaps perfectly bilingual role models, which they are not. Second, they are viewed as having more of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cright to speak\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the class by virtue of this status (Bourdieu, 1977; Norton, 2000). Therefore, they are those who should \u00E2\u0080\u009Cideally\u00E2\u0080\u009D be speaking in the class, so their classmates could learn from them. The SHL student most often positioning by Ms. Lopez as the idealized speaker model was Tony. Ms. Lopez described how she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwas intrigued\u00E2\u0080\u009D by Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s way of speaking in our interview (1/16/06), saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe way he talks is so beautiful to listen to.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In class, she asked him on occasion to serve as a pronunciation model. Excerpt 5.1 was one such interaction which showcased Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s enthusiasm for Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent. Excerpt 5.1 1 Tony: Es muy antiguo. {He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s very old.} 2 Ms. Lopez: S\u00C3\u00AD. {Yes.} What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the opposite of antiguo? {old} 3 Tony: J\u00C3\u00B3ven. {Young} 4 5 6 Ms. Lopez: ((Little laugh to self.)) Are you catching that accent? ((Tone of fascination.)) Repeat after Antonio. Okay, you say it and everybody else say it after you say it. 7 Tony: Why? ((looking down, hesitatingly)) 8 Ms. Lopez: Because it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s beautiful. ((class laughs)) Say it, viejo. 9 Tony: VIEJO. ((head high, smiling)) 10 11 Ms. Lopez: Oh, you should catch the v/b. Viejo. Repitan. Viejo\u00E2\u0086\u0091 {Old. Repeat. Old.} 12 Ss: Viejo. 76 13 Tony: JOVEN. 14 Ss: J\u00C3\u00B3ven. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Excelente! Se aprende mucho (.) en esta clase. {Excellent! One learns a lot in this class.} So as I was x, some of the kids when they hear Spanish, they want to pronounce the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cv\u00E2\u0080\u009D like we do in English, like \u00E2\u0080\u009Cviejo\u00E2\u0080\u009D but most Spanish speakers pronounce it like a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cb\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u0093 \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbiejo\u00E2\u0080\u009D. Okay, muy bien. {very good} (.) Number six is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmi primo\u00E2\u0080\u009D\u00E2\u0086\u0091 {my cousin} Mi primo es (alto). {My cousin is tall.} \u00C2\u00BFCu\u00C3\u00A1ntos a\u00C3\u00B1os tiene? {How old is he?} Dieciseis. {Sixteen.} Qui\u00C3\u00A9n {Who} \u00E2\u0080\u0093 okay, um, Rusty you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re in block x now, I thought\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so easy \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I learned it in kindergarten. How old are you xxx ((says to Cristiano but loud enough for others to hear)) In this interaction (10/03/05), Ms. Lopez showed her fascination with Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent, asking the class, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAre you catching that accent?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 4) and calling it \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbeautiful\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 8). Her reaction was exaggerated, generating laughter from the class (line 8). Tony responded with some embarrassment, lowering his head and asking uncertainly, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhy?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 7) but quickly took up the role of pronunciation model, raising his head high, smiling and increasing his volume in a way that showed he was quite proud of himself (lines 9, 12). Here Ms. Lopez positioned Tony as a language expert and he, after a little hesitation, took up this positioning himself. She did this, for example, when she asked, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAre you catching that accent\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 4), with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyou\u00E2\u0080\u009D referring to the students, but not to Tony, when she commanded his classmates to repeat, in chorus, after Tony, and with her subsequent comment that \u00E2\u0080\u009CSe aprende mucho en esta class\u00E2\u0080\u009D {one learns a lot in this class} in lines 15-16. As for Tony, he reinforced this positioning with his unprompted continuation with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cj\u00C3\u00B3ven\u00E2\u0080\u009D in line 13 and the way he took up answering question six as if he had been nominated to do so, in lines 21 and 23. Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement \u00E2\u0080\u009Cone learns a lot in this class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 15-16), also seems to beg the question of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwho\u00E2\u0080\u009D one learns a lot from. The answer seemed to be Tony since he, and not the teacher, was the one being asked to be a pronunciation model. Furthermore, in line 17, Ms. Lopez talked about how \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwe\u00E2\u0080\u009D (including herself) pronounce things in English and this seemed to be contrasted with how \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey\u00E2\u0080\u009D, the \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish speakers\u00E2\u0080\u009D actually \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpronounce\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 18). In this way, she positioned herself as a pronunciation non-expert in contrast to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise. Finally, 77 in line 25, Tony loudly commented to Cristiano that \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s so easy \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I learned it in kindergarten.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This comment suggests that the phrases that Ms. Lopez was having Tony model were extremely easy and that he, like a native speaker would, supposedly learned them in kindergarten. This is a contrast with Ms. Lopez who learned Spanish as a young adult. Interestingly, though, Tony came to Canada at the age of two and never went to a Spanish language kindergarten and therefore the comment is meant to position himself as an expert rather than to reveal anything about his education. His comment could also be interpreted as a put down to others (and by extension to the course content), who could not even say things in a Spanish 11 class that kindergartners would know how to say. Dunlap (2003) also used her SHL and Spanish native speaker (SNS) students as pronunciation coaches in her upper-level phonetics class. Since the goal of the class was dialect awareness and improved pronunciation, she found that having the SHL and SNS students work with groups of three or four SFL students had positive results for all students, giving the HL and NS more confidence in their language skills and the FL students greater dialect awareness and improved pronunciation. However, Dunlap\u00E2\u0080\u0099s setting was quite different in that all her students were advanced Spanish language learners, who presumably felt confident with their Spanish and also wanted to focus on their pronunciation in her class. The students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, on the other hand, had a much lower proficiency in Spanish and may not have been as interested in listening to their SHL student classmates coaching them. Moreover, being high school students and allowing their classmates to coach them was quite different from young adults who did not have a long history of knowing each other doing so. Although she never asked them to be pronunciation models, Ms. Lopez did once use Claude and Princess to illustrate grammar in use to the class when she asked them to improvise two dialogues with her. 51 The dialogues were about buying purses and pants and showcased the use of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthis\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthat\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Spanish (2/10/06-TR26). These dialogues, in which Ms. Lopez, using actual student purses in different parts of the room, asked both girls which they liked, using the demonstrative adjectives and colours, worked very well and showed another way in which SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 oral abilities could be used as effective models in structured activities. 51 Tony was away that day so it is uncertain whether she would have asked him or not. 78 Ms. Lopez also mentioned that SHL students could serve as models for vocabulary and idioms or colloquial expression models, not only for their classmates but also for her. In answer to my interview questions, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat else are Hispanic students resources for? What do they bring to class?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D she stated: Well, I think the most important one is to be able to show the kids that Spanish, it has different vocabulary words for the same thing, like, you know, that we say bol\u00C3\u00ADgrafo {pen} and they say lapicero {pen}. I like the fact that they can constantly give me words that they use. And it would be great to do a whole unit on modizmos {idioms}, like what do you call those \u00E2\u0080\u0093 slang expressions, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099d be great to do. Here\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the expressions in xxx slang \u00E2\u0080\u0093 in Spain they say this, in Guatemala, they say this, in El Salvador, Mexico they say this but they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all expressions for the same meaning. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099d be fun to do \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a whole thing on slang. (1/16/06) True to her statement above, Ms. Lopez was very interested in learning new vocabulary and slang expressions from the SHL students. In fact, she even adopted some of them such as the one she gave as an example in her interview, namely the two translations for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpen.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Tony used the word lapicero and whenever she asked students to use their pens for something in class, she would first use the more common bol\u00C3\u00ADgrafo to which Tony would frequently respond with lapicero, which she would then repeat and use when repeating the command again. Tony was the main source of alternative vocabulary and slang. However, Princess also frequently volunteered words at the beginning of the year before she became silent in class at the grade 12 table. Claude also, on occasion, offered new vocabulary words to the class or participated in the discussion of slang expressions. Ms. Lopez occasionally used Tony as an expert of grammar usage and asked him to correct his classmates. For example, on September 27, she asked Tony to correct Katrina\u00E2\u0080\u0099s wrong use of a verb and he did so quickly, even though he had not been paying attention: Excerpt 5.2 1 Ms. Lopez: Use the verbs, in like use the verbs in first person singular. 2 Katrina: Oh, estoy c\u00C3\u00B3mica? {I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m funny. \u00E2\u0080\u0093 wrong verb usage} 3 Ms. Lopez: Do you want to correct her there? 4 Tony: What? 5 Ms. Lopez: Correct her. 6 Tony: What did she say? 7 Katrina: Estoy c\u00C3\u00B3mica? {I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m funny. \u00E2\u0080\u0093 wrong verb usage} 8 Tony: Soy c\u00C3\u00B3mica, would it? {I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m funny. \u00E2\u0080\u0093 correct verb usage} 79 9 Ms. Lopez: Um, hm. In the exercise, students were asked to describe themselves using one of four verbs (ser \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to be, estar \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to be, tener \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to have, llevar \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to wear), some which are used differently in Spanish and English. Asking Tony to correct Katrina, in this instance, served two purposes for Ms. Lopez. It allowed for the validation of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language expertise while also bringing his attention back to the class and keeping him from distracting other classmates. In fact, Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of Tony as an idealized speaker could have been as much by reason of his oral expertise as for reasons of keeping him interested in and coming to class. In our interview, Ms. Lopez spoke to this latter reason. She called Tony \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery lazy\u00E2\u0080\u009D and described how he needed help with his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwork ethic,\u00E2\u0080\u009D much like \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca lot of the Hispanics\u00E2\u0080\u009D she had taught in the past. When I asked her how she helped her Hispanic students with their work ethic she explained (1/16/06): Just what I did with Antonio today, trying to get him to come on time. Trying to get them to keep a notebook or understand that it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not just about showing up and speaking, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s about keeping a binder and keeping notes and (2.1) But I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have that problem with most of my Hispanics this year. Like Princesa, Claude, Pat Ruiz, I mean, Terry, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all studious. For Ms. Lopez then, Tony was an example of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D Hispanic student 52 who needed a lot of supervision, encouragement and help with his work ethic. In fact, in this excerpt, she described \u00E2\u0080\u009Cjust\u00E2\u0080\u00A6showing up and speaking\u00E2\u0080\u009D as not enough to succeed in the class. This is in stark contrast to the way she described Hispanic students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 speaking as an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cauthentic learning experience.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The same act, then, can be seen in various ways and positioned Tony either as an idealized speaker or as a student lacking in a strong work ethic. As described previously in Section 4.3, Tony did indeed have a poor work ethic and reveled in his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D persona and Ms. Lopez understood this very well. Not wanting him to rebel and stop coming to class altogether, she did not discipline him very much, choosing instead to encourage him to use his strengths of speaking Spanish in class, as a way to help him work on something positive in his academic life and keep him in the 52 This was discussed in detail in Chapter 4, Section 4.3, in relation to gender and ethnicity. 80 class. By positioning Tony as an idealized speaker, then, Ms. Lopez may have been trying to help him feel successful in her class and building up his confidence. In her interview, Claude speculated about the reasons that Ms. Lopez may have had for her frequent interactions with Tony. When I asked her why she thought Ms. Lopez interacted so much with Tony in class, she first expressed the opinion that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI guess she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s probably doing it to make the kids hear it a little more, I guess, cause he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really into trying to teach them or trying to help them and he repeats the words all the time, after she says them and stuff, so I guess she likes that\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). Here Claude is describing Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning of Tony as the idealized speaker, since by \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit\u00E2\u0080\u009D she is referring to his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cauthentic\u00E2\u0080\u009D Spanish. This echoes Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comments about the advantage of having SHL students in the class discussed at the beginning of this Section, namely to improve their learning by immersing them in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cauthentic\u00E2\u0080\u009D Spanish. According to Claude, Tony was \u00E2\u0080\u009Creally into trying to teach them;\u00E2\u0080\u009D in other words, he enjoyed the status of language expert and co-teacher to Ms. Lopez. However, shortly after, Claude speculated that Ms. Lopez called on both Princess and Tony the most because she was trying to get them involved in the class because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyou know they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll get bored\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). Perhaps Claude observed that Tony and Princess were less academically inclined (than she and Pat) and struggled with their literacy (see Chapter 6 for details), which may have prompted them to get \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbored\u00E2\u0080\u009D more easily in class. In her interview, Claude stated that Ms. Lopez called on both Tony and Princess \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca lot.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, from my own observations, this was not entirely accurate. At the very beginning of the year, Ms. Lopez did, in fact, call on Princess frequently, quite possibly because she was new to the class, did not know anyone well due to her younger age, and because Ms. Lopez wanted her to be an active participant. However, after the first few classes, she ceased singling Princess out in this way. Perhaps, Claude was recalling examples of this singling out from late September and early October during her November interview. Tony, on the other hand, continued to have frequent interactions with Ms. Lopez whenever he was present in class. 53 This was not only because he was singled out by Ms. Lopez, though he was singled out more than any other student, but 53 In term 2 Tony began skipping classes more frequently and his absence created a very different dynamic in class. 81 also because he was the only student in the class who actively sought out the role of language expert by constantly volunteering answers and comments due to his confidence in his oral expertise as well as his great need for attention. It would seem that at the beginning of the year, Ms. Lopez treated Tony and Princess differently from Claude and Pat. She had taught Claude and Pat before, was familiar with their abilities and, from past experience, did not expect them to participate more than their classmates. However, this was her first time teaching both Tony and Princess, and, having interviewed them in Spanish as part of their admittance into the class, she would have seen that they were comfortable with and proficient in their oral Spanish, as well as outgoing. She therefore began the year singling them out and using them as resources to which they both responded favourably. However, Princess, as she became more aware of her lower status in the class as a result of her younger age, especially after she was seated with three grade 12 students, no longer sought out the role of language resource; conversely Tony sought out this role very actively and was supported in taking it up by Ms. Lopez. Tony, then, was often used as a model of oral conversation, vocabulary and colloquial expressions, pronunciation and grammar usage. Princess and Claude were also infrequently called upon to serve as models. Pat, however, by virtue of her resistance to speaking Spanish in class, could not take on the role of language expert. In Section 5.4, I describe the various effects of her unwillingness to speak Spanish. 5.2 SHL Students as Co-Teachers Tony was Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s most common Spanish conversation partner. They both engaged each other in Spanish conversation and Tony was by far the student who most often answered Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions in class. But his status in class went beyond that of an enthusiastic Spanish speaker. He routinely positioned himself as the class language expert and at times he would almost act as Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s co-teacher, scaffolding other students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 responses, as he did in the following interaction with Marissa, during a beginning of the year review of adjectives (10/03/05): Excerpt 5.3 1 2 3 Ms. Lopez: Who has a younger, who has a younger brother or sister? Okay, Marissa. \u00C2\u00BFC\u00C3\u00B3mo se lla-? {What is the name - ?} Can you describe your sibling? 82 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Marissa: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Marissa: Tony: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Um, how do you say thin again? Delgado. {Thin.} Delgado. \u00C2\u00BFEs hermano or hermana? {Thin (ms). Is it a brother or a sister?} Hermano. {Brother.} Okay, mi hermano= {my brother=} =es delgado. {=is thin.} es: delgado: {is thin.} ((says as writes on overhead)) y {and} ojos\u00E2\u0086\u0091 {eyes} azul {blue} Brown, how do you say brown? Tiene ojos caf\u00C3\u00A9\u00E2\u0086\u0091 {He has brown eyes.} Dark skin. Moreno. {Dark skinned.} Moreno. {Dark skinned.} ((as writes)) How about personality? Y {and} C\u00C3\u00B3mico. {Funny.} C\u00C3\u00B3mico. {Funny.} ((laughs slightly)) y es muy= {and is very=} =chistoso {=funny} c\u00C3\u00B3mico. {funny.} Okay, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good. In this excerpt, both Tony and Ms. Lopez scaffolded Marissa 54 as she tried to describe her brother. For example, when Marissa asked for the translation of certain adjectives in lines 4, 15 and 17, Tony answered her two times in lines 5 and 18, and both times Ms. Lopez repeated his answer. Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s turns and how he latched his turns to Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in lines 10 and 24 demonstrate in interactional terms how Tony was co- constructing himself as (co)teacher of Spanish with Ms. Lopez, and thus, his Spanish expertise. That she did not censure him, but instead echoed his turns (lines 6, 11, 19), displays her role in this co-construction. Line 25 was the only place where Ms. Lopez did not take up Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s choice of adjective. In this case, she showed a preference for his initial rendering of the English adjective \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfunny\u00E2\u0080\u009D as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cc\u00C3\u00B3mico\u00E2\u0080\u009D in line 21 instead of his subsequent use of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchistoso\u00E2\u0080\u009D. This is most likely because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cc\u00C3\u00B3mico\u00E2\u0080\u009D is a much more common translation of the word and also the one given in the book. 55 In the excerpt, Marissa does not object to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-positioning as co-teacher though her reaction to it is ambiguous. For example, in line 15, she ignores his statement that her brother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s eyes 54 Marissa was a second-generation Czech-Canadian, a confident and very good student in the class. 55 This point will be further clarified in the analysis of Excerpt 5.6 below. 83 are blue, asking instead how to say brown, which Ms. Lopez answers. On the other hand, she takes up his response that her brother is funny in line 22 and laughs slightly. Marissa and Jo Ann\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interview segment, below, sheds some light on how Marissa viewed Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interactions in whole-class discussions. Overall, Marissa and Jo Ann indicated that they felt that Tony was naturally loud and outgoing but the fact that he was a SHL student who was very comfortable with his speaking skills in Spanish added to his disruptions because he often spoke Spanish with Ms. Lopez and answered her questions before anyone else had a chance to do so. They discussed this with me in their interview, transcribed below (2/20/06): Excerpt 5.4 1 Klara: Tony, what do you think of him? 2 Jo Ann: He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really loud. 3 4 5 6 7 Marissa: Yeah, he just kind of overrules the whole class and when we try to answer questions he just blurts it out or whatever and sometimes he says things that we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even understand and he kind makes us look like we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know anything but he was just born that way so right, so he can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like help 8 Klara: You mean it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s his personality? 9 10 Marissa: Yeah, (.) well and that he knows the language so he just, he just grew up with the language so he can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t help it I guess. 11 12 Klara: Well, no, there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s others in the class who grew up with it and they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t just say it all the time. 13 Marissa: I guess, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. In this excerpt, Marissa asserted that Tony \u00E2\u0080\u009Cjust kind of overrules the whole class and when we try to answer questions he just blurts it out\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 3-4). This tendency can be seen in Excerpt 5.3 above, in lines 14 and 21, when Tony answered for Marissa, in describing her brother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s eye colour and personality characteristic. It is in fact highly doubtful that Tony knew Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s brother as Tony was new to the school and mostly spent time with grade 12 students, while her brother was younger than her. His answers, then, were not attempts to help Marissa describe her brother resulting from knowing him, but more likely examples of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cblurting out\u00E2\u0080\u009D that Marissa described in her interview. Marissa further showed frustration that even when students \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctry to answer,\u00E2\u0080\u009D they are unable to because Tony answers very quickly and \u00E2\u0080\u009Coverrules the whole class,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which can also be seen in Excerpt 5.3. Continuing, she also stated that \u00E2\u0080\u009Csometimes he says things that we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even understand and he kind makes us look like we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know anything\u00E2\u0080\u009D 84 (lines 4-6). This is significant in that it puts forth another point of view with regard to the effect of having SHL students in the class. First, Marissa asserted that sometimes they \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even understand,\u00E2\u0080\u009D putting into question whether Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s goal of having students listen to SHL students actually improved their comprehension. 56 Additionally, she asserted that Tony made the other students look like they lacked knowledge when perhaps they had the knowledge but were not able to participate because he answered too quickly. In whole class interactions, then, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s role was somewhat hegemonic but his classmates were not able to stand up to him. For example, students knew that Tony had a bad temper, demonstrated in his well-disseminated interactions with several students in the school where he had beaten them up over a little misunderstanding, so would most likely resist confrontations with him that could lead to repercussions. On the other hand, they often showed an appreciation of his sense of humour and charisma in class, such as frequently laughing at and following with interest his interactions with Ms. Lopez. Many girls also sought to get his attention during class and looked very happy when he spoke to or interacted with them. In terms of why she felt that Tony dominated the class, Marissa suggested that \u00E2\u0080\u009Che knows the language so he just, he just grew up with the language so he can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t help it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 9-10), an interesting justification for his behaviour based on the premise that if someone knows a language very well, they cannot help but speak it all the time. However, this was clearly not the case for Princess and Claude who also grew up speaking the language but were much more reserved in class. Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s justification of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviour implies that she, like others in the class, sanctioned Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviour for reasons described above. It can be argued then, that perhaps the presence of orally proficient SHL students who assert the positioning of language expert in a SFL class inhibit the SFL students from having the opportunity to participate fully in the class and improve their oral skills, while at the same time, making them appear less proficient than they are, since their participation and abilities stand in stark contrast with those of the SHL students. In Section 5.5, I will show an example of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction in a whole class discussion, which illustrates some of the points that Marissa and Jo Ann elaborated in their interview. 56 This point will be demonstrated in Section 5.5. 85 When students worked in groups, however, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status was not as clear. His classmates did not always sanction his self-positioning as teacher or helper. On November 10, Ms. Lopez did a jigsaw activity for which she needed the same number of students in each group. Since Tony and Rusty were at their own table, she had to place them in other groups. When she was placing Tony in a certain group, she stated that her choice of placement was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cso we can have one Hispanic helping in each group\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/10/05- TR6). 57 This statement then set up the (orally proficient) Hispanic students, including Tony, as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Chelpers\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the activity, or as those with relatively more expertise called to mentor their peers in their respective groups (cf. Lave & Wenger, 1991). For the activity, students were first working in groups to come up with questions they would be asking of other groups. The following excerpt is from the second part of the exercise when Tony, Marissa and three others formed a second group to ask each other the questions they had created in their original groups and were recording everyone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s answers: Excerpt 5.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Tony: Julia: Tony: Julia: Tony: Julia: Tony: Julia: Marissa: Julia: Marissa: Julia: Marissa: Tony: Julia: Marissa: Tony: Julia: Tony: Ya termin\u00C3\u00A9. {I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m already done.} Next person. You can go. Okay. Pasaste un rato con tus amigos la semana pasada? {Did you hang out with your friends last week?} Huh? (1.1) Can you repeat it again? No, you heard me. No, do it again. Did you hear her? They heard me. (1.3) 58 Yeah, see? Pasaste un rato con tus amigos la semana pasada? {Did you hang out with your friends last week?} xxx? Yeah. Am I first? Yeah. Oh. (1.2) S\u00C3\u00AD, (.) pa-sas-te. {Yes, you spent.} Pas\u00C3\u00A9. {I spent.} Isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t it (.) [I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know what it is. [Pa:s\u00C3\u00A9. {I spent.} S\u00C3\u00AD, pas\u00C3\u00A9. {Yes, I spent.} She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s supposed to say yo {I} but I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m writing it as \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Pas\u00C3\u00B3, you say pas\u00C3\u00B3. {She spent, you say she spent.} 57 See also Section 5.4 for a more detailed description and analysis of the groupings for the activity. 58 One or more of the other group members probably indicated that they did not hear Julia but I was not present during the interaction, nor could I hear anything on the tape. 86 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Prince: Julia: Tony: Julia: Tony: Julia: Marissa: Tony: Marissa: Tony: Marissa: Tony: Marissa: Tony: Marissa: Tony: Tony: Marissa: [xxx [xxx That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s what you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re supposed to write! The way she says it, is gonna be different from the way you write it. Yeah, I know. S\u00C3\u00AD, pas\u00C3\u00B3 tiempo con sus amigos. {Yes, she spent time with her friends.} Yeah, I know. S\u00C3\u00AD, pas\u00C3\u00A9. {Yes, I spent.} You say pas\u00C3\u00A9 but she writes pas\u00C3\u00B3. {I spent; she spent} Yes! We know that! ((laughter in voice)) ((clapping loudly)) You\u00E2\u0080\u0099re smart then. What did you get in your quiz in English? Eight (.) because I got one wrong. The Barbara thing? The Barbara thing. Barbara. Ha, ha, ha ((laughs)) I beat you. Well, what are you getting in English? ((laughing)) Sixty\u00E2\u0086\u0091 ((Marissa still laughing)) (1.3) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t study. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do my homework at all. She still passes me. Yeah, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really easy. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why you can get an A easily. In this excerpt, Tony took charge in directing his group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interactions. For example, in line 1 he designated Julia as being the next to ask her question, to which she agreed. He also told her to repeat her question in lines 4 and 6, which she finally did in line 10, though it seems that only did this because perhaps another student in the group also indicated that she did not understand in line 8, which Tony took up in line 9. Their exchange in lines 4 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 9 is reminiscent of one Tony had during a Trivia game when Kimiko began reading out game scores in Spanish and Tony asked her to repeat, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRepite. {Repeat.} No te eniendo. {I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand you.} I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m sorry, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When her friend, Pat, objected, Tony answered, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf I can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand it!\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/24/05-TR6), implying that if he, a SHL student, did not understand, how could anyone else in the class. By taking charge of the group work in the excerpt above, Tony was positioning himself as the leader in the group, by virtue of being designed as \u00E2\u0080\u009Chelper\u00E2\u0080\u009D by Ms. Lopez. Tony also corrected Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s answer in line 17 and explained to Julia in lines 22, and 25-26 what to write, positioning himself as their teacher. In lines 20 and 28, when he told Marissa and Julia, respectively, their correct answer in full-sentence 87 form, he was also positioning himself as their teacher, whose complete answers they should be emulating. Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-positioning as helper and teacher was taken up in various ways in the interaction. At first his positioning was accepted, such as when Marissa repeated his answer in line 19. However, in response to his strong insistence \u00E2\u0080\u009CThat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s what you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re supposed to write! The way she says it, is gonna be different from the way you write it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 25-26), Julia responded with \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, I know\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 27). She had the same response in line 29 after he told her in line 28 exactly what she was supposed to write. These two responses positioned Tony as someone whose expertise and teaching was neither needed nor welcome. But Tony continued to explain, this time to Marissa in line 31. To this Marissa responded with a strong \u00E2\u0080\u009CYes! We know that!\u00E2\u0080\u009D laughing as she spoke (line 32). In response, Tony used humour to save face, clapping loudly and telling Marissa \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou\u00E2\u0080\u0099re smart then.\u00E2\u0080\u009D His exaggerated clapping and statement could be interpreted as (humorous) sarcasm with which he was telling Marissa that it was great that she (finally) understood what he had been trying to explain. He then changed the subject to the grade she had received on her quiz in English, stressing once again his expertise over hers in line 38 when he laughed and told her, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI beat you.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Marissa, laughing as well, changed the subject to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s overall performance in English, asking about his mark in that class and continued to laugh as he told her that he had sixty percent. This then repositioned Marissa as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csmarter\u00E2\u0080\u009D student. After a pause, Tony explained that the reason for his mark was that \u00E2\u0080\u009CI don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t study. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do my homework at all,\u00E2\u0080\u009D rather than a lack of ability. To this Marissa replied, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really easy. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why you can get an A easily,\u00E2\u0080\u009D once again repositioning herself as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csmarter\u00E2\u0080\u009D since according to her it was easy to get an A in the class and yet Tony was only getting sixty percent. This interaction shows very interesting positioning and contestation between Tony, and Julia and Marissa. Although at first both girls accepted Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning of expert and \u00E2\u0080\u009Chelper,\u00E2\u0080\u009D when he began to assert it too much, they counter positioned him as an annoyance trying to impose his knowledge when they in fact knew the answer as well. This interaction shows how SFL students like Marissa and Julia did not accept Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-positioning as expert or teacher unconditionally. Rather they accepted this positioning only to a certain point and if Tony stepped beyond that point and their own 88 positioning as capable Spanish students was threatened, he put himself in a position of no longer being accepted in his aspired role. This goes back to Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement in her interview, Excerpt 5.4 above, where she expressed resentment that Tony \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckind of makes us look like we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know anything.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In their group work, Tony made Marissa and Julia look like they did not know much Spanish by continually correcting them and restating their answers but in the small group interaction, unlike in whole-class ones (see Excerpt 5.3, above, for an example), they, perhaps feeling more secure in that setting, were able to stand up to him and assert their understanding and abilities in Spanish. 5.3 Contestation in Whole-Class Interactions In whole-class interactions, Ms. Lopez often supported Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-positioning as expert and co-teacher, but this was not always the case. As was also seen in Excerpt 5.3, she did not take up Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s answers if they did not reflect what she would have taught herself. In the interaction below (10/03/05), which took place just prior to Excerpt 5.3, when Ms. Lopez used a discussion about famous actors to practice adjectives given to students in their textbook (in a box), this phenomenon is demonstrated: Excerpt 5.6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Terry?: Ms. Lopez: Terry: Ms. Lopez: Terry: Ms. Lopez: Students: Ms. Lopez: Students: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: So supposing I just know this actor, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve never seen him before, how would you describe him using the adjectives in the box? (4.2) Por favor, no hablen! ((looking at Pat and Kimiko)) {Please, don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t talk!} Sh! ((exaggeratedly, as turns to face Pat and Kimiko)) xx Ese actor, \u00C2\u00BFc\u00C3\u00B3mo es el actor? {That actor, how is the actor?} Uh, would you want us to say like (.) good (.) actor? Es un actor muy bueno. {He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a very good actor.} Does it have to be in this box? Um, well, no it doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t actually. If you know other adjectives xx (4.5) How would you describe the hair colour? Is he a blond? Is he a blond actor? Xxx ((laughter)) Okay. Xxx I can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t remember exactly what he looks like. Okay. \u00C2\u00BFQui\u00C3\u00A9n es un actor muy bueno? Un actor muy bueno. \u00C2\u00BFQui\u00C3\u00A9n es un actor muy bueno? {Who is a very good actor? A very good actor. Who is a very good actor?} Ben Affleck. OK. Ben Affleck. \u00C2\u00BFC\u00C3\u00B3mo es Ben Affleck? Es alto, bajo, [fuerte? {How is Ben Affleck? Is he tall, short, strong?} 89 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Cristiano: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Cristiano: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Cristiano: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez [Es alto. {He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tall.} [Es al:to. Musculoso. Musculoso. {He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tall. Muscular. Muscular.} Vamos a escribir [fuerte. {We\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll write strong.} [Musculoso. {Muscular.} Musculoso. {Muscular.} Vamos a escribir fuerte, [porque es la palabra que se nos da. {Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s write strong, because it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the word that [the book] gives us.} [Musculoso. {Muscular.} Fuerte y es bajo tambi\u00C3\u00A9n? {Strong and is he short too?} No, es feo. ((some laughter in class)) {No, he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ugly.} Es feo, okay. {He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ugly, okay.} In this excerpt, Ms. Lopez asked students to describe an actor, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cusing the adjectives in the box\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 2) in their textbook. When Terry 59 asked if the adjectives they should use \u00E2\u0080\u009Chave to be in this box\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 9), Ms. Lopez answered that they did not. Since Terry had excellent Spanish skills as well as fluency in Portuguese, a language related to Spanish, Ms. Lopez encouraged him to use other adjectives he might know. Terry, however, did not contribute further to the interaction; instead Cristiano 60 and Tony interacted with Ms. Lopez to describe Ben Affleck (lines 20-33). In describing the actor, Tony used the adjective musculoso {muscular} (line 24). However, Ms. Lopez did not like this adjective, preferring the synonym from the box, fuerte {strong}. When both Cristiano and Tony insisted on using musculoso (lines 26, 27), Ms. Lopez defended her choice of fuerte, stating, \u00E2\u0080\u009CVamos a escribir fuerte, porque es la palabra que se nos da\u00E2\u0080\u009D. {Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s write strong, because it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the word that [the book] gives us.} Here, in contradiction with her previous statement, Ms. Lopez argued that (only) adjectives from the book should be used in the exercise. Cristiano insisted on musculoso one more time, overlapping Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s previous turn but she put an end to the discussion by restating fuerte and then changing the subject to ask if Ben Affleck is bajo {short} (line 31). Tony took up this change of subject and went on to describe the actor as feo {ugly}, 61 rather than bajo {short}, as suggested by Ms. Lopez, eliciting laughter from the class. Ms. 59 Terry was a Japanese student who was born and grew up in Brazil and moved to Canada two years before this study. He was one of the top students in the class with excellent oral and written skills and a serious nature. More details about how Ms. Lopez viewed Terry are in Section 5.4. 60 Cristiano was a Portuguese-Canadian student, fluent in Portuguese but born in Canada. He was a good friend of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and often interacted with him in class, both on- and off-task. 61 In contrast, perhaps, with his own good looks. 90 Lopez accepted this adjective (from the box) and subsequently changed the subject to the description of an actress. From this interaction as well as Excerpt 5.3, where Ms. Lopez did not accept Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of chistoso as a translation for funny, preferring the more common c\u00C3\u00B3mico, which was also given in the book, it seems that Ms. Lopez did not in fact accept many less common words from Tony, in contradiction with her statement in our interview (see Section 5.1), as well as her answer to Terry\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question in this excerpt. However, in various other classroom interactions with Tony and Princess, she seemed happy to learn the word chaparro, which Tony used instead of bajo to mean short, accepted his use of chistoso (the same word she did not sanction in Excerpt 5.3), and showed interest in Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s slang term, bayunco {goofy}. Perhaps it was the context that determined whether Ms. Lopez accepted or rejected Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) word choices. In the context of an interaction where she was trying to review certain adjectives from the book for the other students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 benefit, she preferred that Tony, too, use those adjectives, perhaps to keep the other students focused on learning those particular words. However, when having interactions with Tony and Princess in which they enquired about various synonyms to the words given in the book, she allowed their alternatives and showed that she was happy to learn new words from them. It may also be that she accepted those words because they asked her about their acceptability rather than imposing them on her, as Tony and Cristiano were doing in the previous excerpt. Yet, it seems that by not accepting the use of other vocabulary during actual class exercises, she was limiting the very benefit she described in having SHL students in the class. Moreover, musculoso is very similar to the English translation muscular and so should not have been a difficult word for students to learn (unlike chaparro and bayunco, which are actually uncommon, most likely regional, words). The reasons for her rejection of the use of musculoso (and chistoso in Excerpt 5.3) is therefore somewhat ambiguous. Tony (and Cristiano) were not the only students who insisted on their own translations of certain words. Princess, at the beginning of the year, also had interactions with Ms. Lopez where she disagreed and defended her use of a word, such as in Excerpt 5.7 below (09/27/08): 91 Excerpt 5.7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Ms Lopez: Tony: Ms Lopez: Princess: Ms Lopez: Princess: Ms Lopez: Princess: Ms Lopez: Tony: Princess: Ms Lopez: Princess: Ms Lopez: Tony: Princess: Antonio? How would say it if you said a dog was cute? (1.1) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. So how would you describe a dog was cute? ((looking at Princess)) \u00C2\u00BFChula? {Pretty? (fs)} \u00C2\u00BFC\u00C3\u00B3mo? {What?} \u00C2\u00BFChula? {Pretty? (fs)} \u00C2\u00BFChulo? {Pretty? (ms)} Chulo, chula, chulo. {Pretty. (ms, fs, ms)} Or if it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a little boy, ni\u00C3\u00B1o es cari\u00C3\u00B1oso {the boy is affectionate} \u00E2\u0080\u0093 but you wouldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t say that for a dog. Chulo. {Pretty. (ms)} xxx Or linda? {cute? (fs)} Lindo {cute (ms)}, yeah, for a child, but not for a dog. You could do it if you want. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll have to check in my dictionary. Yo creo que {I think that} xxx Where are you from? El Salvador. In this interaction, Princess provided two different terms for \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccute\u00E2\u0080\u009D appropriate for describing a dog. The first term chulo/a was new to Ms Lopez and she was reluctant to accept this new word, repeating it several times with Princess and finally changing the subject in line 10. Here Ms. Lopez offered the word cari\u00C3\u00B1oso {affectionate} as one which would not be used for describing a dog. The way she brought it up, as a bad translation, could be interpreted in different ways. It could be that she was showing how some adjectives can be used for people but not dogs or perhaps she was implying that she considered Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099 translation as a bad one as well. Princess then offered another possible translation for \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccute\u00E2\u0080\u009D, namely lindo/a. This time, Ms. Lopez was familiar with the word and rejected it in reference to a dog (line 14). Princess, however, equally strongly asserted that this translation was indeed appropriate. Ms. Lopez then backed off of her initial strong rejection and showed uncertainty, saying that she would have to check her dictionary. In this way, she positioned herself as less of a Spanish expert than Princess, who came up with her words without needing to use a dictionary. At the same time, she referenced a dictionary as a credible source for word usage, which could be in opposition to an insider\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (native or heritage speaker\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) tacit knowledge. 92 Overall, this exchange could be viewed as a kind of vying for Spanish language expertise between Princess and Ms. Lopez, with Princess \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwinning\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the end. In their interaction, Princess positioned herself as a clear Spanish expert, coming up with different translations and asserting their appropriateness, more hesitantly at the beginning but with more conviction as the interaction continues, even at the end in opposition to her teacher. At the end of the exchange, Tony, picking up on this positioning, asked her where she was from. She unhesitatingly stated that she was from El Salvador. Her level of engagement with her Salvadorian heritage seemed to be based on her level of engagement with her Spanish language expertise: a strong engagement resulting in a clear assertion of herself as Salvadorian. It is important to note that this interaction took place on Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099 first day in class since she transferred in from Spanish 9 at the end of September. During that first class, Princess showed much confidence in responding to Ms. Lopez, having several extended interactions with her and even contesting her views, as she did in the excerpt. However, within a few classes, as described in Chapter 4 (Section 4.2), she was responding to Ms. Lopez in short answers and no longer had extended interactions with her. Perhaps she had become more aware of her classmates and their older age, as well as Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s domination of the class, and became more reserved. In group work, however, she grew in confidence interacting more and more with her table mates until she was moved to a table with grade 12 students, a move which effectively silenced her in class. 5.4 Resistance, Withdrawal and Intimidation Unlike Tony and Princess, who were (at various times) singled out by Ms. Lopez in class and responded favourably to being positioned as idealized speakers or even co- teachers, Pat and Claude were not often positioned in this way. In this section, I explore the varied reasons why this was the case and how their positioning was interactionally accomplished, as a result of a combination of factors, including ones related to both Ms. Lopez and themselves. One student who was never asked and never volunteered to act as a language expert was Pat. Because she was not confident about her Spanish-speaking abilities, Pat often kept her responses to Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions to a minimum and at times resisted speaking Spanish in class. In one instance, Pat was asking Ms. Lopez a question before 93 her test and Ms. Lopez, wanting her to speak in Spanish, responded with \u00E2\u0080\u009CNo hablo ingl\u00C3\u00A9s. {I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t speak English.} (1.1) No entiendo. {I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand.}\u00E2\u0080\u009D To this, after a two-second pause, Pat responded with \u00E2\u0080\u009COkay, never mind\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/4/05-TR3). On another occasion, Ms. Lopez asked her to read a paragraph out loud, as other students had done, and she resisted, saying \u00E2\u0080\u009CNo, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like reading in front of the whole class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2/6/06- TR12). Kimiko then read the paragraph. Pat also displayed evident self-consciousness when having to listen to herself on her group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s news broadcast video. She sat covering her ears and looking down during her portion of the tape (3/28/06). Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s resistance to giving more than minimal responses in Spanish had an impact on how she was positioned by Ms. Lopez in terms of her Hispanic heritage. Oral (language) performance affected how Ms. Lopez viewed Pat as well as other (SHL and SFL) students in the class, as she linked the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 oral language with their heritage. This was suggested by both Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statements in class as well as her interview responses. Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view of Pat as a non-Hispanic student had an impact, in turn, on how she treated her in class. For example, on November 10, during a class jigsaw activity, Ms. Lopez moved Tony from Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group to Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s saying: Okay, you know what? I need four even groups. Um, Rusty and Antonio, join one of these groups here, so you can, um, would you like to join this group? Rusty you can join that group. (1.3) No! You know what, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m sorry, Princesa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s here so you can go in that group so we can have one Hispanic helping in each group ((Janet laughs)) and then Rusty come join this group. (11/10/06-TR6) There were spaces for Tony in two groups and since Ms. Lopez considered Princess \u00E2\u0080\u0093 and not Pat \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a Hispanic she asked Tony to join Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group. In this instance, Ms. Lopez positioned Pat as a non-Hispanic who could not \u00E2\u0080\u009C[help]\u00E2\u0080\u009D the SFL students in her group. This legitimized only those (orally proficient) Hispanics as possible experts or helpers in the class and created a dynamic where SFL students were not being valued for their many contributions and expertise, nor were SHL students with considerable HL literacy but not orality. In reality, depending on the task, Pat, as well as some of her SFL classmates, were often able to offer more help to others than, for example, Tony and Princess. 94 In my first interview with Ms. Lopez, I noticed that when I asked general questions about Hispanic students, she almost always used Tony and Princess as examples in her answers. In our second interview, I again asked Ms. Lopez various questions about HL students in general, such as if she thought there was a difference between the Hispanic students that were born in Canada and the ones who immigrated here. She went on to talk about various HL students she had taught in the past, their backgrounds and their needs. I then asked her how she would group these various HL students and she came up with five groupings, based on place of birth, age of immigration and whether they had one or two Hispanic parents. Picking up on her groupings, I asked her if the fact that Pat and Claude had one Hispanic parent affected how she viewed them (1/16/06): Excerpt 5.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Klara: Ms Lopez: Klara: Ms Lopez: Klara: Ms Lopez: So would you say you look at, um (.) say Antonio and Princesa differently than (.) Pat and Claude, (.) who like have one Hispanic parent? [Like do you [I look at Pat Ruiz, I treat Pat Ruiz (.) mu- the way I treat Kimiko Chang and um, (.) because she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s with, I associate her with her peer-, with her friends, (.) whereas Claude I, I consider a His-, like Hispanic. When Claude walks into the room, I automatically talk to her in Spanish. Okay. Um, Prin-, so I consider Claude Hispanic, I consider Terry Hispanic, I just talk to him like a Hispanic. Um, (1.2) I consider (3.0) like Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comfortable speaking Spanish, whereas Pat Ruiz is not, she, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s learning but she really only speaks English. So it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more to do with how they act. Are they comfortable speaking the language. Yeah, I mean, if they, if they speak, if their first language is Spanish and that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the language they use with me (.) more, then I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m likely to stick with Spanish with them. In this interaction, Ms. Lopez first explained that she treated Pat the same way as her non-Hispanic friends, such as Kimiko Chang, a Chinese-Canadian. This shows that these friendship groupings had a powerful effect on the class and even on Ms. Lopez. 62 In fact, Pat had already taken Spanish 9 and 10 with Ms. Lopez and in both of those classes, she and her group of friends sat together and were, according to their own and others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 62 For a more detailed discussion of the friendship groupings and their effects, see Section 4.1. 95 statements, very loud and disruptive, therefore making a long-lasting impression on their classmates and teacher. However, many of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends from other schools, whom she spent time with on the weekend, were Hispanic, but Ms. Lopez, as well as most of her classmates, were not aware of these friendships. She was also friends with Tony but her interactions with him were less frequent in class and more frequent outside of school. Ms. Lopez then went to explain that she considered Claude and Terry to be Hispanic because they were \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccomfortable speaking Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 12), whereas Pat, in contrast, \u00E2\u0080\u009Creally only speaks English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 13). It would seem, then, that Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s affiliation with non-Spanish speakers at school, combined with her mixed parentage and her aversion to speaking Spanish in class, together gave Ms. Lopez the impression that her Spanish-language identity/identification was very weak. As for Claude and Terry, whom Ms. Lopez described as two students that she considered Hispanic, they had quite different backgrounds and friendship circles. Claude, having lived more than half her life in Mexico, was comfortable speaking Spanish, as I heard her use it on several occasions with her Hispanic friends outside of class and she also did not hesitate to use in class when called upon by Ms. Lopez. She also had a strong Hispanic identity, which she described in her interview with me. Although her friendship circle included several Hispanics, none of these were in the class, where her friends were mostly Asian (see Chapter 4). Terry, however, had quite a different background. His parents were Japanese and he was born and grew up in Brazil, where he attended Japanese school. In our interview, he described a very fluid and hybrid identity and affiliation to both his Portuguese and Japanese languages, as well as Brazilian and Japanese cultures. He came to Canada two years prior to the study and began taking Spanish at that time. He was an excellent student to whom Spanish came quite naturally, being proficient in Portuguese. He was also more comfortable speaking Spanish than Pat. His oral fluency (and comfort level) seemed to be the only factors affecting Ms Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view of him as Hispanic and not Pat. In fact, although Terry was also in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099 class the previous year, when he was a beginner in the language, she thought of him as Hispanic to such an extent that she told me at the beginning of the year that she was not sure if Terry had grown up in Peru or Brazil. The fact that she placed more importance on oral proficiency as a criterion for 96 ethnic identity than actual heritage or self-identification demonstrates her orientation toward a language ideology equating students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 oral language with proficiency (i.e., expertise, according to Leung et al., 1997) and linking these to their heritage (i.e., inheritance). Therefore, Ms. Lopez positioned Pat as a non-Hispanic mainly as a result of the language she chose to speak and was comfortable speaking in class. This shows a limited, proficiency-based definition of what a SHL student is since the language she chose to speak could negate her actual Hispanic heritage. Beaudrie and Ducar (2005) propose a more inclusive definition of HL learners based on these learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u009Cheritage connection to the language\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 13), rather than Vald\u00C3\u00A9s\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (2001) more widely used definition, which is based on both heritage and proficiency. Beaudrie and Ducar further suggest that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbeginning level\u00E2\u0080\u009D HL students, like Pat, may have a more similar language acquisition process to those of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cregular second language [learners]\u00E2\u0080\u009D while being very motivated to learn their HL (p. 13). Pat did indeed show both tendencies, having very good literacy and grammar skills and being very motivated to improve her Spanish, by, for example, taking additional night school Spanish classes (these ideas will be explored further in Chapter 6). Her close friend, Kimiko, also asserted how \u00E2\u0080\u009CPat just loves Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D in her interview with me (2/22/06), which shows a very strong affiliation (Leung et al., 1997) to the Spanish language on her part. Aside from how she grouped students during group work based on whether she considered them Hispanic or not (see above), another effect of Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view of Pat was what she herself said in her interview in lines 16-18: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI mean, if they, if they speak, if their first language is Spanish and that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the language they use with me (.) more, than I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m likely to stick with Spanish with them.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Ms. Lopez therefore addressed Pat in English depriving her of more opportunities to practice her listening skills and potentially her oral skills. This had important consequences not just for Pat but also for the SFL students in the class. After all, they could not practice responding to Spanish if they were not addressed in it by their teacher and if she did not encourage the SHL students to address them in Spanish as well. Indeed, Pat welcomed opportunities to have others converse with her in Spanish. In her interview, Pat shared that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceverybody (in my family) speaks Spanish but I usually 97 answer in English, like the only person that I can feel like completely comfortable speaking Spanish with is my mom and I have, I have said some stuff.\u00E2\u0080\u009D About her Hispanic friends she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey speak Spanish a lot and I understand, like they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be like having a conversation in Spanish and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll like comment, but it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s always in English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/30/05). Pat therefore seemed to enjoy having Spanish spoken around her and being spoken to in Spanish but had not yet built up the confidence to speak it freely herself. Beaudrie and Ducar (2005) discuss how the students in their beginner-level SHL classes gained comfort and confidence in speaking Spanish when their teachers promoted a \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish only\u00E2\u0080\u009D environment by speaking only Spanish themselves and gradually easing their students into speaking more and more Spanish. Their students were also more comfortable speaking Spanish together in groups rather than in front of the whole class. Therefore, doing more group work and encouraging students to speak more Spanish, in groups facilitated by SHL students comfortable speaking Spanish, seemed to be a helpful strategy. Although Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class was mainly made up of SFL students and not beginner SHL students, these SFL students (and Pat), would also benefit from hearing more Spanish addressed to them rather than most often hearing it addressed to their SHL classmates. It is, however, unclear whether being immersed in a Spanish-speaking environment would be enough to encourage Pat to speak Spanish since she was immersed in such an environment with her family and friends and still chose to speak English. An interaction between Pat and Princess provides some insight into why Pat chose not to speak Spanish with others. Miller (2000, 2003) uses the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Caudibility\u00E2\u0080\u009D to refer to the assumptions people make about someone based on how they speak. In her study of mainstreamed high school ESL students in Australia, she found that those who spoke with a foreign accent were judged as not belonging to the mainstream. In the following interaction, in which Pat and Princess discuss their mothers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (Spanish) accents, we can discern a similar judgement, especially by Pat (11/2/05-TR17): Excerpt 5.9 1 2 3 4 Princess: Pat: Princess: Is your mom, um does she um, was she born and raised here? No, she was born and raised in Honduras. She moved here when she was like twenty something. Does she have an accent when she talks? 98 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Pat: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Pat: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Pat: Kimiko: Pat: Kimiko: ((laughs)) Yeah, she used to She used to have, when I was a little kid, she used to have such an accent and then she like fixed it\u00E2\u0080\u00A6It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just some things, like when she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s nervous, instead of, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, just words. My mom has an accent, like harsh accent, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really funny though. And your dad? Hm? My dad? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t live with my dad. Okay. Okay, yeah, but he speaks English. Does your mom speak English? Yeah, she does, but like, she speaks it with an accent. But both your parents are from El Salvador? Um, um, well my dad is (1.3) from like Argentina but like they just moved there, to El Salvador, but his background is from Argentina. Oh. Yeah. Do you think my mom has an accent, (.) when you hear my mom talk? Well, yeah, yeah, obviously she [xxx [I think she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gotten rid of it now. Like, you can tell, like, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not bad or anything. This interaction begins with Pat explaining that her mom moved to Canada in her twenties and Princess asking if she has a (Spanish) accent (line 4). This question initiates a long discussion about accents in which Pat seems very self- conscious about her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent. At first she explains that her mom \u00E2\u0080\u009Cused to\u00E2\u0080\u009D have an accent but that she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfixed it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 5-6). Using the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfixed\u00E2\u0080\u009D implies that having the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwrong\u00E2\u0080\u009D accent makes your speech flawed in some way and that this flaw must be fixed. Later in the interaction, Pat once again resumes talking about her mom\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent, asking Kimiko if she thinks her mom has an accent (lines 21-2). This shows Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concern about her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent and her worry that perhaps she had not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfixed it\u00E2\u0080\u009D as she had previously stated. When Kimiko replies that obviously (she does have an accent), Pat overlaps her turn with the statement that \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gotten rid of it by now\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 24). With this statement Pat describes her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent as something bad that should be overcome. Picking up on this, Kimiko responds that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not bad or anything\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 25). In this interaction, then, Pat is showing that she views accent as an important part of how someone speaks a language; that even if someone is otherwise fluent, a strong 99 (foreign) accent makes that person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s speech inferior to others who can speak with a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnative-like\u00E2\u0080\u009D accent. An accent therefore affects how one views the speaker\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language expertise. Judging her mothers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 speaking by the accent she has shows a form of audibility (Miller, 2000, 2003). Although Princess explains that her mother has an accent as well, her use of terms like \u00E2\u0080\u009Charsh\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfunny\u00E2\u0080\u009D to describe it (line 9 and 15) shows a different attitude than Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, one of amusement rather than dislike and embarrassment, Judging others by their accent has important implications for a language class. In a Spanish class, the goal is presumably to learn to speak Spanish with as much of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnative-like\u00E2\u0080\u009D accent (of a certain \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D variety) as possible. As we have seen in earlier sections, having \u00E2\u0080\u009Cauthentic\u00E2\u0080\u009D Spanish accents and being models of pronunciation was, according to Ms. Lopez, one benefit of having SHL students in the class. In her view, Tony, was such a model. The fact that Ms. Lopez singled Tony out for his native- like accent positioned students like Pat (not to mention many SFL students), who did not have such an accent, as having lower language expertise. This and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own strong views about accent, as expressed in this excerpt, may offer insights into why she resisted speaking Spanish. It is quite possible that she judged her own accent in Spanish in the same way that she judged her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accent in English \u00E2\u0080\u0093 as something flawed which needed fixing. Moreover, Tony, Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friend and a very fluent speaker of Spanish also judged her accent. In our interview, he shared that Pat \u00E2\u0080\u009Csometimes \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 makes me speak to her in Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D but \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll respond in English\u00E2\u0080\u009D. He added that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cher pronunciation\u00E2\u0080\u0099s very weird\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that \u00E2\u0080\u009CI make her speak sometimes\u00E2\u0080\u009D and then laugh at her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbecause it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s funny sometimes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/24/06). Having her Hispanic friend characterize her accent as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery weird\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfunny\u00E2\u0080\u009D would likely only serve to reinforce her own negative view of her accent and certainly not add to Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s confidence to speak Spanish. Of all the SHL students in the class, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning as language expert was the most ambivalent. While she was considered to be a Hispanic by Ms. Lopez (see Excerpt 5.8 above), she did not frequently position Claude as an idealized speaker in the class, though she certainly positioned her as one more frequently than Pat. Claude appeared generally comfortable answering questions in class and infrequently had more extended interactions with Ms. Lopez during a class discussion. Overall, however, 100 Claude did not assert her presence in the class very much nor was she frequently singled out by Ms. Lopez. There seemed to be several reasons for Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s low level of participation. First, she often articulated that she was forgetting her Spanish vocabulary, yet expressed that she felt she should know more than others. Second, she resented the disruptions of the preppy girl group (Pat and her friends) and did not feel that Ms. Lopez disciplined them enough, as well as, becoming frustrated by how little got done in class as a result of their disruptions as the year went on. In our interview, when I asked Claude if she felt being a SHL student affected her interactions in class, we had the following discussion (11/28/05): Excerpt 5.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Klara: Claude: Claude: Klara: Claude: Do you think that the fact that you have a Mexican heritage affects how you interact in class with students or the teacher? Not really. (2.3) \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 She [Ms. Lopez] intimidates me sometimes too, makes me feel like if I ask her something \u00E2\u0080\u0093 that if I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to say this word or spell it, she makes me feel like \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou should know this.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Really? Yeah, it makes me kind of not really want to ask her, just ask one of my friends or whatever, just totally freaks me out like that. In this interaction, Claude stated that she did not feel that her Mexican heritage affected her interactions in class. She went on to describe how she felt intimidated by Ms. Lopez because she felt that if she asked her a question in class, Ms. Lopez would make her feel like, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou should know this\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 5-7). This, she said, made her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot really want to ask her\u00E2\u0080\u009D and she opted for asking her friends (lines 9-10). Here Claude is describing feeling positioned as an idealized speaker by Ms. Lopez and feeling intimidated as a result of such a positioning, as if it meant that she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshould know\u00E2\u0080\u009D everything. This feeling kept her from asking Ms. Lopez questions in class, which may have impeded her learning. This is important, since it shows that being positioned as an idealized speaker may not always have positive results for the SHL student. In classes where there are several SHL students with various abilities and perceptions, it is quite possible for some of them to feel the same kind of expectation and intimidation that Claude spoke of. In fact, some of the SHL students taking Spanish at a post-secondary 101 institution in Potowski\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2002) study shared similar feelings of being afraid to ask questions because they felt that they were expected to know everything already. This feeling of intimidation Claude described was perhaps compounded by her own insecurities resulting from her perception that she was forgetting her Spanish. In our interview, she told me, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099m forgetting my Spanish, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m taking this class, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s kind of scary\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). This sentiment was corroborated when I observed Claude, on several different occasions, expressing frustration at forgetting Spanish words, their translations into English or being unable to explain a grammar point to her tablemates during group work. For example, while working on a Trivia game project, she could not think of the word for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmayor\u00E2\u0080\u009D and asked Ms. Lopez, who also did not know the word. When Ms. Lopez found the word in the dictionary and said that it was alcalde, Claude exclaimed in frustration, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099m forgetting my Spanish! Oh, my God, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m so bad!\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/10/05-DAT) Interestingly, by making such a statement when Ms. Lopez herself did not know the word, shows that she held herself to a higher standard of Spanish knowledge than her teacher. In fact, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish was excellent but her expectations of it were even higher. Once she received 32/35 on a test while Prince, her tablemate, who was also an excellent student, received 33. Upon discovering this, she exclaimed, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou beat me?! That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s hilarious. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m so dumb.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (12/14/05-TR16) Claude expressed the feeling that maybe Ms. Lopez had as high expectations of her as she had of herself and she did not want put herself in the position of not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmeasuring up\u00E2\u0080\u009D in some way to what she perceived her Spanish should be. After all, she was not only a SHL student but one who had lived the first ten years of her life in Mexico. Previously I described how Ms. Lopez positioned Claude as a Hispanic because she was comfortable speaking Spanish. However, I rarely observed the two speaking Spanish together. I asked Claude about this in our interview (11/28/05): Excerpt 5.11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Do you use Spanish with her? (1.1) Ever? Ms. Lopez? Yeah, sometimes. Like when she talks to me in private or whatever, she always tries to speak to me in Spanish. In like class, when she comes to talk to you individually? No, she always speaks English. Okay, so when does she speak Spanish to you? Like when everybody\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gone and she like wants to talk to me about 102 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: something, she speaks Spanish. Like about my, like, (0.9) life outside of class, she speaks Spanish. So you see her outside of class, like in the hall and stuff? Yeah. And she speaks to you in Spanish? Yeah. So what do you think about that? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, (.) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, (.) she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just trying to, (.) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know what she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s trying to do ((laughs)) Trying to get you to practice, I guess. Yeah. But do you mind it or No, I think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s fine. In this interaction, as was also confirmed by my observations, Claude described how Ms. Lopez did not speak to her in Spanish except outside of class time (lines 7-9). In her interview Ms. Lopez spoke about speaking Spanish with Claude, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhen Claude walks into the room, I automatically talk to her in Spanish.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Excerpt 5.8, lines 7- 8). She explained doing this because \u00E2\u0080\u009CI consider Claude Hispanic\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 10). Moreover, Ms. Lopez also said that \u00E2\u0080\u009CClaude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comfortable speaking Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 12), which Claude seemed to confirm in this excerpt when she said that she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfine\u00E2\u0080\u009D with speaking Spanish with Ms. Lopez outside of class time (line 20). However, it is significant that this positioning of Claude as an orally proficient Hispanic did not translate into Ms. Lopez positioning her as an idealized speaker during class. It is not clear why Ms. Lopez did not often position (and affirm or validate) her in that way. Claude described feeling intimidated by Ms. Lopez in the previous excerpt and perhaps Ms. Lopez sensed this in Claude while sensing more confidence in Tony and Princess. Another possible explanation is that Claude did not take up the positioning of idealized speaker when given the floor by Ms. Lopez in class, while Princess (at least at the beginning of the year) and Tony did. Nevertheless, although comfortable speaking Spanish with Ms. Lopez, Claude did not seek to be positioned as the idealized speaker in the class nor did Ms. Lopez frequently position her in that way. Overall, Claude did not participate very much in whole-class interactions. Unlike with Pat, however, the reason was not that Claude was not comfortable speaking Spanish. A reason for Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lower participation in class may have had more to do with class dynamics. Specifically, as described in Chapter 4, Claude (and others) resented the 103 disruptions of particularly the preppy girl group (Pat and her friends) and, as the year went on, they expressed greater and greater frustration with how little was getting done in class as a result. In her interview, when I asked Claude about her positive and negative experiences in class she said about Ms. Lopez: I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t think she does a really good job \u00E2\u0080\u0093 lets kids slack off and stuff and doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really have any authority over them\u00E2\u0080\u00A6Her activities are kind of, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, pointless sometimes, or she doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t drill things into your mind as much as she should, she just let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s them go and stuff. And she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s all over the place too so like even me, I can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even keep up. Sometimes she starts talking about something else and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m like \u00E2\u0080\u009COh. What are we supposed to be learning, what\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the point, what\u00E2\u0080\u0099s she trying to get across?\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cause she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s all over the place. And she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s very interested in learning like Antonio\u00E2\u0080\u0099s way of saying a word or whatever, which is interesting, but she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s really, she neglects the kids and stuff. (11/28/05) In this interview segment, Claude described how she did not like that Ms. Lopez did not have \u00E2\u0080\u009Cany authority\u00E2\u0080\u009D in class and that she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Call over the place\u00E2\u0080\u009D with her teaching. She made similar comments during class to her tablemates, in which they complained about the lack of organization in the class. One of the reasons that Ms. Lopez was \u00E2\u0080\u009Call over the place\u00E2\u0080\u009D could have been due to her attention to Tony, such as when she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery interested in learning like Antonio\u00E2\u0080\u0099s way of saying a word,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as well being distracted by the disruptive students in the class (see Section 4.1 for more detail). It is clear that Claude resented this and perhaps it was for this reason that she did not get very involved in class. In their interviews, students have widely-ranging perceptions of Claude. Some of the grade 12 students did not know who Claude was or that she was a Hispanic. This could have been due to her infrequent participation in class, the teacher not calling on her in Spanish, and the fact that they had not worked with her. Some of the grade 11 students talked about her social positioning in class, and especially her rift with Kimiko and Pat, much as they often discussed this in relation to Pat. Her friends and those who had worked with her also talked about her excellent Spanish ability. Interestingly, various of her classmates saw Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relative lack of participation in class in different ways. Terry, for example, had just described how he thought that most of the SHL students in the class did not have strong grammar skills, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhen we\u00E2\u0080\u0099re having like verb, verb, uh, conjugation, new stuff, like how to conjugate this verb, 104 in the past tense, these people have problems. Sometimes, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re asking Ms. Lopez, \u00E2\u0080\u0098How come it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s this? How come it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s that?\u00E2\u0080\u0099 I usually get it like right away\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2/24/06). I then asked him if he thought Claude was like that, since he had not mentioned her by name and we had the following interaction: Excerpt 5.12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Klara: Terry: Klara: Terry: Klara: Terry: Klara: Terry: Okay. And what about Claude, you think she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like that? No, no, she has both, speaking skills and grammar skills. How do you know that? I know the way she speaks and the way she writes. She doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t ask questions at all so I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m assuming that she has the skills. Cause she doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t ask questions? Also cause when I see her work and stuff, long essay, for example. Oh, like when you see her hand stuff in and stuff. Yeah. In this interview excerpt, Terry shared that he thought Claude had strong oral and literacy skills based on his observations of her rather than from direct experience of working with her. He viewed the fact that Claude did not ask questions in class as an indication that she understood everything. This was in contradiction with Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own stated reason for not asking questions, namely that she felt intimidated and pressured to know the material without asking (see Excerpt 5.10 for details). Terry\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assumption shows that silence can be interpreted in very different ways and that it may not always be seen as a lack of knowledge or confidence. Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends, Jo Ann and Marissa, also commented on Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge of Spanish and saw her less frequent interaction in class as positive. After discussing how she resented how Tony often \u00E2\u0080\u009Cblurts\u00E2\u0080\u009D out answers (see Excerpt 5.4 for details), Marissa stated, referring to Claude, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshe knows the language too but she doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t blurt out, only if the teacher asks her to talk. But yeah, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good at like participating and she doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t make us (.) feel (.) less (.) adequate.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This shows that Marissa appreciated Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s less frequent participation in relative to Tony. She viewed Claude as having good language skills but not feeling the need to overpower the class discussions, a behaviour which may result in her classmates feeling \u00E2\u0080\u009Cless adequate.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Instead, she saw her less frequent interaction as a way of respecting her classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 abilities and their rights to participate and showcase those abilities in class. In fact, Claude did feel that the SFL students 105 should have more opportunities to participate and that if SHL students were too vocal or if they were called on too much by their teacher, they were depriving the SFL students of such opportunities (see Section 5.1 for an Excerpt from Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interview on this topic). Perhaps then her consideration for the learning of others was also a factor in Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lower rate of participation in class. In conclusion, Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s resistance to speaking Spanish in class had a significant impact on her positioning in class. Her unwillingness to speak not only precluded her from attaining the status of language expert but also seemed to jeopardize how her teacher viewed her Hispanic heritage. Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s infrequent participation and positioning as idealized speaker in whole-class discussions, on the other hand, was not due to a lack of comfort in speaking Spanish but was more due to her dissatisfaction with how the class was taught, particularly as a result of the preppy girls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s disruptions. She also expressed feeling that she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshould know\u00E2\u0080\u009D much more than the SFL students in the class as a result of her SHL status and this, coupled with a sense that she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforgetting\u00E2\u0080\u009D her Spanish, made her somewhat reticent. 5.5 A Whole-Class Interaction Example In the next series of excerpts from a classroom discussion, I analyse the four SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions in class as well as the kinds of issues raised by their interactions. In the first interaction, characteristic of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exchanges with Ms. Lopez during class, especially in the first half of the year when he attended class more regularly, we can see how Tony dominated the class discussion about travel (11/8/05-TR9): Excerpt 5.13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Honey: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: \u00C2\u00BFTe gusta viajar o te gusta quedar en casa? {Do you like to travel or stay at home?} Me gusta mucho viajar. {I like to travel.} Yeah, y t\u00C3\u00BA, Honey? \u00C2\u00BFTe gusta viajar o prefieres quedarte en casa? {Yeah, and you, Honey? Do you like to travel or stay at home?} [Me aburro en la casa. {I get bored at home.} [What does viajar {to travel} mean? \u00C2\u00BFQu\u00C3\u00A9 quiere decir \u00E2\u0080\u009Cviajar\u00E2\u0080\u009D? {What does \u00E2\u0080\u009Cto travel\u00E2\u0080\u009D mean?} Viajar means to travel. Would you like to travel xx Okay. \u00C2\u00BFAd\u00C3\u00B3nde te gusta= {Where do you like=} viajar {travel} =viajar? [Ad\u00C3\u00B3nde te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa {=to travel? Where would you like} [El Salvador. 106 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Ms. Lopez: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Student: Ms. Lopez: Terry: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Claude: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Student: Ms. Lopez: Tony: El Salvador, un pa\u00C3\u00ADs que te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa visitar. {El Salvador, a country you would like to visit.} Hawaii, \u00C2\u00BFc\u00C3\u00B3mo se dice Hawaii en espa\u00C3\u00B1ol? {How do you say Hawaii in Spanish?} Hawaii. ((Ss laugh)) Un pa\u00C3\u00ADs que te gusta - \u00C2\u00BFAd\u00C3\u00B3nde te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa viajar (1.2) en todo el mundo? {A country that you like \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Where would you like to travel (1.2) in the whole world?} (0.9) A m\u00C3\u00AD me gustar\u00C3\u00ADa viajar en Italia otra vez. {I would like to travel to Italy again.} Venezuela. Tambi\u00C3\u00A9n. Okay. \u00C2\u00BFAd\u00C3\u00B3nde te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa viajar? {Also. Okay. Where would you like to travel?} Port \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Portugal. Europa. {Europe.} Europa, s\u00C3\u00AD. Shh, (.) silencio. Okay, (.) \u00C2\u00BFad\u00C3\u00B3nde te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa viajar (.) a t\u00C3\u00AD, (.) puedes decir? (1) \u00C2\u00BFD\u00C3\u00B3nde te gustar\u00C3\u00ADa viajar? (.) \u00C2\u00BFTerry? {Europe, yes. Shh, (.) silence. Okay, (.) where would you like to travel (.) can you say? (.) Where would you like to travel? (.) Terry?} Ah, Hawaii. Hawaii. Marissa? India. India. Claude? Jap\u00C3\u00B3n. {Japan.} Jap\u00C3\u00B3n. {Japan.} Jap\u00C3\u00B3n, Korea. {Japan, Korea.} X? Hawaii. Hawaii tambi\u00C3\u00A9n. {also} En las playas m\u00C3\u00A1s bellas del mundo. {To the most beautiful beaches in the world.} Counting each participant\u00E2\u0080\u0099s turns (Ms. Lopez \u00E2\u0080\u0093 16; Tony \u00E2\u0080\u0093 10; Marissa, Honey, Terry and Claude \u00E2\u0080\u0093 1 each), we can see how much Tony dominated this interaction. Tony also had the most extended turns, while Claude, Terry and Marissa gave one word answers for where they wanted to travel (lines 35, 37, 39) and Honey was overlapped by Tony when asking what \u00E2\u0080\u009Cviajar\u00E2\u0080\u009D meant (line 7), and, in the end, did not even get a chance to answer the original question. Tony also overlapped or pre-empted others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 turns. For example, as just mentioned, in line 6, he continued to talk even though Ms. Lopez had clearly addressed 107 her question to Honey in lines 4-5. In line 11, he completed Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question before she had a chance to complete it herself in the following line. He then continued to answer her questions, in all listing six different countries he wanted to travel to throughout the interaction. Additionally, all the other students, including Claude, a SHL student, only answered Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question when addressed by name. This interaction exemplifies what Marissa discussed in her interview. Marissa said that Tony, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckind of overrules the whole class and when we try to answer questions he just blurts it out or whatever\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Excerpt 5.4, lines 3-4). By constantly \u00E2\u0080\u009C[blurting] out\u00E2\u0080\u009D the answers, Tony positioned himself as the language expert in the class \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the one that should be the centre of attention and whom all the other students should (want to) listen to. This did not allow any other student in the class to participate in the discussion. Although only Tony dominated the interaction in Excerpt 5.13, in the next part of the interaction, below, Princess took on a more active role. In this segment, Ms. Lopez changed the topic of conversation from travel destination to the amount of luggage students usually brought when they traveled. This topic was more complex than simply naming travel destination, above, and students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) answers were more complex. This caused the SFL students to have difficulties in following the interaction: Excerpt 5.14 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Princess: Ms. Lopez: Princess: Ms. Lopez: Princess: Tony: Marissa: Princess: Marissa: Cuando viajas, \u00C2\u00BFprefieres llevar mucho o poco equipaje? {When you travel, do you prefer to bring a lot of luggage or a little bit?} \u00C2\u00A1Mucho (equipaje)! {A lot (of luggage)!} \u00C2\u00BFPor qu\u00C3\u00A9? {Why?} Porque m\u00C3\u00A1s ropa puedo escojer. {Because more clothes to chose from.} (What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s equipaje?) {What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s luggage?} Okay, Princesa, a t\u00C3\u00AD, \u00C2\u00BFprefieres viajar con muchas maletas o pocas? {and you, do you prefer to travel with a lot of suitcases or a little bit?} Pocas. {Few.} \u00C2\u00BFPor qu\u00C3\u00A9? {Why?} Por que as\u00C3\u00AD \u00E2\u0080\u0093 {Because that way -} Le gusta xxx ropa. {She likes xxx clothes.} ((Ss laugh)) \u00C2\u00BAWhat?\u00C2\u00BA No, porque no quiero estar preocupada por (.) si se me pierden. {No, because I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to worry about losing them.} \u00C2\u00BABusy with something? \u00C2\u00BA (.) \u00C2\u00BAMaletas?\u00C2\u00BA {Bags?} 108 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 Ms. Lopez: Princess: Ms. Lopez: Princess: Marissa: Marissa: Princess: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: S\u00C3\u00AD, puedes viajar. {Yes, you can travel.} xx same clothes everyday. Es m\u00C3\u00A1s f\u00C3\u00A1cil, es mas f\u00C3\u00A1cil x No tienes que llevar todo el equipaje as\u00C3\u00AD. {It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s easier, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s easier. That way you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have to bring all the luggage.} S\u00C3\u00AD. {Yes.} \u00C2\u00BAxxx bring a lot of clothes?\u00C2\u00BA (1.2) \u00C2\u00BAIs she asking if you would bring a lot of clothes?\u00C2\u00BA \u00C2\u00BAYeah.\u00C2\u00BA xxx puedes comprar m\u00C3\u00A1s. {xxx you can buy more.} Para una semana, dos semanas, no necesitas mucho. {For one week, two weeks, you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t need much.} xxx Si vas a viajar para {If you are going to travel for} unos meses {a few months} unos meses {a few months} necesitas mucho equipaje xx espacio. {you will need a lot of luggage xx space.} 84 Silvia: We can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand. 85 Marissa: I have no idea what they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re saying. 86 Silvia: Xxx 87 88 Ms. Lopez: Escucha. {Listen.} Some students understand. Raise your hand if you can understand the conversation when it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s happening in Spanish? 89 Tony: Levanta la mano si entiendes. {Raise your hand if you understand.} 90 ((Tony, Princess, Pat, Claude and Cristiano raise their hands)) 91 Ms. Lopez: Prince, no entiendes? {Prince, you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand?} 92 Prince: Kind of. 93 Ms. Lopez: So maybe if um 94 Silvia: It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like \u00E2\u0080\u009Cna na na.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 95 Ms. Lopez: If we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t all talk at once and talk slower and xx. 96 Tony: Yo (.) voy (.) a (.) hablar (.) despacio. {I (.) will (.) speak (.) slow.} 97 ((Claude and other students laugh)) 98 Ms. Lopez: Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s do the questions on page 31. 99 Tony: Come on, Silvia, x talk to me. In this segment, Tony once again designated himself as the first to answer Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question. Then, after Princess quietly asked \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s equipaje {luggage}?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 53), Ms. Lopez addressed the same question to her. It is not clear whether Ms. Lopez heard Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question as she did not answer it directly; however, she did change the word she was using from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cequipaje\u00E2\u0080\u009D {luggage} to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmaleta\u00E2\u0080\u009D {suitcase}, which Princess knew since she answered her question without any problems. Although Princess did not take the floor herself, once given the floor by Ms. Lopez, she did make several comments 109 about her luggage preferences, with Tony, also, making one comment (line 59) during her interaction with Ms. Lopez. Aside from his one comment, however, Tony \u00E2\u0080\u009Callowed\u00E2\u0080\u009D Princess to have five turns. This is significant because it shows that Tony accepted Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning as another idealized and legitimate speaker in the class as a result of her competence and comfort in speaking Spanish. Based on her demeanour and her willingness to participate, it seemed clear that Princess also felt comfortable speaking and taking on this positioning. During Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction with Ms. Lopez, Marissa was actively trying to understand what they were saying. In line 61, she asked \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat?\u00E2\u0080\u009D and in line 64 she tried to guess what the word \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreocupado/a\u00E2\u0080\u009D{worried} in Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s previous turn meant but got it mixed up with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cocupado/a\u00E2\u0080\u009D {busy}. Finally, in lines 71 and 73, Marissa twice asked Princess \u00E2\u0080\u009CIs she asking if you would bring a lot of clothes?\u00E2\u0080\u009D which Princess answered in line 74 with \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This segment of the interaction shows, first of all, that Marissa was not comfortable asking what things meant in front of the whole class. This was certainly a problem since a lot more learning could take place if students felt comfortable enough or able to take the floor to ask a question. Here the floor was being dominated by two SHL students, leaving little room for the SFL students. Second, Marissa did feel comfortable enough to ask Princess her questions since they sat near each other and interacted on occasion, helping each other with assigned work. This shows that SHL can help their SFL classmates with their learning but if SFL students only feel comfortable asking them in private, only those sitting close-by benefit from this help. In line 75, seizing the opportunity of no one speaking, Tony once again took over the interaction and continued to interact with Ms. Lopez. It is significant that during the entire interaction from line 47 to line 83, no other student was asked or answered Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s second question. Claude ably described this phenomenon in her interview (transcribed in full in Section 5.1), when she referred to Tony and Princess, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhen we start an activity and you put your hand up or whatever, and um one of them are always giving one of the answers like out of all the kids, out of all the kids that are in the classroom, those two are the ones that always put their hand up or that she always singles out for answers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). When I asked Claude why this was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad\u00E2\u0080\u009D she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccause 110 the other students need to interact obviously, they need to have that\u00E2\u0080\u009D. In this part of the interaction, as well as in the previous one, for the most part, the SFL students were not interacting at all. Moreover, the SFL students in the class often did not understand Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interactions with Tony, who spoke at his normal speaking speed, which was too fast for the FL students to follow. At times this caused frustration for the students, as is evident in the last several lines of Excerpt 5.14. In this interaction, both Silvia and Marissa complained that they did not understand what Ms. Lopez and Tony were saying (lines 84, 85). Even though, as documented above, Marissa had had trouble following the interaction for a while, it was not until Silvia spoke up in line 84 that she, too, expressed her frustration at not being able to follow. Ms. Lopez then asked the other students in the class to raise their hands if they understood the Spanish conversations in the class (lines 87-88). Tony then repeated Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s request in Spanish, positioning himself once again as a kind of co-teacher in the class. Significantly, the only students who raised their hands were the SHL students and Cristiano, who was fluent in Portuguese. I was surprised that Terry, whose first and dominant language was Portuguese, since he was born and grew up in Brazil, did not put his hand up and when I asked him about it in our interview, he told me that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csometimes I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t put my hand up but I always understand.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2/24/06). Terry further commented about Tony speaking Spanish in class that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good that he speaks a lot of Spanish, like really fast so people can learn and um, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good to have in their head like how he speaks.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This shows that those students who have a background in Spanish or a language related to it could understand the conversations between Ms. Lopez and the SHL students. Moreover, it could be argued that some of the other students benefited from listening to the conversations \u00E2\u0080\u0093 for example, Marissa was actively trying to understand the interaction between Princess and Ms. Lopez and she did correctly understand that Princess and Ms. Lopez were talking about bringing a lot of clothes (lines 71, 73) but this could also partly be because Princess talked about clothes in English in line 66. Lave and Wenger\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1991) model of legitimate peripheral participation explains how those who with lower expertise can be socialized and apprenticed by those with higher expertise. At first, they may be peripheral to the conversation but they are nevertheless learning the 111 language from their more expert peers as well as observing how they interact with the goal that they too may later take a more active role. Here Marissa was acting as a legitimate peripheral observer since she was actively trying to understand the interaction between Ms. Lopez and Princess and she was able to ask Princess for clarifications of her understanding of the interaction. However, most students were not in Marissa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position since they may not have been sitting near a SHL speaker or may not have been comfortable asking one of them about the interaction. Also, the fact that they were not given opportunities to participate in the conversation, perhaps after having listened to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexperts\u00E2\u0080\u009D for a time, meant that they had limited possibilities to practice and become more \u00E2\u0080\u009Clegitimate\u00E2\u0080\u009D participants. This is the point that Marissa and Claude spoke to above. Furthermore, the main difficulty for students in trying to understand Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conversations with the SHL students was the quick pace at which the SHL students spoke. Ms. Lopez alluded to this idea when she told Silvia that she, Ms. Lopez, and the SHL students should talk \u00E2\u0080\u009Cslower\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 95). Tony, however, showed how unnatural that would be when he said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYo (.) voy (.) a (.) hablar (.) despacio.\u00E2\u0080\u009D {I will speak slow.} (line 96-97) with artificial pauses in between all his words. Moreover, his exaggeratedly slow speech seemed to mock Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comment and positioned those who speak in such a way, for example SFL students, as incompetent speakers of the language. In general, Tony spoke so fast that on at least one occasion at the beginning of the year even Ms. Lopez had trouble understanding what he said and asked him to speak slower. (10/3/05) In the next segment of the interaction, Ms. Lopez, apparently finally having had enough of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dominance of the interaction, asked Tony to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctake a three minute timeout, just to give [her] a little bit of peace\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 100-101) and an extended interaction between the two ensued: Excerpt 5.15 98 Ms. Lopez: Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s do the questions on page 31. 99 Tony: Come on, Silvia, x talk to me. 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Cristiano: Tony: Okay, Antonio, would you please take a three minute timeout, just to give me a little bit of peace. Necesito un poco de paz. {I need a little bit of peace.} xxx Tony! Voy a tomar un, un vuelo. {I am going to take a flight.} ((Ss laugh)) 112 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Marissa: Jo Ann: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Cristiano: Puedes ir afuera para tomar un poco de aire. {You can go outside to get a bit of air.} xxx xx fresh air xxx ((Ss laughing)) Puedes ir abajo, no? Afuera un poquito {You can go downstairs, can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you? Outside a little bit} xxx No. Don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t I need a pass? Won\u00E2\u0080\u0099t I get in trouble? No, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have time to issue you a pass. (1.2) You won\u00E2\u0080\u0099t get in trouble, just walk on x Street. Voy a correr. Voy a tomar un viaje. Xxxxx {I am going to run. I am going to take a trip.} What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s he saying? ((Tony leaves and takes board eraser w/ him, slamming the door)) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gonna go walk outside? Okay, he\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be back in 3 minutes so. Okay, how about we talk in English next time. No, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s xxx I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just conversation, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good practice for you. But I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like how you guys talk in Spanish and no one else understands. But it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just, at the beginning of the class x conversation only. If you never hear the Spanish, you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re never gonna improve so try and listen and try to see what words you can understand. You don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have to understand everything. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t understand anything. La, el. {The (fs), the (ms).} In this interaction, Tony and Ms. Lopez exchanged several turns in which Ms. Lopez tried to convince him to leave the class since she could no longer put up with his interruptions and domination of the interactions. In response, Tony, rather than leaving obediently, was joking with Ms. Lopez and mocking the previous interaction about travelling to say that he was going to take a flight and a trip (lines 105, 120). His classmates responded to his jokes with laughter (lines 106, 112), knowing he was joking even if they did not clearly understand what he was saying, as Marissa, for example, articulated (lines 122, 125). Tony was certainly enjoying the laughter and attention of his classmates as was seen from his loud, theatrical and exaggerated speech and gestures 113 (field notes). In the interaction, Ms. Lopez went from asking Tony politely to leave to almost begging him to do so, changing her request to a question and using the diminutive poquito to ask him to go at least for a short, little time (line 113). Then in line 117, Tony code-switched to English to come up with excuses why he could not leave, such as needing a hall pass. This was a tactic to avoid leaving since I never saw hall passes issued in the class nor any student ever asking for one. With the question, Tony was also mocking the positioning of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood student.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In turn, Ms. Lopez code-switched into English, and responded to his query, taking on the corresponding position of Ansler teacher (and not just Spanish teacher). When he did not respond to her statement that she did not have time to write him a pass, that she wanted him to leave fast, she further advised him to just go outside into the street instead of wandering in the halls. With this comment, Ms. Lopez seemed to be running out of ways to persuade Tony to leave the class as she had asked him to over and over again, while he continued to skilfully resist her request. Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s code-switch in line 117 is also interesting because it shows that Tony would use English to talk about procedural things, such as a hall pass, something he would also talk about in school and in English. His Spanish utterances, however, both before and after his English statements in line 117, were much more playful. There he was playing with the vocabulary and topic of the preceding on-task interactions with Ms. Lopez. This interaction shows Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s two distinct positionings in the class, as described previously at the beginning of this section. On the one hand, he was positioned by Ms. Lopez as the idealized speaker when she told Silvia, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good practice for you.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 130) in reference to listening to the Spanish conversations in the class, as well as her comment, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyou\u00E2\u0080\u0099re never gonna improve so listen and try to see what words you can understand.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 134-5) Tony also positioned himself (as did Ms. Lopez) as the idealized speaker (who everyone should want to listen to). On the other hand, after her long previous interaction with Tony (excerpts 5.13 and 5.14), Ms. Lopez told him in lines 100-101 to leave so that she could have \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca little bit of peace,\u00E2\u0080\u009D displaying an orientation to him \u00E2\u0080\u009Coverruling\u00E2\u0080\u009D the class. Here Ms. Lopez was positioning Tony as a tiring, draining, and domineering student to her and as someone she has to make much effort to manage in class. In response, Tony performed his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D 114 identity by not listening to his teacher, and acting as a class clown. This made him even more difficult to handle and was perhaps the reason why Ms. Lopez resisted trying to discipline him or sending him out of class since his subsequent mocking of her lesson undermined her authority. In fact, Ms. Lopez was in a difficult situation, having Tony in the class. On other occasions, I had observed Ms. Lopez frequently trying to negotiate Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation in an attempt to find a balance between encouraging him and making room for other students to participate in the dialogue in class. On the one hand, she stated his Spanish speaking helped the students with their Spanish and so she wanted to encourage him to speak for that reason and also as a way of keeping him involved and interested in the class. On the other hand, he was so dominant, she had to find a way to limit his interaction and sometimes the only way was to ask him to leave. Although he may be an extreme case, SHL students like Tony, then, can be both an asset and a challenge for their teachers. In the final segment of the interaction for that activity, Tony was absent from the class and we can see how much his absence changed the interaction: Excerpt 5.16 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Ms. Lopez: Ms. Lopez: Terry: Cristiano: Student: Katrina: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Ss: S: Ms. Lopez: Cristiano: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Okay, vamos a continuar. {Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s continue.} I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m on number 4. Can you see the questions in the purple box? (1.1) Prefieres un asiento de ventanilla o de pasillo? {Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seat?} xxx Window. Window. What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ventiella? {window (mispronounced)} The window or the seat aisle. (.) Aisle. Aisle xxx Ventanilla. Sshh, ventanilla, \u00C2\u00BFpor qu\u00C3\u00A9? {Window, why?} Window. (0.8) I like to see the view. How do you say that in Spanish? (.) Porque me gusta (1) me gusta ver (.) el paisaje. {Because I like, I like to see the scenery.} El paisaje {the scenery} is the scenery or the landscape. I like to see xx Okay. (1) But what is the advantage \u00E2\u0080\u0093 \u00C2\u00BFpor qu\u00C3\u00A9 es bueno un asiento 115 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 Silvia: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Ms. Lopez: Student: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Marissa: Prince: Ms. Lopez: Cristiano: Ms. Lopez: Student: Student: Ms. Lopez: Katrina: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: Marissa: Ms. Lopez: de pasillo es tambi\u00C3\u00A9n?= {Why is it good to have an aisle seat also?} =Because you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not all stuffed in, you can just [xx [Yeah, you can move around You can say \u00E2\u0080\u009CPuedes levantarte m\u00C3\u00A1s f\u00C3\u00A1cil\u00E2\u0080\u009D. {You can get up easier.} (1.3) You understand that? \u00E2\u0080\u009CPuedes levantarte m\u00C3\u00A1s f\u00C3\u00A1cil\u00E2\u0080\u009D. {You can get up easier.} You can get out. Yeah. N\u00C3\u00BAmero cinco, (1) n\u00C3\u00BAmero cinco. \u00C2\u00BFQu\u00C3\u00A9 necesitas llevar para ser un pasajero? {Number five, number five. What do you need to bring to be a traveler?} (0.9) What does that mean? To come prepared, no? Yeah, xxx \u00C2\u00BFQu\u00C3\u00A9 necesitas llevar para ser un pasajero (.) preparado, sorry, preparado? {What do you need to bring to be a prepared traveler, sorry, prepared?} Visa. When you go to the airport, if you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re prepared for your flight, what do you carry with you? Boleto. {Ticket.} El passport. {The} Boleto. {Ticket.} Pasaporte. {Passport.} Pasaporte. {Passport.} El equipaje. {The luggage.} Equipaje. {Luggage.} La maleta. {The suitcase.} Okay, vamos a \u00E2\u0080\u0093 la otra p\u00C3\u00A1gina, el di\u00C3\u00A1logo. {Let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s go to the next page, the dialogue.} I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m gonna ask you some comprehension questions. In this segment, many more students participated in the discussion and no one dominated, although Marissa had the most student turns overall. Although there was less Spanish spoken than in excerpt 5.13 and 5.14, a tendency Ms. Lopez described in her interview when she said that she was more likely to use Spanish with SHL students than SFL students, there was more negotiation of meaning and SFL students were able to ask questions as well as show their expertise. For example, both Katrina (line 147) and Silvia (line 174) asked about Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions and, significantly, Marissa offered an answer to both (lines 148, 175). In this interaction, then, not only were students able to 116 practice speaking, they could ask questions and answer each other\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions. Unlike when Tony dominated the interaction when, according to Marissa, \u00E2\u0080\u009Che kind makes us look like we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know anything\u00E2\u0080\u009D (excerpt 6.6, lines 5-6), here students, like Marissa, were able to show their expertise. From these four excerpts, we can see the various interaction patterns and positionings of the four SHL students. While he was in class, Tony dominated the interactions, positioning himself as the idealized speaker in the class. Although Ms. Lopez upheld this positioning at first, she later repositioned him as a disruptive student when she asked him to leave the class. Princess also positioned herself as an idealized speaker when she had an extended interaction with Ms. Lopez in excerpt 5.14. This was typical of the first few weeks of Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction in class, before she became more and more silent. Claude was called on and responded to Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question but did not provide an extended response nor was she further questioned by Ms. Lopez as Princess had been, therefore not choosing to position herself as an idealized speaker. Finally, Pat was neither called on nor did she make any comment during the entire interaction, and was therefore not positioned as a language expert nor did she position herself as such. Overall, Tony was the only student who spoke (continuously) without being called on in class, while Princess and Claude responded with, respectively, more and less extended turns to Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions. 5.6 Summary The four SHL students had varying statuses in the class, that depended on several factors. The most important factor seemed to be their performed oral proficiency, which Ms. Lopez equated with their heritage. In other words, Ms. Lopez positioned her SHL students as being orally proficient in Spanish and, for her, their SHL status was dependant upon this skill. Tony, who displayed his oral Spanish knowledge the most, positioned himself and was positioned by Ms. Lopez as an expert and model of the Spanish language. Pat, on the other hand, who was not comfortable speaking Spanish was positioned as not being Hispanic while Terry, a very successful SFL student due to his fluency in Portuguese, was positioned as being \u00E2\u0080\u009Clike a Hispanic.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, whether or not certain SHL students spoke up in class and took on the role of idealized speaker depended on other factors as well. For Princess, the most important factor was her 117 younger age which was made more salient when she was seated with three grade 12 students. Being positioned as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyoung, immature girl\u00E2\u0080\u009D did not allow her to take up the positioning of language expert, in spite of her oral proficiency and confidence in her oral language skills. Claude, on the other hand, expressed feeling intimidated and like she should know everything, as a result of her SHL status. She also resented the disruptions of other students and their effects on the class. This resentment made her reluctant to take a more active role in class. Overall, how the various SHL were viewed and how they participated in class were affected by many linguistic as well as social factors and interaction among those factors. 118 Chapter 6 NEGOTIATING LITERACY PRACTICES: GRAMMAR, TRANSLATION AND SPELLING 6.0 Introduction When it came to literacy skills such as writing, spelling, translation, and grammar, Ms. Lopez did not expect SHL students to be very proficient. When describing their language needs in her interview, she stated that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey need more help with written skills, for verb conjugation and just grammar in general\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/05), and there is plenty of evidence in the research literature that HLLs often have that profile. When discussing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cliteracy,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in this chapter, I will be referring to a rather narrow conception of the term, reduced to the skills described above by Ms. Lopez. In fact, I observed few instances where students were asked to perform more complex literacy tasks in class. Looking at the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 actual abilities in the area of literacy, in the case of Tony and Princess, their literacy skills were indeed quite poor; on the other hand Claude and Pat both had strong literacy skills. However Claude and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise in the area of literacy was not seen by Ms. Lopez as an asset in the class in the same way that orality was. In fact, in certain cases, Ms. Lopez described it as more of a problem. On one hand, Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong literacy skills meant that she often finished her work very quickly and then did not have anything else to do. Ms. Lopez stated many times in her interview that Pat was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbored\u00E2\u0080\u009D in class but did not seem sure about how to address this \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproblem.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Ms. Lopez also did not always like how much help Claude and Pat were giving their classmates with written assignments and it was difficult to see where the line between helping with work and allowing friends to copy was. Such difficulties did not arise with SHL students giving oral help to others, perhaps because writing was a much more high stakes activity since most of students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 marks came from this area of language expertise. 6.1 Tony and Princess: Weak Literacy Skills In our interview Ms. Lopez talked a great deal about the kinds of language skills that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D SHL students usually had. When speaking about grammar ability, she created a kind of dichotomy between the ability to do grammar exercises and the ability to put innate grammar knowledge to use in speech (1/16/06): 119 I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really find Hispanic students an asset when it comes to explaining grammar, other than the fact that they know a lot, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be able to, actually they always, the grammar exercises in the book that they always have to be directed. They\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll always say to me, well, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll always wanna make it more complicated than it really is. They\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll say, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAm I doing this right?\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re doing this right.\u00E2\u0080\u009D They can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t read the instructions and know what to do until you give them an example. So the Hispanic students need more direction and more support when it comes to doing a grammar exercise cause they didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t learn Spanish that way. Whereas the non-native speakers, give them a grammar exercise and they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re so used to doing them but then they can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t apply that into their conversations whereas the Hispanics can apply what they learn, right? They can apply that knowledge of grammar and knowledge of vocabulary, of course they can apply it. So what\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more important, knowing the grammar or being able to apply it? At the beginning of her explanation, it seems that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe fact that they know a lot\u00E2\u0080\u009D was not significant as she quickly glossed over it to go on to explain how SHL students needed much more direction when it came to completing grammar exercises, which, significantly, was also the basis for grading students. 63 However, she went on to point out that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-native speakers \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t apply that into their conversations whereas the Hispanics can apply what they learn.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She ended with a significant question, namely, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSo what\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more important, knowing the grammar or being able to apply it?\u00E2\u0080\u009D In her own class, the answer seemed to be both. When it came to practical oral skills, being able to apply grammar knowledge in expert ways was very important and was the advantage of having SHL students in her class, as described in the previous chapter (see Excerpt 5.2, for example). On the other hand, the knowledge of grammatical metalanguage and the ability to complete isolated grammar exercises also seemed to be important goals in this class. And on this front, both Tony and Princess found themselves lacking. For example, true to how Ms. Lopez described it the quotation above, Princess often asked other students, me or her teacher for explanations of what to do in grammar exercises. Tony needed even more support with extensive explanation, which he would receive from Ms. Lopez and, later on in the year, he also sometimes asked me. However, more often, he chose to copy from Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. 63 See Section 6.3 for a detailed discussion. 120 Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lack of isolated grammar and spelling knowledge was demonstrated to the entire class near the beginning of the year when Ms. Lopez decided to conduct a simple grammar game. She would give the students a verb conjugated in the first person singular in the present tense (e.g., nado \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I swim) and they had to write the infinitive form (nadar \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to swim) on the board. The difficulty in the game was knowing which ending, -ar, -er or \u00E2\u0080\u0093ir, each verb takes since the first person form offers no clue, itself always ending in \u00E2\u0080\u0093o. 64 As this was a review exercise from beginner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish, students generally found the game easy. In fact, Ms. Lopez shared with me after class that one of the purposes of the game was to show the SFL students that they could do well in Spanish (in certain areas even better than the SHL students). Even before it was his turn, Tony continuously exclaimed that he did not understand and even left class briefly to avoid playing. He and Princess were the last two students to participate and did poorly. Tony refused to go up and write anything except for once writing what Cristiano wrongly told him, while Princess made spelling mistakes, such as mixing up \u00E2\u0080\u009Cb\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cv\u00E2\u0080\u009D in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbeber\u00E2\u0080\u009D (to drink). They got three different words before Princess finally wrote one correctly. The whole class was laughing and at one point Silvia exclaimed, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey\u00E2\u0080\u0099re both Spanish and they can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t even xxx.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (10/25/05) Even after the game was finished, Tony continued to exclaim that he did not understand. Unable to ignore his exclamations, Ms. Lopez finally asked Tony if there was \u00E2\u0080\u009Csomeone at home that can help you practice?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which he replied that his mom could. After that Ms. Lopez assigned some grammar exercises to the class and went over to help Tony individually. Because they were going to have a quiz on the present tense verb conjugations, she told him, \u00E2\u0080\u009COkay, ? ang necesitas, para el-, para el Jueves, \u00C2\u00BFno? En dos d\u00C3\u00ADas tienes que memorisar.\u00E2\u0080\u009D {Okay, you only need to for, for Thursday, no? In two days you have to memorize.} To this Tony replied that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYo quiero aprender como hacer las cosas.\u00E2\u0080\u009D {I want to learn how to do the stuff.} (10/25/05) This opposition of Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmemorize\u00E2\u0080\u009D and Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of \u00E2\u0080\u009Clearn\u00E2\u0080\u009D stressed how he did not understand the conjugations and did not simply want to memorize them. On the other hand, Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insistence that he \u00E2\u0080\u009Conly [needed] \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 to memorize\u00E2\u0080\u009D them, he seemed to feel, 64 Each Spanish verb ends with one these three endings, which must be memorized because the ending affects how the verb is conjugated in different persons/tenses. E.g., t\u00C3\u00BA nadas {you swim} (from the verb nadar) but t\u00C3\u00BA comes {you eat} (from the verb comer) 121 positioned him as a student who would have perhaps have trouble understanding the material and should therefore simply memorize it. This positioning could be the result of Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expectation that SHL students have difficulties with grammar and that such difficulties are to be expected. This has important implications since if she felt that their difficulties were \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D she may be less inclined to help them improve in this area of language expertise, an idea implicit in her interaction with Tony during and after the grammar game. Tony and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s difficulties with grammar and spelling, however, did not alter their positioning by Ms. Lopez as oral language experts (see Chapter 5). Therefore, while a lack of oral expertise had the potential of positioning Pat as a non-Hispanic, a lack of written expertise did not have the same potential for Tony and Princess. In fact, as seen from various quotations above, this lack of written expertise was congruent with the kinds of expertise that Ms. Lopez expected her SHL students to have. In other words, Ms. Lopez expected her SHL students to lack in written skills and when they did, this reinforced their positioning as SHL learners. The conjugation game left a deep impression on other students in the class, several of whom mentioned the game specifically in their interviews months later. When asked about whether she thought that Tony was good in Spanish, Rose, for example, answered, \u00E2\u0080\u009Che\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good at speaking it but spelling, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s kind of weird \u00E2\u0080\u0093 he doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to spell certain things \u00E2\u0080\u0093 when we were playing a game on the board and he couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t spell most of it. Ha ha.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2/27/06) In Terry\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interview, when I asked him about what he thought of Princess, he explained that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think her speaking skills are really, really good but her grammar is not that good.\u00E2\u0080\u009D I then asked if his assessment was based on having worked with Princess, and he said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CNo, I saw once in the game like, she, the Spanish speaking people couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t write something xx it was a pretty easy word.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked what he thought about that, he told me, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI was surprised that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s it. Like people were like, \u00E2\u0080\u0098You guys speak Spanish and you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to write that? You don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to spell that?\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ha ha.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Terry\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish speaking people\u00E2\u0080\u009D and his subsequent characterization of Pat as having the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csame\u00E2\u0080\u009D abilities as Princess, shows that having seen Princess and Tony struggle with the game, he created a stereotype that SHL students were 122 not good at spelling. This was clearly not the case for Pat or Claude, who were very good at it and who did fine in the game as well. This illustrates interesting positioning with regards to expertise by the SFL students in the class. Unlike Ms. Lopez, these students did not come to class with prior expectations of the kinds of expertise that SHL students have as seen by their reactions during the game as well as Terry\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement about being \u00E2\u0080\u009Csurprised.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, the game created new linguistic profiles for them, namely those of lacking grammar and spelling skills. This was probably because since Tony and Princess were the most vocal SHL students in the class and stood out the most, they were seen as the SHL student archetypes and therefore their demonstrated lack of written expertise had the potential to position some of the other SHL students as lacking those skills. Tony and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s weak literacy skills were seen by Ms. Lopez as being typical of SHL students in general and their struggles, therefore, were not really seen as a problem. On the flip side, Ms. Lopez did not spend much time trying to address their struggles with literacy, and worked with them in similar ways to the ways she helped SFL students. The two students were often frustrated and did not seem to be making much progress. For example, I witnessed Princess asking the spelling of quiero many times in various classes of both myself and Pat. As for Tony, he made infrequent efforts to improve his literacy skills. Rather than only focussing on the strengths they brought to class, namely their oral proficiency, it would also be important for their teacher to work on finding ways to encourage their literacy development to a greater extent. 6.2 Pat and Claude: Strong Literacy Skills Unlike Tony and Princess, Pat and Claude did not fit the typical profile of a SHL student in that they both had strong literacy skills. In Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, since she had taken both Spanish 9 and 10, she found both these classes and Spanish 11 very easy and was therefore often bored in class, having quickly finished all her work. This was a challenge for Ms. Lopez who struggled with what to do with Pat. Both Pat and Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s literacy skills were also often sought after by their classmates, particularly their friends. Both willingly helped their friends but differed in the amount of help they gave. Pat often let her friends simply copy her work while Claude was more likely to answer questions and proofread her friends\u00E2\u0080\u0099 work. When they helped their friends, it was sometimes objected 123 to by Ms. Lopez, since writing was a high stakes activity which carried most of the marks in the class. 65 Her reaction, however, differed based on which students copied which, namely, she was less likely to object to students copying Pat for reasons developed below. Overall, Pat and Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s skills in the area of grammar and writing were not always seen in the same positive light as Tony and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s speaking skills were. For Pat, the reason for her strong literacy skills and metalinguistic knowledge was a combination of being exposed to the language from birth as well as having enrolled in the typical SFL course sequence of Spanish 9, 10 and 11. Pat was not only a talented Spanish language learner but also a very motivated one. In our interview, she described her language learning in relation to school and home: Excerpt 6.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Klara: Pat: Klara: Pat: Klara: Pat: Klara: Pat: Klara: Pat: Klara: Pat: And you haven\u00E2\u0080\u0099t taken Spanish before this one? No, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve taken it in, let me think, grade 9, 10 and 11. Oh, you have? And when I was a little kid, I used to take classes but they were stupid, they didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t help, like. Spanish class for me doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really help, I learn some things but, and I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know (1) but I just continued with this, with the grade because x So when you were a kid, did you take those ones on the weekend like, in the Hispanic, the Spanish cultural \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Yeah, it was like when I was in grade 4, something like that, my mom signed me up for these classes but then they were stupid, like it was just vocabulary and I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, it was stupid. ((laughs)) Weekend classes. Yeah. So if you took Spanish 9 and 10 wasn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t that like really boring for you? Spanish class has always been boring for me cause even though I like to learn things, I, like almost all that I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve learned from Spanish class, like there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a lot of things that I knew from before, but like all the con-, like exactly how to conjugate it and a lot of vocabulary, but for me, like, I learn it so quickly that I just need to see it once and go over it once and I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t need, like five classes on how to conjugate something. So why didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you transfer, like why didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you just take Spanish 11 when you were in grade 9? I never, cause I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t, cause like there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s things that I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know yet, there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s always things that I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know yet, so then I couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have passed that without knowing, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just that she spends so much time going over it that, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boring. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s repetition, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not really that I know the stuff, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s repetition. 65 See Section 6.3 for a detailed discussion. 124 29 Klara: Right, okay. Before this excerpt, I had been discussing with Pat which, if any, Spanish classes her Hispanic friends had taken. I then asked her if this was her first Spanish class, which is what I had thought. However, Pat explained that not only did she take it previously in grades 9 and 10 (line 2) but that she had also taken it as a child in weekend heritage language classes (lines 4, 10-11, 14). She did not like the heritage classes, calling them \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstupid\u00E2\u0080\u009D several times (4-5 and 10-12). As for the high school classes, she explained that \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish class has always been boring for me\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 16) because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthere\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a lot of things that I knew from before\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 17-18) and \u00E2\u0080\u009CI learn it so quickly that I just need to see it once and go over it once and I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t need, like five classes on how to conjugate something\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 19-21). When I then asked her why she did not take a higher level class, she explained that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthere\u00E2\u0080\u0099s always things that I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know yet\u00E2\u0080\u009D but, at the same time she complained again that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just that she spends so much time going over it that, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boring. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s repetition.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 24-27) This interview segment provides further insight into Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language expertise and positioning. In it she admitted that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthere\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a lot of things that I knew from before\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 17-18), positioning herself as a SHL learner who was exposed to the language in the home and learned in that way. This exposure also increased her ability to \u00E2\u0080\u009Clearn it so quickly that I just need to see it once\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 20). However, she also saw that she lacked certain knowledge such as \u00E2\u0080\u009Chow to conjugate it and a lot of vocabulary\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 19) and explained that she took Spanish 9 and 10 because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthere\u00E2\u0080\u0099s always things that I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know yet\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 25). This showed that Pat was very motivated to improve her Spanish, even taking classes in which she was bored most of the time in order to learn the literacy skills that she had lacked. In fact, she had even taken night school Spanish in term 1, although she dropped out because the level she signed up for was too easy. In her interview she shared her intention to sign up for the highest level that January. Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s seemingly insatiable desire for taking Spanish classes seems a little strange given the fact that \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish class has always been boring\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 16) for her. Perhaps the reason behind taking all those courses is actually a lack of confidence in her Spanish abilities, or even an overcompensation for her fear of speaking Spanish. In fact, by taking more courses, Pat did not seem to be increasing her speaking confidence in any way. In class, Ms. 125 Lopez once showed Pat some brochures for study abroad, which Pat seemed very interested in. This, rather than more courses, would, very likely, provide many more opportunities to gain confidence in her ability to speak the language. Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statements about the ease with which she acquired new knowledge in Spanish was corroborated by what I observed in class. For one thing, Pat invariably finished her work first in class, so fast that it often elicited comments from her classmates. One time, she finished a textbook exercise in about one minute, just as Ms. Lopez finished explaining it to the class. When her friend, Katrina saw, she asked incredulously, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou actually finished?\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which Pat replied, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI did it as soon as she started talking about it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (10/3/05) This also speaks to Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s rapid comprehension of grammar exercises, in contrast to Tony and Princess, who, as described above, needed a lot of explanation to complete the exercises. Pat was also very sought-after for her abilities by her friends and certain other classmates. She often explained activities and grammar to them and they also often copied her work. On February 2, Ms. Lopez did a final rearrangement of the seating plan, with Janet, Tony and Kimiko being seated with Pat (who was absent that day) (see Figure 6.1, below, for an illustration): 126 Figure 6.1: Seating Plan 4 66 (February 2) In the following excerpt, her new tablemates discuss Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise as they set about completing a task (2/2/06-TR3): Excerpt 6.2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Janet: Tony: Kimiko: Tony: Kimiko: Janet: Tony: Janet: Tony: Janet: Okay, Tony (2.1) What does this mean? For what? How do you do it? ((Janet laughs)) (1.8) That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why we need [Pat here. [Where\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Pat? I know. She knows the xx of the group. No, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like really fast. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know Spanish. No (.) Pat. She thinks \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Pat is here? 66 See Chapter 4, Section 4.2, Figure 4.3, for a comparison with the previous seating plan. Grade 12 students are in bold. Students making up the two popular groups are in italics. SHL students are underlined. 127 12 13 14 15 Tony: Kimiko: Janet: Tony: No, (.) yeah [she xx [Pat sits here. Nice. She does the work so fast, man. Xxx In this extract, Janet and Kimiko were asking Tony how to do an assigned exercise (lines 1 and 3) but instead of answering, Tony remarked, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why we need Pat here,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in other words to help them with it (line 5). Janet then commented about Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge (line 7) while Tony commented twice about how fast she worked (lines 8 and 15). And when Janet found out that Pat was to sit at their table, she called it \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnice\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 14). In this interaction, then, her tablemates positioned Pat as a very smart student who it was good to have around for help. Much like her tablemates above, Ms. Lopez readily recognized Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s abilities. Pat and her abilities, however, did not readily come up when Ms. Lopez talked about Hispanic students in the class. In our first interview, Ms. Lopez grouped Princess, Tony and Claude together when she discussed their language abilities, saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwith kids like Princesa and Antonio, with Claude, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s half-Hispanic, they want to learn to read and write Spanish so they benefit from doing the grammar exercises and they love the conversational part\u00E2\u0080\u009D (12/8/05). This was in response to my question about the advantages and disadvantages of having Hispanic students in the class. Pat was not mentioned by Ms. Lopez at all until near the end of the interview when I asked her if she sometimes had Hispanic students who were at a \u00E2\u0080\u009Chigher level\u00E2\u0080\u009D and what she did to challenge them. Ms. Lopez then replied that Pat Ruiz was like that and that she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgetting a hundred percent.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She further elaborated, saying: I will encourage her to \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I was supposed to give her some books to read. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s nice to just provide them with a novel to read so they can pull out and read the book when they finish their work. Some teachers try and get them to do presentations and research on \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyour country\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the class. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do that. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099d rather just say to them \u00E2\u0080\u009Chere\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a novel that I think you might be interested in reading and it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D or encourage them to go to the library \u00E2\u0080\u0093 they know what they like to read, they can get Spanish version of what they like to read. It might be a novel that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s at a younger level. I also told Pat, she could read in the textbook \u00E2\u0080\u0093 there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lots to read \u00E2\u0080\u0093 or work ahead in the textbook if you want. She was very bored up until now, but the preterit tense, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s enjoying learning that. Finally it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s new stuff. (12/8/05) 128 In her comments, Ms. Lopez recognized not only Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s abilities, which led to her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgetting a hundred percent\u00E2\u0080\u009D but also that she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwas very bored up until now,\u00E2\u0080\u009D much as Pat herself described in her own interview. Ms. Lopez described how she resisted giving Pat or others like her projects such as presentations on their country. Although she did not elaborate on why she did not give such projects, her comments in her second interview gave a possible explanation. During that interview, I asked her if she thought that SHL students could be resources for culture teaching. She answered that she had never had much success with that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbecause they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t necessarily know a lot about their country or they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to share.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Talmy (2004) also made a strong case against asking students to do such projects, which served to position them as exotic and stereotyped foreigners, whose heritage was to be displayed for others. Although the students in his study were Generation 1.5 English language learners, in some ways, these were quite similar to those SHL students who were born in their country of heritage. In fact, Claude could be seen as a Generation 1.5 student, having moved to Canada at the age of 10. Different factors such as length of time in Canada, how much their families talked to them about their country of heritage, how much contact they had with other local members of the heritage community, and whether or how often they visited the country would affect how much they knew about it. Whether or not they wanted to share their knowledge with others was no doubt also a complex issue, related to how much they saw and wanted to been as representatives of it. As for Ms. Lopez, she stated that she preferred to have SHL students read material that they were interested in when they were finished their work. Researchers (e.g., Chang & Krashen, 1997; Kim & Krashen, 1998; Krashen, 2004; McQuillan & Krashen, 2007) have found that in the area of first, second and foreign language development, free voluntary reading (sustained silent reading) has led to improved vocabulary acquisition and writing as well as gains in other areas of literacy. In fact, Lee (2005) found that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfree voluntary reading was the only significant predictor of writing performance\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 335). Cho and Choi (2008) also found that students who regularly engaged in free voluntary reading and read-alouds additionally showed greater enjoyment of and lower anxiety toward language learning. In the area of HL education, Romero (2000) found that teachers of HL students in the ACTFL/Hunter College Project (Webb 129 & Miller, 2000) often used literature from HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own backgrounds and works dealing with issues such as migration and conflict, which their students faced. This led to students making a greater connection to the literature and more contribution to class discussion. Reading can therefore make a significant contribution to both academic and affective factors for language students of all types. Although Ms. Lopez spoke about using free reading for students like Pat, I only observed her doing it one time. Early in the year, when Pat finished her work, Ms. Lopez came over to encourage her to read a magazine called \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanglish\u00E2\u0080\u009D and the following interaction took place (10/03/05): Excerpt 6.3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Okay, I think that it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s time for you to do some reading. Open up that Spanglish magazine. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t wanna read. ((in whiny voice)) xxx How else are you gonna keep from getting bored (.) now? What else would you like to do? Xxx Have you seen this xxx. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s very interesting. Xxx magazine. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s called Spanglish.= Oh, okay. =It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s all about the events in xxx (It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s written) in Spanish and English. Xxx So you might find this interesting. All right. Although at first Pat resisted reading the magazine, prompting Ms. Lopez to encourage her a great deal to read it as well as describing its positive characteristics, such as its interesting content and the fact that it was bilingual, she later read it for a significant amount of time, even laughing at the content to herself and then showing it to her friend, Katrina. Having Pat read, then, seemed to work well, at least on that occasion. In our second interview, Ms. Lopez once again made several general statements about the SHL students and two times referred to them not being bored in class. Answering my question about SHL student participation, Ms. Lopez said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDo heritage students participate more? Depends. Antonio \u00E2\u0080\u0093 you can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t get him to stop participating. Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s great. This year all the Hispanic students participate at a good level. They don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t seem bored\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06). Much like in the segment above, Pat is not only omitted but the description of \u00E2\u0080\u009C[participating] at a good level\u00E2\u0080\u009D, like \u00E2\u0080\u009C[loving] the conversation part\u00E2\u0080\u009D does not fit her interactions in class. Later, Ms. Lopez also stated that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t think my 130 Hispanic kids are bored \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t try to give them extra work.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, in another part of the interview, when Ms. Lopez mentioned Pat specifically, she admitted that Pat \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgets her work done really quick and then wants something else to do or else she starts talking \u00E2\u0080\u0093 she needs to be challenged more.\u00E2\u0080\u009D At that point, she did not elaborate but further in the interview, in the context of sharing her views on the Spanish abilities of different students in the class, Ms. Lopez said of Pat: Pat will do well no matter what. She really wants to learn something new \u00E2\u0080\u0093 she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like a sponge. She was so happy to learn about \u00E2\u0080\u009Cy\u00E2\u0080\u009D changing to an \u00E2\u0080\u009Ce\u00E2\u0080\u009D [in front of a word beginning with \u00E2\u0080\u009Ci/y\u00E2\u0080\u009D]. You really need to feed her stuff because she has a lot of potential to get bored. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to stimulate her, I think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099d be good to bring her stuff to read, like comics \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I gotta find out what she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interested in and bring it; so it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s fun and doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t seem like work. In this and the previous segment, Ms. Lopez presented Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to do her work quickly and get bored as a problem for her teacher. In fact, she shared that she did not really know what to do with her. Here Ms. Lopez once again referred to the idea of bringing material for Pat to read and wanting to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfind out what she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interested in and bring it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Perhaps finding out what Pat was interested in, remembering to and finding the time to find and bring it was just one extra that a busy teacher did not have time to do. However, if she was able to amass various materials in the class and have them ready to give to students, this idea might well have worked very well for students like Pat. It would also likely be an effective activity for SHL students for those with low literacy skills who would be more likely to read if they found something that they were very interested in reading. As for Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s literacy skills, in contrast to how she viewed the other SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 oral abilities as an asset, Ms. Lopez did not speak to or show by her actions in class that she saw these as a benefit and something that she could share with her classmates. Rather, this talent was presented as a challenge for Ms. Lopez to find ways of keeping Pat from getting bored. There was also another \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproblem\u00E2\u0080\u009D with Pat and also Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s excellent literacy skills. That was the issue of allowing their friends to copy their work. Although they both helped their classmates with their written work in different way and often answered their classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 questions or proofread their work, in Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, particularly, there was also a tendency on the part of her friends, Kimiko, Katrina and Tony, to simply copy her 131 work. Ms. Lopez did not often address this issue with these students, although once she talked to Pat during class, with her friends present, about how letting them copy was not being fair to herself. However, since her friends were there, Pat did not respond very much to Ms. Lopez but rather defended her friends. At the same time, Pat did make several statements to Tony to the effect that he only talked to her in class to copy her work and that he was using her. Although said in a joking fashion, these statements probably had a basis in how Pat felt about his copying. Claude, on the other hand, was not seen allowing her friends to copy her work. Perhaps she felt that this was wrong or perhaps they never asked to copy her work. Unlike Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends, many of Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends were good students and did not need to copy her. However, her close friend, Rose, 67 did struggle with her Spanish and received a lot of help from Claude. In our interview, Rose was talking about how she resented the preppy girl group for being loud and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cirritating.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She then begins to talk about how she thinks Ms. Lopez favours them because she lets them copy Pat, while penalizing her for the help she received from Claude on one essay assignment (2/27/06): Excerpt 6.4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: So what do you think of their group in general? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, like I think the teacher favours them more, cause every time I want help for my Spanish stuff, she completely ignores and goes to wherever it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like loud and she can talk to them and stuff and like get along with them. So then I usually go to Claude for her help and yeah, the teacher always thinks I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m copying from her but I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m just asking her questions. Oh, really, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s actually told you that you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re copying from Claude? Okay, um, the artist project, I wasn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t here and she told me to come ask her for the vocabulary but then I wasn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t here so I sent it to Claude so she can proofread it but then and then I handed it in and Ms. Lopez is like, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, it looks like a Spanish person wrote it cause it has Spanish errors, common errors.\u00E2\u0080\u009D And I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to spell most of the words so I asked her and she deducted a mark cause I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t ask her for help but I asked Claude for help. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t see how that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s fair. And is that why she was asking Claude= Yeah =what is this and what is this and Yeah. Oh, cause I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t get that. I thought like why is she doing that? Okay. So she told you that she thought you got help from Claude. 67 Rose was an athletic and not very academically inclined 2 nd generation Chinese-Canadian. 132 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: Klara: Rose: No, she thought Claude wrote it for me. And you told her you were just trying to get some help cause you weren\u00E2\u0080\u0099t there. Yeah. So why do you think she does that cause it seems a lot of people copy Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. Yeah, I saw that \u00E2\u0080\u0093 they just pass around the paper. ((we both laugh)) So do you think she doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t notice that or she has a different standard for them and you? Yeah, she just lets it go on \u00E2\u0080\u0093 even though if she catches them, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like \u00E2\u0080\u009CGirls, don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t copy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D And then she hands it back to the owner but then they just pass it back to each other. And then when I go over to where Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sitting and go and sit next to her and like start asking her what this means, she says \u00E2\u0080\u009CGo back to your seat.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Or \u00E2\u0080\u009CDon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t copy her.\u00E2\u0080\u009D So why do you think she treats them differently? It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cause she can talk to them. They\u00E2\u0080\u0099re more involved in the class, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re more (1.2) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re just (2.3) What do you mean they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re more involved in the class? I think they kind of suck up to her and like compliment her and such like that even though they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like what they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re doing but they compliment her and say \u00E2\u0080\u009COh, this is a great idea.\u00E2\u0080\u009D And like you can see them saying \u00E2\u0080\u009COh, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t wanna do this.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In this excerpt, Rose described how she did not get enough help with Spanish from Ms. Lopez because Ms. Lopez generally spent more time with the preppy girls and grade 12 groups, the loudest groups in the class. In my observations, I noticed that other students often had their hands up for a long time while Ms. Lopez was with those groups and did not notice them. When she did notice and help them, she often quickly went back to one of the louder groups. This was probably due to a number of factors, such as that they called her attention more often and louder, that she wanted to keep them on task, but also, at other times, I noticed and she corroborated that she simply enjoyed talking to them (see also Chapter 4, Section 4.1, for more details). As a result of paying more attention to those groups, Rose felt that she was not getting enough help from Ms. Lopez and would go to Claude for help. From Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s point of view she was simply \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgetting help\u00E2\u0080\u009D from Claude and \u00E2\u0080\u009Casking her questions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 5-7). According to Rose, however, Ms. Lopez thought that Rose was copying off Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work (lines 5-6). In my observations, I never saw Claude giving any student, including Rose, her work to copy. She would, however, proofread her friends\u00E2\u0080\u0099 work. 133 In our interview, Rose then related how for a project in which each student had to write a short composition on a Hispanic artist, she was absent and decided to get help from Claude because she was not able to get help from Ms. Lopez. In this case, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s help was in the form of proofreading and one could speculate that she made many changes to Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s composition. Ms. Lopez then found spelling errors in the composition consistent with those SHL students would make and deducted a mark from Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work, stating, according to Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s recollection, that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit looks like a Spanish person wrote it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 9-15). In our interview, Rose insisted that she wrote the work herself but that Claude helped her (with proofreading) (lines 14-5, 22). When students receive help from SHL students who are strong in literacy, it is often a dilemma for their teachers. That is because it is not clear how much correction or help the SHL student gave. Because marks are involved, teachers, like Ms. Lopez, may be less pleased and supportive of SHL students giving this kind of help. With speaking help, however, they may be much more encouraging since this gives the SFL students practice speaking and the activity is not as high stakes. When I was conducting this interview, I was not aware that this had happened to Rose and it clarified what I had observed in class when Ms. Lopez was asking Rose and Claude the meaning of some words from Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s composition, presumably to see who knew those words and who did not and therefore who was the true author of the work. I clarify that was indeed what I witnessed in lines 16-21. As Rose related the incident, I was struck by the fact that students often copied Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work and I also recalled how much help Pat and Tony gave to Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends when they were all working on the artist project in the library (see Section 6.4, Excerpts 6.9 and 6.10). Therefore, in lines 26-27, I introduced the idea that many students copy off Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. Students were generally aware that this copying was common and many mentioned it in their interviews and here, too, Rose corroborated that she had noticed such copying taking place (line 28). When I then asked Rose her opinion about this, she told me that, in her view, Ms. Lopez \u00E2\u0080\u009Cjust lets it go on\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that she does tell them not to do it but then gives them their paper back and they copy again (lines 31-33). As mentioned above, this is what I had also observed in class. Rose then explained how Ms. Lopez behaved differently with her when she told her to \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E2\u0080\u0098Go back to your seat.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Or \u00E2\u0080\u0098Don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t copy her,\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D when she would come to get help 134 from Claude (lines 33-35). In fact, I seldom saw Rose getting help from Claude in class although they were close friends. This was most likely because they were not sitting at the same table and Ms. Lopez did not like students switching seats. However, Ms. Lopez did allow the preppy girls to sit together for most of the year and when Tony, Pat or another students from the two disruptive groups went to his or her friend\u00E2\u0080\u0099s table, she was more likely to tolerate it, perhaps because they were harder to control. This shows that even with the same issue as giving help in the area of literacy, two highly proficient SHL students may be treated differently as a result of other social dynamics in the class and their relationship with their teacher, something which was explored also in Section 4.1. Although I was not able to see how much help Claude gave to Rose when she proofread her work, I did witness Claude proofreading Kelly\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work on the project (1/24/06-TR4): Excerpt 6.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Kelly: Claude: Kelly: Claude: Kelly: Claude: Kelly: Claude: Kelly: Claude: Kelly: Claude: Can you read this? (.) Only the last part cause that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the Spanish part. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t think it makes any sense. ((addressing Claude)) (7.1) Can I write on this? Yeah. (.) Of course! You\u00E2\u0080\u0099re saying Pablo Picasso fui nacido {literally I had been born \u00E2\u0080\u0093 perfect tense, passive voice}, I was born. Xx Fue {he had been} \u00E2\u0080\u0093 or you can be like naci\u00C3\u00B3 {he was born \u00E2\u0080\u0093 preterit tense}. Do you remember we learned naci\u00C3\u00B3? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. Instead of Spain, you should put Espa\u00C3\u00B1a. El fue {He was} or instead of fue {was \u00E2\u0080\u0093 imperfect tense} actually, era {had \u00E2\u0080\u0093 imperfect tense} Which means? Era, was, 15, yeah, \u00C3\u00A9l era quince a\u00C3\u00B1os cuando \u00C3\u00A9l {he was (literally \u00E2\u0080\u009Chad\u00E2\u0080\u009D) fifteen years old when he} ((dictating as writes)) What does that mean xx came? (1.2) Okay. ((gives paper back to Kelly)) When correcting Kelly\u00E2\u0080\u0099s composition, Claude asked if she could write on her paper. As can be seen from what she explained while writing, she made significant changes to her work, even rewriting a whole sentence (line 16). She did not simply correct errors, such fui to fue, but also changed tenses to make the sentence sound 135 better. 68 Moreover, when relying on what sounded right to her, Claude realized that if the class had not learned a tense, she should not be using it. She therefore asked Kelly if the class had learned naci\u00C3\u00B3 (line 10), which Kelly did not know. This shows an awareness of the kind of help that Claude felt she could and should provide without overstepping the boundaries. However, the kind of help she provided was complete correction rather than the kind of help a teacher might give, such as pointing out errors and asking students to try to self-correct them. Therefore, this kind of help might indeed be objectionable to teachers, as was demonstrated in Rose\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case above. In general, Claude was the only SHL student who had lived for a significant amount of time in her country of heritage and received schooling there. She had lived in Mexico until the age of ten, when she immigrated to Canada with her Canadian mother after her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 divorce. Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language abilities, both oral and written, were evident to both her classmates and teacher, though Claude, herself, felt at times that she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforgetting\u00E2\u0080\u009D her Spanish. 69 Many students, both close friends and acquaintances, expressed enjoying working with her or wanting to work with her, due to her excellent Spanish expertise. In our interview, Claude commented about her feelings about students asking her for help in class when I asked her about previous Spanish classes she took (11/28/05): Excerpt 6.6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: So you didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t take 9 or 10, you just took 11? I took grade 10 too. Yeah, when I was in grade 9, I took grade 10 too. How was that? Um, it was interesting, it was okay. Why? A lot of the kids take advantage of it, I guess. What do you mean? A lot of the non-speaking-Spanish people take advantage of it and um, yeah, so. Take advantage of having you in the class? Yeah. So what do they do? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, they always come and ask you questions. They\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be 68 Both fue nacido and naci\u00C3\u00B3 are correct but naci\u00C3\u00B3 or ha nacido [he was born \u00E2\u0080\u0093 present perfect] are better because Spanish does not like to use passive voice. 69 See Chapter 5 for more details. 136 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: your friend if you help them and stuff. ((I laugh)) Oh, yeah, that kind of taking advantage. So you didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like that? No, no. ((little laugh)) And what about in this class Yeah, but they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re people I know so it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not that bad. Also, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re doing better and they understand me now when I speak slowly. We speak in Spanish when we\u00E2\u0080\u0099re fooling around. In the excerpt, Claude talked about disliking the fact that many SFL students asked her for help when she took Spanish 10. She was in grade 9 at the time so was not friends with these students and was younger than them so perhaps she felt a certain intimidation and pressure to help them when they asked her questions. She then reported that the same thing happened in the Spanish 11 class she was in now but that she did not mind as much because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey\u00E2\u0080\u0099re people I know\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey\u00E2\u0080\u0099re doing better and they understand me now when I speak slowly\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 20-21). Claude was therefore expressing the attitude of not minding helping people she knew (and presumably, liked). Pat made similar comments in her interview when I asked about Tony, Kimiko and Katrina copying her work, saying that she let them do it because they were her friends. Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s second point about her classmates understanding her Spanish more brings up an important idea about integrating SHL students. When taking a lower level class such as Spanish 9 or 10, their knowledge level is so much higher than their classmates that they cannot have much of an interaction with them apart from acting like their teacher, which they may not like. As well, in their interviews, Princess and Claude brought up the fact that their friends had taken Spanish 9 and 10 and found it \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctoo easy\u00E2\u0080\u009D and very frustrating. Pat talked about the same experience when taking Spanish 9 and 10 in Excerpt 6.1 above. This too is another reason when SHL students should be placed in higher level classes, such as Spanish 11, although, of course, their lower age must be taken into account when trying to integrate them into the class, as described in Chapter 4 (Section 4.2). Among the SHL students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, Pat and Claude were two who had strong grammar and literacy skills. This was not only \u00E2\u0080\u009Catypical,\u00E2\u0080\u009D according to Ms. Lopez, but also provided some challenges to her. These included boredom on the part of those who finished their work quickly and not knowing what to do with them, as well as the 137 issue of them giving their friends too much help in class. Unlike with oral expertise, strong literacy expertise on the part of SHL students was therefore not always seen in a favourable light in this class. 6.3 Valued Language Expertise and Marks The \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccommunicative-experiential approach\u00E2\u0080\u009D to language teaching advocated by the Spanish 5-12 Integrated Resource Package (IRP) Curriculum Guide of the B.C. Ministry of Education (B.C. Ministry of Education, 2005) privileges real-life communication and the sharing of ideas and downplays the role of grammar instruction: In this approach, the focus of instruction is the purposeful use of language to perform real-life tasks, share ideas, and acquire information. Grammar instruction plays a supportive role only \u00E2\u0080\u0093 to provide useful strategies to facilitate communication and comprehension. (p. 1) It is also specified that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe goal of language learning is performance with language rather than knowledge about the language.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (ibid) Yet, in direct contradiction with the curriculum guide, much of what was valued by the giving of marks in this class and perhaps others in the province, was performance on written tests, often full of grammar and translation exercises, which were artificial, rather than real-life tasks and ones which were based on the knowledge about language. The same was not the case for the Spanish 12 Provincial Examination. Discussing this examination and the skill set it required, Ms. Lopez stated: If I were to have a Spanish 12 class, one of the first things I would do in September is create the exam specifications so that in September you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re already aware of what is gonna be the format of the exam. And then we can work towards practicing our writing. (3.1) This is why traditionally the Spanish students do very well on the exam because they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not necessarily (1.2) when a Spanish student is given a grammar test and has to conjugate verbs they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not necessarily gonna get the right answer because they didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t learn that way, they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t learn by, (.) they learn by listening and speaking so when you give them a topic to write on, they do very well. Whereas if you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re studying Spanish as a second language, you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re often, like myself, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m much better at grammar cause I understand grammar so if you give me a grammar test, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll do well on it. But maybe writing a paragraph would be more challenging for me. So if you are planning to take Spanish 12, the provincial exam will require you to write paragraphs on it. (12/14/05-TR2) 138 Here, Ms. Lopez characterized writing in opposition to grammar exercises as a situation in which SHL students, who are orally fluent, easily composed paragraphs on a topic. She was not, however, talking about the mechanics of writing, which she characterized many times as being a trouble spot for SHL students. In the same way as in the first quotation of Section 6.1, we see grammar being described as a mechanical exercise which FL rather than HL students are good at. Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement that SHL students often do better on the Spanish 12 Provincial Examination because writing authentic language comes more naturally to them, is more in line with the Spanish IRP which emphasizes the testing of authentic language use rather than grammar rules. Unfortunately, this is often the opposite of testing in the class, which is why SHL students often get a much higher mark on their Provincial Examinations than in their classes. In her statements above, Ms. Lopez described a cause and effect relationship between good at \u00E2\u0080\u009Clistening and speaking\u00E2\u0080\u009D and being a good writer (of authentic language). Unfortunately, this \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal-life\u00E2\u0080\u009D writing and speaking were not very valued in the class. Students also noticed this phenomenon. One class, Tony had a discussion about the importance of speaking vs. writing and marks with Silvia 70 (1/24/06-TR10): Excerpt 6.7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Silvia: Cristiano: Silvia: Tony: Silvia: Tony: Tony: Silvia: Tony: Pat: Tony: Silvia: Pat: Tony, what\u00E2\u0080\u0099d you get in this class? Xxx Are you serious? Why, what\u00E2\u0080\u0099d you get? 95. You got 95, I got 74. Put us in El Salvador, who would people talk to? Who would survive? ((Silvia laughs)) (1.5) See I think the marking situation was wrong there somehow. I think I should automatically get 100. (1.8) You have to learn how to spell it too. Why do we need how to spell? \u00E2\u0080\u009CCan I have this? \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Oh, no, spell that first for me.\u00E2\u0080\u009D ((laughs)) That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s true. No one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gonna ask you to spell anything. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s if you live there, no? What if you went to school there, though? Like if you got sent there 70 Silvia was one of the grade 12 popular group who talked constantly in class but who also worked hard to do well in class. 139 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tony: Pat: Cristiano: Tony: Pat: right now to go to university?= I would die. =You\u00E2\u0080\u0099d suck. Who\u00E2\u0080\u0099d wanna go there for university. Yeah, no one would go there. Okay, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m just saying. When Tony found out that Silvia was getting more than 20% more than him in Spanish, he asked her, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPut us in El Salvador, who would people talk to? Who would survive?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 6-7) Here Tony was positioning himself as the idealized speaker, the one that people from El Salvador \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwould talk to\u00E2\u0080\u009D and who could better talk to them. He then suggested that in fact he should get 100% in Spanish (lines 9-10), presumably due to his excellent speaking abilities. With this statement Tony was placing speaking ability as the most important and useful skill in knowing a language. However, though rewarded on many levels such as speaking time in class, being positioned as a language expert and model, and so on, his speaking skills did not translate into high marks. His statement about being better able to speak to people in El Salvador also underscores his ability for \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal-life\u00E2\u0080\u009D communication, something students like Silvia lacked but something valued in the Spanish IRP. Furthermore, the Spanish IRP seems to equally emphasize both oral and written \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal-life\u00E2\u0080\u009D language use since the two skills are often mentioned together in the learning objectives. Yet, while speaking seemed highly valued by someone observing Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, looking at her assessment one could see that writing was valued to a much greater extent. The same is true of Spanish 12 Provincial Examination, which, for practical reasons, tested only reading and writing, in apparent contradiction with the curriculum guide. Likewise, in the interaction above, Silvia suggested that Tony needed to learn spelling as well (line 12) which began a discussion of whether spelling was an important skill or not. Tony argued that it was not necessary, with Pat at first agreeing (line 15) but then suggesting that he would need it if he went to university there (lines 18-19). To this Tony admitted that he \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwould die\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 20) if he went to university there. At this point, Tony was repositioned as a student lacking in necessary writing expertise. Cristiano then suggested that going to university there would not be very desirable, a statement with 140 which Tony quickly agreed, asking \u00E2\u0080\u009Cno one go there.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 23) Cristiano and Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comments about the undesirability of going to university in El Salvador perhaps puts higher education in Spanish and in Latin America as less sought after than higher education at an English-speaking university in North America and shows that even if one is proud of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Hispanic heritage, this may not go as far as wanting to wanting to move to a Hispanic country to study. This interaction also shows that having high literacy skills was indeed an important goal for many students in the class and one which was rewarded by marks. As Ms. Lopez, herself, stated, class was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot just about showing up and speaking.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06) Metalinguistic literacy knowledge, then, was the area of language expertise which had the greatest influence on students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 marks in this class. Moreover, except in the case of the Provincial Examination, grammar exercises were the form that this expertise most frequently took. For these reasons, those students with strong literacy skills and also good metalinguistic knowledge did the best in this class. This was in contradiction with the Spanish curriculum guide which stressed the importance of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpurposeful use of language to perform real-life tasks, share ideas, and acquire information,\u00E2\u0080\u009D namely much more communicative goals. Such a paradox meant that although in appearance those students with excellent oral skills were positioned as language models, those same students were also the ones with the lowest grades in the class. 6.4 Group Work Interaction Examples When it came to working with others, the four SHL students were sought out for different kinds of expertise and their expertise was accepted differently by different group members. Project work was not common in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class; it was also one of the few times that students got to choose who to work with. Although they never worked on any project together, since they generally worked with their closest friends in the class, Pat, Tony and Princess nevertheless asked each other questions, while working on projects with others, when they did not know how to say something. Claude, on the other hand, never had any interactions with the other three SHL students and when she did not know something, she preferred to look it up in the dictionary or ask her teacher. In this section, I explore how the SHL students worked in groups and helped their classmates, particularly during a trivia game group project and an artist project. 141 The trivia game group project was assigned at the end of term one. Students chose groups of three or four students and each student was to come up with two questions about their city. They then translated the questions into Spanish, wrote them on question cards (which Ms. Lopez kept for future years) and brought prizes (candy) on game day to give out to winners. For this project, Tony worked with Cristiano, Janet and Silvia, Pat with Kimiko and Katrina, Claude with Jo Ann, Jiffydam and Rose, and Princess with Honey and Julia. Whereas Tony, Pat and Claude quickly chose their groups, which consisted of their closest friends in class, Princess, who did not have any friends in class, did not at first form a group. In the end, Honey and Julia, who were also friends of Pat, Kimiko and Katrina but could not join their group because it would be too big, asked her to join them. In fact, Princess enjoyed working with Honey and Julia and at the end of class asked me and then Ms. Lopez if she could move to their table since sitting with the grade 12 students made her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cantisocial\u00E2\u0080\u009D (see Chapter 4, Section 4.1 for details). When it came to working with his group, Tony was often off-task. Since it was the end of term 1 and Tony was missing many grammar exercise assignments, he spent most of the class copying Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exercises which had been handed in for marks and returned earlier in the year. He then gave them to Ms. Lopez to mark. During the class, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group and Ms. Lopez called him over to help the group countless times but he actually only came once for about 10 minutes to help them translate a couple of their questions. He also continually insisted that his mother had already written his questions for him and that they were at home. Ms. Lopez scolded Tony for having his mother do his work for him; later on in the class, however, she expressed her doubt to Janet about the questions being completed and in Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s home. At the same time, his group members expressed doubt about the kind of help Tony could give them. For example, once when Janet asked Tony to help them, Cristiano remarked, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHe doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to spell anything,\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which Janet answered, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, but he can tell us what to write.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/22/05-TR12) When finally working with his group, Tony also told them that he couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t write and that he would make up the questions and they would write them. Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lack of expertise in the area of literacy therefore made him less able to contribute to his group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. However, his ability to translate ideas into Spanish was still an asset. 142 In spite of his ease and confidence in whole-class oral interactions, where he easily expressed his ideas, during group work, when he had to translate into Spanish, he showed a lack of confidence, often asking Ms. Lopez for a second opinion. Translation, then, was a different skill from simply expressing his ideas in Spanish or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthinking\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Spanish. Ms. Lopez talked about Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to ask for her reassurance in our interview, saying (1/16/06): Is Tony lazy or has he never been taught \u00E2\u0080\u0093 is he hiding behind his not knowing? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how he does in his other courses. Many kids ask him vocabulary \u00E2\u0080\u0093 his confidence is building but he always checks with me \u00E2\u0080\u0093 he says, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIs it like this?\u00E2\u0080\u009D and then tells them. One would never have thought of Tony as lacking confidence in Spanish from watching him during whole class interactions, but in a one-on-one or small group setting when he was asked how to translate words or sentences, he demonstrated this lack of confidence and need for confirmation of his translations by Ms. Lopez. Much like Ms. Lopez described above, students often asked Tony for vocabulary, much as they asked the other three SHL students. Tony was also more likely to help others when he was not actually in their group but could wander over, help and leave again. Helping in that way required much less focus and pressure to stay in the group. It was also an opportunity for him to demonstrate his expertise in Spanish without sustained effort that group work required. This kind of help was demonstrated when students were working on an assignment in which they had to describe a Hispanic artist. To give students time to gather research about their artist, one whole class was spent in the school library. Neither Tony nor Pat worked on their project during that class, both preferring to do it at another time. However, they both offered much help to Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friends, Kimiko, Katrina, Honey and Julia, who were all seated together (1/16/06-TR7): Excerpt 6.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kimiko: Honey: Kimiko: Honey: Kimiko: Tony: Kimiko: How do you say \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe painting\u00E2\u0080\u009D? La pintura. Is kept? How do you say \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis kept\u00E2\u0080\u009D? (3.7) Um. Wait. Pat Ruiz? Antonio? How do you say, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis kept\u00E2\u0080\u009D? Is kept, like, Like \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe painting is kept.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 143 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Tony: Kimiko: Tony: Kimiko: Tony: Pat: Tony: Kimiko: Pat: Tony: Pat: Tony: Pat: Tony: \u00E2\u0080\u009Cla pintura est\u00C3\u00A1\u00E2\u0080\u009D {the painting is} um est\u00C3\u00A1? Um hm La pintura est\u00C3\u00A1 guardada. {kept} Guardada? What are you asking for in English? Kept. The painting is kept in the New York museum of modern art. ((Tony leaves to go talk to Ms. Lopez)) Well, to stay, to stay is quedar so (1.6) Cross out the est\u00C3\u00A1 and put la pintura queda, or something. Q u e d a. Something like that. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, that means stays, like is. Yeah. Just go est\u00C3\u00A1. No, like no- La pintura est\u00C3\u00A1 en and just put that No. Yeah, it is. I just asked Ms. Lopez, you dummy. This interaction began with Kimiko asking Honey for her help translating \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe painting is kept.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Honey was able to translate \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe painting\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 2) but when she did not know the translation for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis kept,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Kimiko called Pat and Tony to help her. Tony responded first and offered a literal translation of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis kept\u00E2\u0080\u009D, namely est\u00C3\u00A1 guardada (lines 9 and 13). Pat then asked in line 14 what Tony was translating, showing that she was not paying attention to the previous interaction between Kimiko and Tony. Although the translation was for Kimiko, Tony answered Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question in line 15 before Kimiko got a chance in line 16 to offer a more complete answer. This demonstrates Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in the interaction. Right after, however, Tony left to go ask Ms. Lopez if his translation of the sentence was correct. In the meantime, Pat tried to translate the sentence, using the verb quedar {to remain}, although a more correct form would have been the reflexive form of the verb, quedarse {to stay}. In addition to providing the translation, Pat also spelt the verb she used (line 19), unlike Tony in his interaction earlier. However, this verb is mostly used for living things so her translation is not the best either. Finally, in line 23, Tony came back, telling both girls that the answer should be la pintura est\u00C3\u00A1 {the painting is (located)}, without mentioning that his answer was from Ms. Lopez. Had the two simply accepted this translation, he could have passed it off as his own. However, Pat objected and Tony resorted to defending the answer by telling them that Ms. Lopez had offered it (lines 24-25). This ended the discussion as 144 everyone accepted Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise. Although Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s was probably the best translation, both Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s versions were good attempts. Tony going to ask his teacher gives an example of what she described earlier as his lack of confidence and reliance on her confirmation. The previous interaction also showcases how Tony and Pat were able to help their classmates. In fact, Tony and Pat had complementary types of expertise in Spanish and their contrasting language expertise was sometimes juxtaposed in class. Near the end of the same class, Tony asked Pat for help with his project and they had the following interaction (1/16/06-TR10): Excerpt 6.9 1 2 3 4 Pat: Tony: Pat: You say it in Spanish and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll write it for you. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not better at Spanish than you are, you know that. You can do this faster than I can. You can say it and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll write it. This interaction and others like it show that Pat and Tony both had very good expertise in their respective areas and that they recognized and valued that expertise in themselves and in each other. However both students faced obstacles which kept them from benefiting fully from one another\u00E2\u0080\u0099s respective expertise. Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lack of effort to work and learn from those with greater literacy expertise, like Pat and his teacher, kept him from working with Pat and learning from her. Many times I observed Pat trying to explain something to Tony and him giving up quickly and telling her he did not care and that he just wanted to copy her work, which he did. Other times, when he said he wanted to understand but was not able to focus on what she was saying, Pat would also become frustrated with him and began telling him that she would not help because he was not listening to her (e.g., 10/25/05). As for Pat, her hindrance from benefiting from her interactions with Tony was her reluctance to respond to him in Spanish. Ms. Lopez also recognized that Tony and Pat could benefit from their mutual expertise so she moved Tony near Pat during the second seating plan. When she told Tony about his new seat, she also told him that Pat could help him with grammar and he could help her with speaking. However, Tony was aware of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s reluctance to speak and answered Ms. Lopez that he could not help her since, \u00E2\u0080\u009CShe\u00E2\u0080\u0099s too shy (to speak).\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/10/05-TR3) 145 Pat often stood up for Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise if it was put into question. This allowed Pat to negotiate a language expert identity alongside Tony, since by claiming that he was an expert she showed herself to have enough expertise to judge his. Tony, too, defended his expertise (and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in an earlier example of when she was away), often by choosing to emphasize his excellent oral skills. On several occasions near the beginning of the year, he and I had discussions about his abilities in Spanish in which he stressed the importance of speaking versus writing. Being a teacher myself, although not having that role in this class, I sometimes found it hard not to comment when I saw Tony copying Pat since I felt that he could be learning much more if he made more effort. Tony resented my interference here but perhaps my taking on the position of teacher was one thing which contributed to him asking me for help in a later class, something he had not done before that. At the beginning of this interaction, though inaudible on tape, I made a comment to Tony that he should not be copying Pat and the following discussion ensued (11/8/05-TR14): Excerpt 6.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Klara: Tony: Pat: Tony: Klara: Tony: Tony: Klara: Tony: Klara: Pat: Klara: Tony: Klara: Tony: Klara: Tony: Tony: Xxx Are you kidding me? He already knows it. (0.8) Xxx top of my head. Really? (1.5) Then why are you copying it? Cause it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s faster. (2.3) Test me. You wanna test my knowledge? I bet you I know more than you. Would you like to speak Spanish with me? I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not talking about speaking. Xxx writing. Xx practice x. Yo hablo muy bien el espa\u00C3\u00B1ol. {I speak Spanish very well.} Yo s\u00C3\u00A9 que hablas muy bien {I know you speak very well}\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I think you\u00E2\u0080\u0099d feel more confidence if you practice more and then you could compare [(your answers) [He is confident with his Spanish. With his writing? Xxx to write but I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t care, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll still pass. Aren\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you here to improve,= No. =not just to pass? No, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m here to pass. (2.1) I can get my mom, she can teach me so good, my mom. 146 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Klara: Tony: Pat: Klara: Tony: Princess: Tony: Xxx Exactly, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to. What if you have to write one day? Yeah. Xxx get a better job. Shit, I can talk Spanish. Does you mom speak English? I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll just call Pat. \u00E2\u0080\u009CPat, how you write this?\u00E2\u0080\u009D In this interaction, both Tony and Pat defended his language expertise. In line 2 Tony answered my comment with \u00E2\u0080\u009CAre you kidding me?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D thereby implying how ridiculous it was for me to question him about copying. Then Pat came to his defence, saying he \u00E2\u0080\u009Calready knows it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 2) which positioned them both as language experts whose expertise and practices I was challenging and made his copying a sign of something else, such as his laziness or ethics, rather than a lack of expertise. Tony then confirmed this with his comment in line 5, with which he implied that his Spanish knowledge came naturally to his head since it was his first language. But I continued to challenge his expertise, asking him why he was copying (line 6) and he told me that it was because it was faster (line 7), again implying that he was able to do the work if he wanted to. When I did not offer a response, Tony took my silence as an indication that he had not convinced me and he then began a more intense and confrontational interaction in which he challenged me to test his Spanish knowledge and made the claim that his knowledge of Spanish was greater than mine. With this comment, Tony put my expertise into question, challenging my positioning of him as one lacking in literacy by positioning me as a non-native speaker who could not challenge a native speaker like himself (lines 9-10). Relying on his oral expertise, he then challenged me to speak Spanish with him to which I replied that I was talking about his writing, not speaking, abilities. Tony, however, continued to stress his strong oral skills, even code-switching into Spanish to emphasize his statement that he spoke very well (line 12). This code-switching once again emphasized his native-like oral expertise and my lack thereof. I concurred with his statement, in Spanish, but continued to talk about (in English) how he should be practicing (his writing) to gain confidence (lines 13-15). Once again, Pat spoke up in Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s support, saying that he was confident (line 16). This too did not distract me from my focus on writing and finally Tony seemed to give up his defence of his abilities, opting instead to make a series of excuses about why he did not need to work on his 147 writing in class. These included that all he wanted to do was pass the course (not improve) (lines 20 and 22), that his mom could help him (line 24), and finally that if he ever needed to write something (as Pat suggested in line 27) he would call Pat to ask her. In this interaction, Tony resisted my positioning of him as a student weak in the area of writing (and one who cheated due a lack of this expertise) by positioning himself as an (oral) language expert, in opposition to myself, and one who cheated simply out of laziness. He mounted a strong defence of his skills and confronted me, positioning himself as more of a Spanish language expert than myself with his challenge, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTest me. You wanna test my knowledge? I bet you I know more than you. Would you like to speak Spanish with me?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 9-10). This and his subsequent code-switch into Spanish were attempts to reposition himself as the expert in opposition to me. From line 18, however, Tony began to concede his difficulties in the area of writing and was therefore repositioned as a struggling student who only cared about passing (lines 18, 20, 22). Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning of Tony in this interaction is equally interesting. Pat was good friends with Tony and clearly valued his oral expertise highly. Her positive comments in lines 3 and 16 about his Spanish knowledge and confidence indicated that she, like Tony himself, was positioning him as a language expert. Once he gave up on that positioning, however, she acknowledged the importance of having writing skills when she asked \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat if you have to write one day?\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 27). After this and another minor disagreement with Tony the following class, I decided to take a step back and not confront Tony and simply observe his interactions with others. A few weeks later, at the end of Term 1, when students had a review period for their last exam of the term, Tony was working hard at learning the grammar. Since Ms. Lopez was coming in and out of class, he began asking me for help. This was the first time we had such an interaction in class and he even called me \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe other teacher\u00E2\u0080\u009D and told Ms. Lopez who was checking everyone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work at the end of class that I had already checked his work. Tony was also proud of the work he was doing that class, telling me proudly, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThis is my first ever doing (work by myself).\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05-TR15) However, about half-way through the class, he began copying Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work again. Ms. Lopez then tried to help him and told him that copying was not allowed but to no avail. 148 Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s skill-set was similar to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s; however, Princess worked harder to improve her spelling and grammar, although she, too, sometimes got frustrated by the work. During the trivia game project, Princess translated her group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions into Spanish by herself after her partners, Honey and Julia, wrote out the questions in English. While translating, she would ask me and Tony for vocabulary and me for help with spelling. The interaction also shows how other students asked Tony and Princess for help with their work and how Tony would give them some help, to the frustration of Cristiano who wanted him to come work with his own group (11/22/05-TR21): Excerpt 6.11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Tony: Princess: Tony: Klara: Kelly: Tony: Kelly: Tony: Kelly: Tony: Kelly: Cristiano: Tony: Kelly: Princess: Kelly: Do you know fireworks? Pardon me? Fireworks? Is it cuetes? {fireworks \u00E2\u0080\u0093 slang term} Fuego artificial? {fireworks} Isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t it cuetes? What? Cuetes? Isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t that how you\u00E2\u0080\u00A6? Oh, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know that one. Tony! (.) Antonio! Fireworks is cuetes, isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t it? ((Tony nods)) How do you spell that, do you know? (2.1) It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s probably c u e t e s. Yeah, probably. (.) And verano {summer}, is that spelled with a v or a b. [V. [Verano v. Thanks. We say b, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s spelled v. Yeah, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s hard to hear. Is there a word for trivia in Spanish. Trivia ((with Spanish accent)) So if you want to say (Burnaby) Trivia? What? (Burnaby) Trivia. I can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t hear you. BURNABY TRIVIA. Tony! Time\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a wasting! I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m doing something. (6.2) Princess? Uh, huh. How do you say Burnaby Trivia? 149 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 ?: Cristiano: Tony: Cristiano: Tony: Princess: Honey: Princess: Klara: Princess: Princess: Xxx We need you to help us. I know the questions, I know the questions. You need to write them. I can make them and write them right now. Trivia de Burnaby. (1.2) Okay, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m almost done. That was quick. ((she laughs)) It took us longer (to write them.) Conciertos, {concerts} is that with an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D or a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cc.\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009CC.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Oh, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cc,\u00E2\u0080\u009D okay. (1.8) Okay, I think that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s good. I had just brought the recorder to Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s table to record her group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction and she took the opportunity to ask me how to say \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfireworks\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Spanish and whether her translation, cuetes, was correct (lines 1 and 3). I had never heard the slang term, cuetes, and offered the more common translation, fuego artificial. However, I was not completely sure of my translation, and therefore presented the term as a question rather than a statement. Princess then did not take up my translation and continued to talk about the term she was familiar with (lines 5 and 7). This could have been due to my uncertainty or because she had not heard the term before. In any case, by not accepting it, she rendered my ability to translate the word and, by extension, my expertise, questionable. Since I was not able to so, she finally asked Tony to confirm that her term was indeed an appropriate one (line 9) to which he nodded (line 10). However, Tony was not able to provide spelling for the term and so did not answer Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inquiry in line 11. After a pause, I deduced how it must have been spelled and spelled it for Princess, thereby legitimizing the term and not insisting on mine. Aside from confirming Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of cuetes, Tony (and I) was also able to tell her that verano {summer} was spelled with a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cv\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 16) and answered Kelly\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question of how to translate trivia into Spanish (line 21). However, he could not understand Kelly when she asked for the translation of \u00E2\u0080\u009CBurnaby trivia,\u00E2\u0080\u009D telling her that he could not hear her in lines 23 and 25, causing her to yell. This caught the attention of Cristiano, who, along with Silvia and Janet, were still waiting for Tony to join them in their group on the other side of the class and work with them. However, Tony told him that he was busy in line 29 and he was in fact, copying Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exercise to hand in for marks. Tony and 150 Cristiano continued their discussion but, although he promised to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwrite [his questions] right now\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 38), he continued to do his own work. As for Kelly, when she did not get her question answered by Tony, she finally decided to ask Princess (line 31 and 33), who gave her the translation in line 39. This excerpt shows us how Princess worked hard with her group, in fact, doing the entire translation by herself, with a little bit of help from me and Tony, and actually doing it very quickly, as Honey pointed out in line 40. When she finished, Princess asked me to check her work and I found quite a few spelling errors, missing accents and untranslated English terms, which I pointed out to her. At that point, she got quite frustrated, complaining about Spanish spelling and saying that she wished she had taken French instead. However, although she found writing difficult, much like Tony, and even complained about it, she nevertheless continued to work hard at learning it. Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, unlike Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, group appeared very happy having her in their group and appreciated her hard work. In the excerpt, we can also see how other students, such as Kelly, would ask Tony and Princess for help with their translations. Princess also had a much more productive working relationship with Pat. When she had the opportunity to sit near Pat during the first seating plan and again in January when she moved to a new seat at a table adjoining Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, 71 she would frequently ask Pat for help with spelling. The two would also discuss vocabulary. Pat and Princess would often be called on by their tablemates to be expert helpers. When they were not sure about something, they would ask one another if their answer was correct. In this way, they served as a sounding board for each other and had a productive relationship. The following interaction took place during the first class in January when, unhappy with their respective seats, 72 Princess and Funk Machine 73 both moved to Rusty\u00E2\u0080\u0099s table (see Figure 4.3 in Chapter 4). Although sitting with Funk Machine and Rusty had not been Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s first choice as she had wanted to sit with Julia and Honey 71 See Chapter 4 for Seating Plans 1 and 3 (Figures 4.1 and 4.3). 72 Princess had felt antisocial and rejected by the grade 12 group she had been sitting with and Funk Machine was not happy sitting with the preppy girls. 73 Recall that Funk Machine was a quiet student who struggled with the work in class and also did not have any good friends in the class. She was particularly unhappy sitting with the preppy girls as they had once been friends in elementary school until their interests, their in clothes and make-up and hers in music, took them their separate ways. 151 with whom she had worked on the trivia game, she soon developed a good rapport with her new tablemates. Rusty and Funk Machine respected Princess for her Spanish expertise and positioned her as an expert, quite unlike the grade 12 students with whom she had previously been seated. This made for a happy group, they, because they received help with their work and Princess, because she was a valued and sought-out expert among them. This phenomenon can be seen in the interaction below (1/4/06- TR12): Excerpt 6.12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Funk Machine: Princess: Funk Machine: Princess: Funk Machine: Rusty: Princess: Rusty: Princess: Rusty: Princess: Rusty: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Rusty: You wanna be my (.) dictionary. Yeah. ((smiling and looking happy)) What is nataci\u00C3\u00B3n. {swimming} Nataci\u00C3\u00B3n? Um, swimming lesson. Oh, pfff. She said that, didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t she. What is this conjugated? What? It says, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFui a la cancha con mi raqueta y vi al campeon de tenis\u00E2\u0080\u009D {I went to the tennis court with my racket and saw the tennis champion.} bla, bla, bla, but we want this in the form of \u00E2\u0080\u009Che\u00E2\u0080\u009D, right? Yeah, so \u00E2\u0080\u009CFue a la cancha con su raqueta y vio al campeon de tenis.\u00E2\u0080\u009D {He\u00E2\u0080\u00A6} Vio? {he saw} Yes. Thanks. And is that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cv\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Ce\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Co\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Ci\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Co\u00E2\u0080\u009D? I think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Ci\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Co\u00E2\u0080\u009D. Pat, is vio spelled \u00E2\u0080\u009Cv\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Ci\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Co\u00E2\u0080\u009D? Vio? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. In this excerpt, we can see that both Funk Machine and Rusty sought out Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expertise, Funk Machine even calling Princess her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdictionary\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 1), a term which positioned her as a Spanish language expert and one which made her smile happily (line 2). Princess was able to answer both Funk Machine\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Rusty\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions with confidence; however, when it came to spelling, she was not quite sure and so asked Pat to confirm it. Similar interactions had Pat confirming her translations with Princess. Pat and Princess, then, had the most productive working relationship from any SHL students in the class, Princess often asking Pat about spelling, while Pat mostly asked Princess to clarify the use of certain words. 152 Their interactions and presence in class also allowed Princess and Pat to negotiate their expertise alongside one another. For example, when students were asked to copy some vocabulary related to the past tense (such as last week, last year, yesterday, etc.) in class, Princess and Pat had the following interaction: Excerpt 6.13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Princess: Are we supposed to write this? (1.3) You don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have to write it. Oh, we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have to write it? Well she said to write it but you already know what it is. Oh, okay. ((laughs)) (1.1) I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not going to write it then. In this interaction, Pat told Princess that she did not have to copy down Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s notes because she already knew the material (lines 3 and 5). This is reminiscent of an earlier interaction between Pat and Ms. Lopez where Ms. Lopez had told her that she did not have to copy certain notes since it was not new for her. By taking on Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statements to her, Pat was not only validating Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge but also her own since she was positioning both of them as being apart from the rest of the class in their ability and therefore not needing to copy down the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s notes. Princess, at first, seemed unsure of whether she should continue to copy or not (line 4), but she decided to follow Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s advice and happily (with laughter) declared that she will not copy the notes (line 6 and 8), her happiness resulting not only from not having to copy notes but also from having her expertise recognized and being positioned as a Spanish expert by Pat. Unlike Tony, Pat and Princess, Claude was the only SHL student who never worked with any other SHL student in the class. There were probably a number of reasons for this. First, she never sat near any of the other SHL students, having been seated at middle table at the back of the class and the rest usually sitting in the front and on the sides. Second, she was not friends with any of them; in fact, with Pat, she had an antagonistic relationship. From her comments and reactions in class, Claude found Tony amusing to listen to in class but they never really had any interactions. As for Princess, Claude was friendly with her older sister who was in the other Spanish 11 class, and might have worked with Princess if they had ever sat closer together but they never did. 153 On the other hand, Princess mentioned a few times that she did not have a good relationship with her sister so Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friendship with her may not have led to the two of them working together. With her SFL classmates, particularly her friends and tablemates, Claude was often a language resource. However, unlike with Pat, Tony and Princess, whose knowledge their classmates often accepted without reservation, Claude had a different working relationship with those around her. It is not that they did not trust her expertise, but some of them, like Jiffydam, were very good students in Spanish (and other subjects) and were not used to accepting others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 expertise. Therefore, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interactions often involved more co-construction of knowledge and the frequent use of dictionaries, as can be seen in the following excerpt from Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work on the trivia game (11/22/05-DAT): Excerpt 6.14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Jo Ann: Jiffydam: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Jo Ann: Jiffydam: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: What is the longest river (.) in B.C.? (3.6) River. (1.5) What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s river? River? Riva. (0.9) Aaahhh. (0.6) Xx in the book, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll say in my book. R\u00C3\u00ADo, r\u00C3\u00ADo. {River, river.} Yeah. (1.3) Alright. (4.8) What about longest? (3.2) Longest? Yeah. Uumm. M\u00C3\u00A1s, (.) m\u00C3\u00A1s, something (.) m\u00C3\u00A1s. {More; -er/-est} How are you using it? The longest river. El (.) m\u00C3\u00A1s largo (.) r\u00C3\u00ADo? {The longest river} (2.4) Largo, \u00C2\u00BFs\u00C3\u00AD? {Long, right?} Alto? {Tall} No, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not alto. \u00C2\u00B0Largo?\u00C2\u00B0 (2.4) \u00C2\u00B0Largo?\u00C2\u00B0 xxx ((looking in dictionary)) (23.3) ((Jo Ann and Rose discuss how to write the cards for the game.)) 154 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: Claude: Jiffydam: ?: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Jiffydam: Jo Ann: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Jiffydam: Jo Ann: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Jo Ann: Claude: Largo \u00E2\u0080\u0093 isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t that like big? Xxx long xx. Big is grande. {big} xxx Largo means big too doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t it? Large? Large. Yeah, like the longest, the largest. (1.8) Wait, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m confusing you now. Wait, no. No, cause long it says is largo. (1.4) Yeah, longest [xx [Okay, fine. You\u00E2\u0080\u0099re confusing me. Because you could say extenso, (1.8) extenso. {extensive} That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s to extend, (.) to like ((motions with hands)) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. (1.2) What\u00E2\u0080\u0099s prolongado? {prolonged} Good question. I know how to use it but I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know how to explain it. (4.3) Xx (like prolong?) (0.9) xx largo So which one, largo or grande? (2.6) Hey, so um, (.) moving on. Okay um, so we\u00E2\u0080\u0099re on, (.) \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat is the longest river in B.C.?\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cu\u00C3\u00A1l es el (.) r\u00C3\u00ADo [m\u00C3\u00A1s {What is the ___est river} [m\u00C3\u00A1s (0.9) Cu\u00C3\u00A1l es {What is} ((dictating as writing)) Cu\u00C3\u00A1l es, yeah, cause it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s talking about one, right. So there should be an s here? (3.5) No. (2.7) El r\u00C3\u00ADo, (2.6) r\u00C3\u00ADo (.) m\u00C3\u00A1s grande {The largest river} \u00E2\u0080\u0093 does r\u00C3\u00ADo have an accent? Yeah. Yeah on the i. R\u00C3\u00ADo m\u00C3\u00A1s grande en BC? {in} Gran:de, yup. (0.9) M\u00C3\u00A1s grande en BC. Yup. In this interaction, Claude and Jiffydam negotiated the translation of their group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat is the longest river in B.C.?\u00E2\u0080\u009D This interaction began much like many 155 others discussed above, with Jiffydam asking her group mates how to translate \u00E2\u0080\u009Criver\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 3) and \u00E2\u0080\u009Clongest\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 15). However, while accepting Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s translation of \u00E2\u0080\u009Criver,\u00E2\u0080\u009D she was reluctant to accept her translation of \u00E2\u0080\u009Clongest\u00E2\u0080\u009D as el m\u00C3\u00A1s largo, opting instead to look in a dictionary (lines 25-6). This began a long and sometimes confusing discussion between Jiffydam and Claude over various similar adjectives in Spanish. At one point, Jiffydam seemed to confuse largo with the false English cognate large (lines 28, 30) and this caused confusion for both girls (lines 29-39). Jiffydam also suggested that \u00E2\u0080\u009Clongest\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Clargest\u00E2\u0080\u009D are close synonyms and could both be used to ask their question (line 32). Even after Jiffydam found the correct translation of largo {long} in the dictionary (line 35), she continued to ask about other, less common adjectives from the dictionary, such as extenso {extensive} and prolongado {prolonged} (lines 40 and 45). Although Claude was not able to offer an exact translation of the words, she tried to convey the meaning of extenso. While asking for the meanings of other vocabulary could provide a learning opportunity for Jiffydam, had Claude been able to translate the words for her, here the additional words served to confuse the issue of what adjective to use in the question, leaving Claude to wonder whether to use largo or grande (line 51). Her question was not answered and then Jo Ann suddenly re-entered the conversation, trying to get her group back on track. In the end, when Claude offered the question translation for Jo Ann, she ended up of using grande instead of her original largo. Although this interaction shows that meaning negotiation can be confusing and even create misunderstandings, one could argue that this kind of interaction also creates the potential for greater language learning. If we compare this interaction to one in which students blindly accept SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 translations, we can see that in those cases, the language learning is probably quite minimal because those students simply write down the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 dictations and move on to the next item. Here, Jiffydam and Claude explored the meanings of various adjectives and even if Jiffydam did not walk away having learned the exact meaning of each, she was nevertheless exposed to more words that she may remember for future use. The interaction also shows how the use of a dictionary can be helpful, especially when there is a SHL student present to ask about nuances of meaning. Students in this class used dictionaries very rarely and such use should be encouraged in order to help them enrich their vocabulary repertoires. In the 156 end, although Jiffydam did not participate much in creating the final translation of the question (although see line 56), she and Jo Ann were able to help Claude with spelling, answering her question about the accent on r\u00C3\u00ADo (lines 64-65). Finally, this interaction shows that students who have a greater knowledge and confidence in Spanish, such as Jiffydam, are able to have more extensive and meaningful interactions with SHL students and that such groupings are beneficial for both the SHL and SFL student. The four SHL students had various strengths and weaknesses which made them more or less helpful to work with. When working in small groups Tony struggled with spelling and even showed a lack of confidence with his Spanish translations, often seeking out Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s confirmations of his translations. He also often helped more those in whose group he was not working than his own group. Princess had similar spelling struggles as Tony but was a very focussed and hard-working group member and others often benefited and enjoyed working with her. The two students strong in literacy, Pat and Claude, were both very helpful group members, ably helping their friends and group mates with translations. However, while Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s group members did not have very strong skills in Spanish and often blindly accepted her suggestions, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questioned and negotiated with her about language use. In fact, Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Jiffydam\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction could be viewed as more of a model of how SHL and SFL students can work together to their mutual benefit. 6.5 Summary When it came to literacy, Ms. Lopez did not expect her SHL students to show much expertise. Therefore, Tony and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lack of such expertise did not take away, in any way, from their positioning as Hispanic students and language experts in the class. In fact, at times, their lack of written expertise and SHL positioning served to position some of the other \u00E2\u0080\u009Cless visible\u00E2\u0080\u009D SHL students as lacking in such expertise as well. For the most part, however, Pat and Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s written expertise was evident to both those who worked with her in class and Ms. Lopez. Yet, this expertise was not always seen in the same positive light as Tony and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s oral expertise. For one thing, particularly Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s excellent literacy skills meant that she was often bored in class and this created the problem of how to challenge her for Ms. Lopez. The amount and kind of help in written activities which Pat and Claude gave to their classmates was also potentially problematic 157 since it was hard to distinguish the difference between help and doing someone work for them. This was a difficulty for those students who struggled and asked their SHL student friends for help. Finally, in this chapter we saw that interaction between SHL students and them and SFL students did not always lead to greater learning for the participants. The most learning took place when both participants of an interaction were willing to work and had skills in at least certain areas which could benefit the group. There was then opportunity for them to fill in gaps in each other\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge and be sounding boards for one another. The use of dictionaries, though not very frequent, served as another tool to help students develop and expand their vocabulary repertoires, particularly when such use was accompanied by the explanations of a SHL student. 158 Chapter 7 HERITAGE, CULTURE AND NATIONALITY 7.0 Introduction By the very definition of who HL students are, typically, in terms of ethnolinguistic background and experience, the home plays an important part in the linguistic and cultural development of HL students. However, the linguistic knowledge which comes from the home may be seen in positive or negative ways. These include negative attitudes toward the language variety and register spoken in the home of HL students. In this class, Ms. Lopez had disagreements with particularly Tony about aspects of his, Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language usage. Aside from their linguistic heritage, various topics related to the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural and national heritages also came up in discussions amongst themselves, as they sorted through their mixed feelings about how they saw themselves as Hispanics. Some of their views were also in contrast with how Ms. Lopez saw them. While Ms. Lopez focussed on Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong affiliation to his heritage, she downplayed Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, although, according to Pat herself, her allegiance to her Hispanic culture was also strong. On the other hand, Ms. Lopez never questioned Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s affiliation, whereas Princess showed ambiguous feelings about being Hispanic due to her awareness of certain negative stereotypes associated with her heritage. 7.1 Bringing Language Resources from the Home According to many definitions of the term HL, including the most frequently used one by Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (2001), SHL students are (normally) exposed to their HL in the home. It is what makes them different from their SFL counterparts. In Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish class, the idea that SHL students had language resources at home that they could draw on for their work in class was a common one. However, these resources were not always characterized in the same way. In this section, I will explore the various ways in which the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language resources were positioned in class and well as the related positioning of the Hispanic home. 7.1.1 The Hispanic Home as a Place of Language Learning On many occasions, either Ms. Lopez or the SHL students themselves made comments about Spanish language learning in their homes, particularly from their mothers. For instance, Ms. Lopez frequently either asked the SHL students if they had 159 someone who could help them at home or told them that they could ask someone in their home. In the grammar game described in Chapter 6, when Tony failed to understand the verb conjugation exercise, Ms. Lopez finally asked him if there was \u00E2\u0080\u009Csomeone at home that can help you practice?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which he replied that his mom could. He made a similar statement when he said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI can get my mom, she can teach me so good, my mom.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In an interaction with me and Pat. 74 When he was supposed to work with the Silvia, Janet and Cristiano on a trivia game, he told them that his mom wrote his two questions for him. On October 31, Princess told Tony and Pat that she had asked her mom about a grammar disagreement that they had had with Ms. Lopez the previous class. Pat also mentioned that she asked her mom things and Ms. Lopez once told Claude to go home and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cask her mom\u00E2\u0080\u009D (11/28/05). The idea that SHL students can (and should) receive Spanish language help at home has certain implications for the Spanish class. On the one hand, it gives SHL students an advantage over their SFL counterparts since only they can go home and ask their native Spanish speaking parents for help. On the other hand, as seen in some of the examples above, it takes some of the onus to instruct SHL students away from their teacher and into the hands of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmom\u00E2\u0080\u009D. 75 This is significant because it positions the SHL students as less in need of instruction in the class whereas some of them, like Tony and Princess, often needed more help in order to improve their literacy skills. After all, if they had been able to obtain these skills at home, they would not be having difficulties with them in the class. Also, it makes the assumption that the parents (\u00E2\u0080\u009Cmoms\u00E2\u0080\u009D) have the metalinguistic knowledge that the SHL children themselves lack but that many native speakers may not have. 7.1.2 The Hispanic Home as a Place of the Uneducated Immigrant While the Hispanic home was often referred to as a place of linguistic knowledge, as described in the previous section, it was also sometimes seen as a place of the uneducated immigrant. In her interview, Ms. Lopez stated that most Hispanics \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t 74 Excerpt 6.10, line 24. 75 It is significant that in all these interactions, both Ms. Lopez and the SHL students only mentioned the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mothers as sources of help with their Spanish. This perhaps draws on the view of the mother as the first educator. On the other hand, in all four cases, the SHL students either lived with their divorced mother or in Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, her mother was the heritage speaker. It was not clear whether Ms. Lopez was aware of this information or not. 160 like writing anything\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Chard to get them to do work.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She then explained that she thought this was cultural because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cif they came here as immigrants \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 they left countries where they were struggling for basic survival needs\u00E2\u0080\u009D and the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cschool system [there] is so laid back compared to here\u00E2\u0080\u009D so \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvery few Hispanics are academically inclined.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 76 Later on in the interview she explained that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cparents of Hispanic children do anything to cover up for their kids \u00E2\u0080\u0093 lie for them, write them notes \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 enable their children.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In her view this was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmaybe because they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re working so hard to survive, school doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t seem that important to them; they can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t see the long-term benefits \u00E2\u0080\u0093 always trying to live for the short-term; just the values don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t seem to be there or the parenting skills are lacking.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06) However as recent research shows (Guardado, 2008), more recent waves of Hispanic immigrants are often much better-educated and affluent professionals. In terms of the actual SHL students in the class, Tony was one who struggled in school. Ms. Lopez and I discussed this several times after class. One time, in term 2, she told me that he was getting a C- and that she thought he was doing so poorly because he was not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cforced\u00E2\u0080\u009D to work hard by his mother and that \u00E2\u0080\u009Che does not get much support for school.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked her to explain what she meant, she said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWell, I imagine, I imagine his mom is a single mom and is not able to keep him under control.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2/16/06- TR12). In another part of our interview, Ms. Lopez also mentioned that SHL students usually need help with their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwork ethic\u00E2\u0080\u009D more than any other area. Again she gave the example of Tony but then went on to talk about the other SHL students in the class, saying: But I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have that problem with most of my Hispanics this year. Like Princesa, Claude, Pat Ruiz, I mean, Terry, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all studious. Princesa keeps a good notebook, she has a good work ethic. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s unusual. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m really enjoying it because of that. But I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve taught in the past where a lot of Hispanic kids needed that extra support. (1/16/06) Even while conceding that the majority of the SHL students that year had a good work ethic, she still called this \u00E2\u0080\u009Cunusual.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This shows that Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (low) expectations were more influential than her actual experience, at least that year. 76 Her assessment of Hispanic males was especially bad (see Chapter 4, Section 4.3). 161 This view of the Hispanic home as that of struggling immigrants who do not support education had an impact on some aspects of the class. Sometimes when SHL students proposed certain vocabulary and especially non-standard grammatical usage, Ms. Lopez viewed this usage as that of uneducated people. One example was related to a vernacular usage common to all three Central American SHL students in the class, namely Pat, Princess and Tony. They all added an extra \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D on the end of the second person singular past tense form (i.e. they said \u00E2\u0080\u009Cescribistes\u00E2\u0080\u009D instead of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cescribiste\u00E2\u0080\u009D {you wrote}). This came up in several classes throughout the year with all three students. In our interview, we discussed this grammatical point and Ms. Lopez mentioned that she had met someone from El Salvador and thought about asking him about it. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThis guy would probably know an answer to a question like that. Someone who\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educated and who\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from the country so they can say, \u00E2\u0080\u0098Yeah, this does exist.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Or \u00E2\u0080\u0098No, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just used by people who aren\u00E2\u0080\u0099t educ-, well-educated.\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (1/16/06) In her statement Ms. Lopez was positioning those who use the non-standard form as people who are not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwell-educated.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In class, a similar idea came up when Tony discussed the usage with Ms. Lopez. (1/10/06-TR8): Excerpt 7.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Klara: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Claude: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Cristiano: Tony: Why can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you say (escribistes)? {you wrote} I need to research that because it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not \u00E2\u0080\u0093 all of, many of my Hispanic students [put \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D on the end of escribistes. Do you know why, (.) Klara? [We put \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D. I, uh Is it [that it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s acceptable? [It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the proper way. ((Claude laughs)) No, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know if it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s an acceptable form because I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve witnessed it for many years from students from El Salvador. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, but I think it would be interesting to look it up. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know if it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s acceptable, escribistes, escribiste or Escribistes. Xxx Escribiste. Escribistes. Trust me. If you look in any grammar book, any grammar book, you \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I would like to research that and find out if it is acceptable. It is acceptable. Tony, you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re wrong. No! My mom says it. She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s xxx 162 22 23 24 25 26 27 Cristiano: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: All right. ((Cristiano and Tony laugh)) I learn off of her knowledge. I know, but, it doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t mean that (1.2) For example, my parents speak a French dialect \u00E2\u0080\u0093 it is not the same as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D French. All Central Americans use \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D. Mexicans are weird. Different \u00E2\u0080\u0093 not weird. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a sad world if everyone spoke the same. In the interaction, Ms. Lopez stated several times that she did not know if the usage was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cacceptable\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that she needed \u00E2\u0080\u009Cto research it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 2, 7, 9-10, 12, 17-18). She also appealed for support for her position from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cany grammar book\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 17), which would give the form without the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Throughout the interaction, Tony argued that the usage was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cacceptable\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 8 and 19). When Cristiano then told him that he was wrong (line 20), he got even more upset, presumably since his closest friend in class was taking Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s side against him, and exclaimed that his mom says it and that he \u00E2\u0080\u009C[learns] off of her knowledge.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 21 and 23) In line 22, Cristiano backed off and accepted his argument about his mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D and then the two laughed together. However, Ms. Lopez was not convinced, and used her own parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 use of a dialect of French, as opposed to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D French to present a parallel example to that of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother speaking a non-standard dialect of Spanish, which was not acceptable. Ms. Lopez mentioned her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s use of a French dialect (Proven\u00C3\u00A7al) several times in class and in our interview, saying that she did not learn the \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D French until she took it in university. This created an interesting parallel between her and Tony, but whereas she felt that her dialect was not acceptable and wanted to learn the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper\u00E2\u0080\u009D way to speak, Tony stated that his way of speaking was proper and acceptable. After Ms. Lopez brought up the example of her family, Tony countered by saying that all Central Americans add the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D, making an appeal to the large numbers of people who speak like him, and stated that that Mexicans are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cweird.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This positioned not only Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ex-husband as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cweird\u00E2\u0080\u009D but also Claude, whose heritage was Mexican as well. Interestingly, Claude was also slightly involved in this interaction, first laughing when Tony asserted that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D version of the verb was the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper way\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 8) and then saying something in line 14, which was unfortunately inaudible. It was therefore not clear how Claude felt about the whole issue, in which Tony indirectly positioned her apart from the other three SHL students who were all Central American and who I had 163 witness all use the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D form in class. Ms. Lopez finished the interaction by saying that \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt would be a sad world if everyone spoke the same.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 27) This statement was ironic since Ms. Lopez herself was advocating that all people should use the standard (\u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D) forms of the languages they speak and socializing her students into ideologies of language purity. This was also one of very few times that Ms. Lopez directly involved me in a class discussion, asking my opinion in lines 3-4. Taken off guard, I did not know how to respond (line 6) but suggested that it would be interesting to \u00E2\u0080\u009Clook up\u00E2\u0080\u009D the information (line 11), appealing, as Ms. Lopez had done when she suggested research and looking in grammar books, to academic sources of information. We were then opposing academic sources of information to real-life ones and making an opposition between our teacher knowledge and that of (certain) native speakers, including Tony, Pat, Princess and their families. As was often the case in interactions between Tony and Ms. Lopez, other students found it hard to get involved or chose not to get involved. Here, for example, Claude unsuccessfully tried to state her point of view but was not loud enough and her statement was not taken up by any of the participants. Noticeably absent were also Pat and Princess, who, on other occasions, made similar uses of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D form and even discussed its use with each other. Perhaps they felt that Tony was arguing his position well and did not need their help or they simply preferred to remain uninvolved or maybe they simply preferred not to get involved in controversial discussions with Ms. Lopez in front of the class. Overall, this interaction shows what a heated topic the use of standard and non- standard varieties of a language is. Many important scholars in the field (Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2001) advocate the teaching of the standard variety of Spanish to SHL students and expanding their bilingual range (their repertoire of different varieties) as an important instructional goal. Others (Villa, 1996, 2002; Woolard, 1998) suggest that certain language varieties become \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D language by accident in history and advocate the acceptance of students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own dialectical differences. Roca (1992), quoting Aparicio (1983, p. 234), for example, stresses that teachers should be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cflexible toward regional linguistic differences, nonimposing of his/her own dialect or mode of speech\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 1). Carreira (2004) proposes 164 that the focus of instruction for those HL learners who already possess a certain proficiency in their language should be, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbuilding linguistic and cultural skills that are consonant with external realities of how the HL is used outside the classroom\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p.20). Furthermore, Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez-Pino (2000) found that SHL and SFL students who were taught about the distinctive features of Southwest Spanish, the Spanish variety spoken in the communities of her institution, found the information very educational and interesting and indicated a strong desire to learn more about this dialect. In the classes, this dialect was presented as a legitimate variety of Spanish rather than a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-standard\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cimproper\u00E2\u0080\u009D way of speaking. In conclusion, it is clear that although Ms. Lopez valued at times the various linguistic contributions of the SHL students and encouraged them to get help with their Spanish at home, she did not always agree with some of their language usage. At those times, she viewed their usage as that of less educated people who spoke the non-standard dialect and who must learn the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper\u00E2\u0080\u009D way of speaking. She also viewed some of them as coming from unsupportive homes where education was not a priority. 7.2 Visibility and Cultural Stereotypes People can and are also often judged on how they look. Miller (2000, 2003) and others have used the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvisible difference\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvisibility\u00E2\u0080\u009D to describe people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assumptions about others based on how they look. In her study, ESL students who looked more like locals were more easily accepted by their mainstream peers than those who were visible minorities. People often have stereotyped views of how a person from a certain country usually looks and when such assumptions are not confirmed by reality, these people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cultural heritage may be called into question. In Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, Tony and Princess were dark-skinned with dark hair while Pat and Claude were fair-skinned with light brown hair. The different SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 looks came up as a topic of discussion among them in class and in some of their interviews. In the first two excerpts in this section, we can see Pat explaining to her classmates that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot all Latin people are dark,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the frequent stereotyped look of a Hispanic person. 165 Excerpt 7.2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Princess: Pat: Princess: Klara: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Princess: Pat: Klara: Princess: Klara: But your mom, does she look Spanish? No. My mom doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t either. My mom\u00E2\u0080\u0099s [x [What exactly is a Spanish look (.) according to you? Like, dark. Yeah, but then again, if you think about it, not all Latin people are. I know. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just like the typical (2) look. My family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like (1) one of my cousins is white, like you,= Um hm. =and she has like lighter eyes probably than you too= Really? =but she has like curly hair and like your clear colour Yeah. And then like most of my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like white and my two grandpas look Caucasian, cause they look really white and then my mom\u00E2\u0080\u0099s white with green eyes too but then because I have black hair I guess I look like the darkest, kind of, so yeah, but the rest of my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s white. My family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s all dark, all my cousins, everything are all dark-skinned. Oh really? Um hm. Isn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t genetics interesting? Yeah, it is. You never know what you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re gonna get. ((Princess and Pat laugh) In this interaction (11/2/05-TR17), Pat and Princess discuss whether their family members \u00E2\u0080\u009Clook Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 1). I ask them to define what they mean by this statement (lines 4-5) and Princess responds that a \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish look\u00E2\u0080\u009D is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdark\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 6). This view positions Princess as having a \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish look\u00E2\u0080\u009D while Pat as not having one. In fact, Princess explicitly describes Pat as not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdark\u00E2\u0080\u009D when she says in line 10 that one of her cousins is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhite, like you.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, Pat points out that there is not just one Hispanic \u00E2\u0080\u009Clook\u00E2\u0080\u009D by saying, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah, but then again, if you think about it, not all Latin people are (dark)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 7) to which Princess answers, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYeah.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Pat then adds that it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical look\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 9). Pat offers a similar explanation to Silvia, who also asks about her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s look. After explaining that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot all (Latin) people are dark\u00E2\u0080\u00A6yeah, a lot of people are like that \u00E2\u0080\u0093 166 light\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 4-5), she goes on to talk in detail about the typical skin tone of people from various Latin American countries (2/10/06-TR25): Excerpt 7.3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Silvia: Pat: Silvia: Pat: Silvia: Pat: Silvia: Pat: Silvia: Pat: Is your mom really dark, Pat? No, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s white. (.) She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like light-skinned. (1.2) She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not my colour, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s darker than I am. You know how I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m like pale? She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not pale. (1.3) Not all people \u00E2\u0080\u0093 not all (Latin) people are dark\u00E2\u0080\u00A6Yeah, a lot of people are like that \u00E2\u0080\u0093 light. People from x are really light. People from Argentina are really light. People from Chile are \u00E2\u0080\u0093 no people from Chile xxx [really dark. [Where\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Honduras? It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in Central America. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s right beside El Salvador. They\u00E2\u0080\u0099re usually dark. And Honduras, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re usually dark but there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s also white ones. I had a friend from Chile. Her name was xx Was she light or dark? Xxx Yeah, people from Chile are either really dark or they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re like white. Like on TV, they have like channels from like all of Latin America and there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s people on there who are like blond hair, blue eyes who are from like Mexico. Really? Yeah. This interaction develops quite differently from the interaction with Princess, above. In the former, Pat and Princess construct the topic of conversation together and build on each other\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statements. In the latter, however, Pat is the one doing most of the talking and, aside from Silvia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s initial question, is the only one talking about skin tone. Silvia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s other statements in the interaction include asking Pat where Honduras is (line 8) and mentioning a friend from Chile (line 11). It is only Pat who gives an (unsolicited) long explanation about the typical colouring of Latin American people. This long explanation could be interpreted as Pat showing Silvia how her own light complexion can be quite typical of a Hispanic person, most likely because she, herself, was self-conscious because of it. The subject of skin colour came up again during my last observation of the class when Ms. Lopez asked me to make a presentation about what I had learned from observing her and the other classes. (3/30/06) At one point in the presentation, I explained how there was no such thing as a typical Hispanic student and that when I began observing their class, I did not know that one of the Hispanic students was in fact 167 Hispanic. Actually, when I had first met with Ms. Lopez she told me who the Hispanic students were but I had not written down any names since I had not yet met with the class to obtain consent. Subsequently, she merely gave me a seating plan and I was observing the classes. I knew Princess and Tony were Hispanic because they readily volunteered Spanish knowledge in class, spoke with a native-like accent and, partly, also because of their darker complexions. I knew Pat was Hispanic because of her interactions with Princess and Tony and because Ms. Lopez had specifically mentioned how one of the SHL students was reluctant to speak in class and it is what I observed from Pat. But I did not know Claude was Hispanic because she was quiet and did not stand out in any way. It was not until November 8 when students were talking about traveling unaccompanied and Claude said that she flew to Mexico every year since the age of 10 that I realized that she was Hispanic. In the interaction that ensued, Cristiano asked who it was that I did not know was Hispanic, which prompted other students to ask as well. I did not want to tell them because I did not want to single anyone out so they began to guess, mostly Pat, although at one point Princess guessed that maybe it was Claude. Pat was getting annoyed and told them to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstop saying [her] name.\u00E2\u0080\u009D To explain further how the interpretation developed, I had mentioned that I had not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnoticed [the Hispanic student] speak\u00E2\u0080\u009D in class, which neither Claude nor Pat did but which was more obvious with Pat who refused to speak at times. Ms. Lopez later made a comment about how if someone were half- Hispanic their last name would not be Hispanic, to which Princess replied, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLike Pat.\u00E2\u0080\u009D It would seem that Ms. Lopez, like most of the class, also thought I had been talking about Pat. After the discussion went on for a while, I finally told them to stop and that they were \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmaking [their] own assumptions\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which Kimiko quietly said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWell, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s kind of obvious.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Pat then whispered to her, \u00E2\u0080\u009C(It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s probably based on) racism \u00E2\u0080\u0093 \u00E2\u0080\u0098She looks White\u00E2\u0080\u0099 or something like that.\u00E2\u0080\u009D So even though students may have used various criteria to guess that it was Pat, her own view was that they were judging her based on how she looked or her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvisibility\u00E2\u0080\u009D and she found this to be racist. Taken together, these class excerpts suggest that Pat was self-conscious about how she looked and that she felt others were judging her as not being Hispanic because of her look. 168 The other SHL student with a lighter skin tone, Claude, had her own experiences of being judged by others, which she shared with me in her interview (11/28/05): Excerpt 7.4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Klara: Claude: Klara: Claude: Klara: Tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself? My name is Claude and I was born in Mexico City and I have a sister named Abigail. And well, my real is not Claude, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Claudette and I have a second name, which is Conchetta, so a very Spanish name. And back in grade 1, in Mexico, I had a very racist teacher, and uh, um I have like blonder hair, lighter skin and stuff and the kids like there weren\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like that and it was also a private Christian school so I guess what happened was the teacher didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t quite like me so she ended up failing me in the end. In grade 1. ((incredulous tone)) Yeah, in grade 1, she ended up failing me and um, um when my dad went to go fight it off, fight with her and stuff, saying you know where\u00E2\u0080\u0099s the proof, she was just trying get money and stuff and she was very racist so I failed and they put me into another private school and so that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s why me and my sister, even though she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a year younger than me, um, goes to the same grade as me. Okay. This excerpt came at the very beginning of our interview. It was very interesting and surprising for me how Claude, right after telling me her name and origin, began talking about racism she experienced in grade 1 in Mexico. The fact that she, without any prompting from me, brought this up when I asked her to tell me about herself speaks to the strong impression and effect that this incident had on her. She described how her grade 1 teacher did not like her because she was not like the other children due to her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cblonder hair\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Clighter skin\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 6), as well as not being Christian, which she alludes to here (line 7) and discusses further a little later in the interview. 77 There, in answer to the question of why she was not attending private school in Canada when she had done so in Mexico, she said: Mainly cause the money, it costs a lot of money and they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all Christian and they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re scared that \u00E2\u0080\u0093 cause I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not really Christian, so they\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll be scared that the same thing will happen even though it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s kind of weird cause they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re more racist there than here.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She further shared that her classmates also discriminated against her and that she \u00E2\u0080\u009Chad no girlfriends.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 77 From her comments, it seemed that her family was not religious. 169 In a setting like Mexico where many people have darker complexions and hair, Claude talked about how she stood out and was not always accepted. She did not mention having any such problems or being judged on her appearance in Canada. Moreover, her statement, above, about there being more racism in Mexico than Canada seems to indicate that she experienced less racism in this country. Claude also seemed more secure about her Hispanic heritage, most likely since she had lived in Mexico for a majority of her life. For example, when Princess guessed that it was Claude that I did not identify as Hispanic in the discussion mentioned above, she did not react in any way or betray any insecurities about being identified as a non-Hispanic. However, Claude remained sensitive to the issue of racism. For example, she told me in her interview that she and Rose both thought Ms. Lopez was racist against Rose because she often did not answer her questions in class or singled her out when her whole table did not do their homework. As for the homework issue, since Rose had the lowest language proficiency from all the students at her table, Ms. Lopez probably felt that she needed to do her homework more than the others. Claude also told me and her table mates in class one time that she thought my study was about racism, though she did not elaborate on the statement. She made this statement at the same time that Tony also felt he was being treated unfairly at school due to racism so this could have been what Claude was referring to, although there was little interaction between the two students (Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s situation will be explored further in this Section). Whereas Tony, Pat and Claude all showed a strong affiliation (cf. Rampton, 1990) to their Hispanic heritages, Princess expressed the most ambiguity about how she felt about being Hispanic and about Hispanic cultural and physical stereotypes. For example, in a classroom exchange Princess had with Cristiano and Pat, she commented that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPortuguese is better than Spanish.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Upon finding out that Cristiano had a Portuguese background. Pat strongly objected to Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement, exclaiming, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t say that!\u00E2\u0080\u009D (10/31/05) 78 I therefore asked Princess about her cultural affiliation in her interview (11/24/05): 78 Another example of Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ambivalence about her cultural heritage will be explored in Section 7.3. 170 Excerpt 7.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: What culture do you identify with the most? Well, I kind of think of myself as Spanish because I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve always been like that and I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll like go to like dinners that are just Spanish people and I won\u00E2\u0080\u0099t care if there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like no people that don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t speak English. But I like it better than \u00E2\u0080\u0093 like for Christmas, for instance, I think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s funner being with my family than with a Canadian family\u00E2\u0086\u0091 just cause I think it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more fun. Cause I did last year, I went \u00E2\u0080\u0093 my friend invited me over for Christmas day because we usually do Christmas Eve and so I went to her house for Christmas Eve and it was, it was totally different from what we do and so I was just \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I liked mine better than hers. But you mentioned before that you have this thing that you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like- I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t ((laughs)). Can you explain it more? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like the people that are like on the computer or the ones that are like, or the girls \u00E2\u0080\u0093 What do you mean \u00E2\u0080\u009Con the computer\u00E2\u0080\u009D? Like, you know, there\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like nexsopia, have you ever been on that? No. Well, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like you have your own account and you could just look at anyone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s profile, like you make it and you put pictures up of yourself and stuff like that and the Spanish people are like, like weird, they all have pictures like all the ghetto, like they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re always straightening their hair and they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all dark and they wear so much make-up. So there are some aspects of your culture that you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like? Yeah. And other aspects that you do like. Yeah, like the kids, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t like, the Spanish kids. Why? Just the ones that are like, like Pat, she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like pretty much, she looks Canadian, but she\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not like those ones, like ooh yeah and stuff like that. You know what I mean? Not really. Just like the girls, are like, I think they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re like, they look like sluts ((Princess laughs)) O:kay:. You know what I mean? So this certain- Yeah, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re some girls that are like that, not all of them but So this certain subculture, youth [subculture] that you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t identify with. [Yeah,] yeah, like that part or like the boys who wear the bandanas or they think they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all like gangster or something, but they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not. 171 In the interview, Princess began by identifying herself with her \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D culture, which she described in terms of certain traditions, such as the way her family celebrated Christmas (lines 2-10). When I then brought up how she had made comments about not liking being \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the past, she went on to describe the aspects of \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D culture she did not like, namely certain ways in which some Hispanic youth portrayed themselves on a youth networking website where they posted their pictures and profiles. She described how she did not like the girls because of how they looked \u00E2\u0080\u009Call dark\u00E2\u0080\u009D and how they adorned themselves with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cso much make-up\u00E2\u0080\u009D and straightened their hair (lines 22-23). In her opinion, this made them look like they were from the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cghetto\u00E2\u0080\u009D and like \u00E2\u0080\u009Csluts\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 22 and 33). She opposed this look with that of Pat, whom she described as a Hispanic, but one who \u00E2\u0080\u009Clooks Canadian,\u00E2\u0080\u009D a look that appealed more to Princess (lines 29-30). For the boys on the website, Princess was less critical, saying merely that they wore \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbandanas\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009C[thought] they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re all like gangster or something, but they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 40-41). Perhaps her negative description of the girls had a lot to do with the fact that she was a girl with a certain ambiguity about her own image. In this interaction, Princess was reacting to a certain stereotype of Hispanic youth. Some of the youth on the website that Princess frequented, in fact, embraced this particular look and way of dressing. None of the female SHL students in this class, nor any of the other Hispanic female students I saw as Ansler High chose to look this way. Yet, Princess was sensitive to this stereotypical look and did not want to be associated with it, seeing the large numbers of Hispanic youth on that particular website (and perhaps in other media) as an indication of the predominance of the stereotype. Tony, on the other hand, seemed to embrace this Hispanic stereotype, namely the bad boy \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgangster\u00E2\u0080\u009D aspect. 79 He would brag about passing without doing any work (see Excerpt 5.5) and discuss the fights he got into in class. He even proudly volunteered information about some of his gang activity to me in our interview. For his pseudonym, he chose \u00E2\u0080\u009CTony Montana,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the Hispanic gangster from the movie Scarface. However, sometimes Tony revealed a different side to himself. In the last few weeks of my observations, Tony was increasingly absent from class. He was not there on my last day in class and I saw him outside as I exited the building. We then had a ten 79 See also Chapter 4, Section 4.3 for a detailed discussion of Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D image. 172 minute talk about his performance at school, his friends, etc. He told me that the reason he frequently changed schools in the past was that, he did \u00E2\u0080\u009Cso much stupid stuff\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that \u00E2\u0080\u009Conce you have a pretty bad rep then you gotta move or else everybody\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gonna start picking on you.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (3/30/06-TR6) He then talked about how that happened at Ansler and that once he had gotten into trouble a few times, he was always blamed for certain incidents that happened even if he was not directly involved. Earlier in the year, when he was suspended for a fight and it took one week, instead of the usual three days, for the school to ask him to come back, he had speculated that it was because of racism. However, on my last day, he no longer seemed to feel this way, instead telling me that the school had told him it had been because of a police investigation into the fight. It seemed that the way Tony behaved in any school was largely determined by what friends he spent time with. When I asked him during out last talk which school he had liked the most, he told me about one where he had had no distractions and all his friends did not skip and he passed all his classes. He proudly told me that he had only gotten suspended one time at that school. His friends were mostly Asian at the school and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbook smart.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When I asked him why he did not hang out with the large Hispanic population in that school, he told me, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not a typical Hispanic person, with the x and the checkered shirt. (.) They do their own thing.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In our interview, his statements about having Hispanic friends were contradictory. Near the beginning of the interview, he told me that his friends were, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHispanic, Italian, Chinese, [and] Vietnamese.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Near the end of the interview, when Tony talked extensively about his friends and some of their gang activities, I brought up whether he spent time with Hispanic friends (in gangs), and he told me, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHispanics are stupid, man, they fight themselves, they fight within each other, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re dumb.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Overall, when describing his friendships and gang affiliations, Tony seemed to be a bit of a chameleon, having friends from many different backgrounds, depending, in part, on which school he was attending. For example, in one school, he had spent time with the Vietnamese students and joined their gang, fighting the Filipino students, this rivalry being well-known in the city. In conclusion, it would seem that Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s identity as a (Hispanic) \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgang member\u00E2\u0080\u009D was a fluid one that changed in different settings, although it was frequently a very visible part of the way he positioned himself and others positioned him, (often along ethnic lines). 173 All the SHL students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class were affected in different ways by various stereotypes of Hispanic people. Pat and Claude expressed feeling judged by others, at different times in their lives, as a result of having a lighter complexion and hair than the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D Hispanic person. Princess, whose darker look would serve to identify her more readily as a Hispanic did not want to be associated with stereotypical views of how she saw certain Hispanic girls portray themselves that made them look \u00E2\u0080\u009Cslutty.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Her resistance to this stereotype affected her affiliation with the Hispanic culture. Finally, Tony, though often identifying with his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D image, did not always embrace it, while his friendships and identification with being Hispanic were also very fluid. 7.3 Displays of National and Cultural Affiliation during Class Activities 7.3.1 Nationality Exercise As many students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish 11 class were either first or second generation Canadian immigrants and a good number came from multi-ethnic families, the question of nationality was not a simple one. So when Ms. Lopez decided to conduct a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnationality exercise\u00E2\u0080\u009D where students were to write down where they were from and their nationality on a chart, things became somewhat complicated. In formulating what it meant to have a certain nationality, Ms. Lopez expressed a nationalist language ideology by equating someone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s country of origin (or inheritance) with the language she speaks (and expertise in that language) and her cultural affiliation. However, the SHL students positioned themselves in different ways when describing their nationality. When introducing the exercise, Ms. Lopez told the class, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCould you give some thought to the question on the board? \u00C2\u00BFDe d\u00C3\u00B3nde eres? [Where are you from?] or \u00C2\u00BFDe d\u00C3\u00B3nde son tus pap\u00C3\u00A1s? [Where are your parents from?] So, if you personally, are from Canada, then I would like you to go back one generation.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In her instructions, Ms. Lopez was constructing nationality as something related to birthplace and generational status. Students were to write down where they were born, if they were born outside of Canada. If they were born in Canada, they were to go back to their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 generation and write that down. This showed that the preference was to be from somewhere else, not to be just a Canadian. This explanation of what to write down seemed simple and clear-cut but students right away began asking questions. Janet asked, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat if your parents are born here?\u00E2\u0080\u009D 174 and Marissa asked, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat if your parents are from two different places?\u00E2\u0080\u009D In an attempt to address these possibilities, Ms. Lopez gave an explanation based on national or cultural affiliation: It depends on how you identify yourself. So, this is an important question. When I grew up, I always identified myself as French and I was really shocked when somebody actually informed me that, sshh, I am not French, I am Canadian, cause I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m born in Canada. (1.2) But I always identified myself as French (.) So, but that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s because my parents were born in France, we spoke French at home, we were very French, I was exposed to a lot of French culture, so my identity was more French. Here Ms. Lopez used herself as an example of the important role cultural or national affiliation, saying that although she was not born in France, she \u00E2\u0080\u009Calways identified [herself] as French.\u00E2\u0080\u009D She went on to equate ethnic identity with (her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099) birthplace, the language she \u00E2\u0080\u009Cspoke\u00E2\u0080\u00A6at home\u00E2\u0080\u009D and the culture which she was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexposed to a lot\u00E2\u0080\u009D growing up. In this way, she presented ethnic identity in line with the nationalist language ideology which equates nationality with language and culture. Even after Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s explanations, students had many questions about what to write down and asked Ms. Lopez as she went around the class helping them. 7.3.1.1. Tony Interestingly, Tony described his heritage differently in front of the class and in private with Ms. Lopez. Even before she was finished giving instructions for the exercise, he asserted, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYo soy de El Salvador. (.) Y mi mam\u00C3\u00A1 es de El Salvador. [I am from El Salvador. And my mom is from El Salvador.]\u00E2\u0080\u009D even before Ms. Lopez was finished giving instructions for the exercise. His use of Spanish here was marked since most of the interaction and Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s instructions were in English, except for her use of the target constructions (Where are you from? I am from) of the exercise. Furthermore, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s other comment in the interaction was also in English. It would seem, therefore, that Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s code-switch into Spanish was meant to underscore his strong affiliation with his heritage. Ms. Lopez responded to Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assertion with, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTambi\u00C3\u00A9n. [also] (.) Yours is easy, mine is easy too, all my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from France,\u00E2\u0080\u009D positioning both herself and Tony as representatives of their respective nationalities. With these comments Tony and Ms. Lopez were positioning people with a strong tie to their (non- 175 Canadian) national heritage as the ideal. This had implications for many other students in the class who were either many generations Canadian or came from mixed families. However, once Ms. Lopez came to his table, Tony suddenly seemed less sure of his heritage, due to his grandfather\u00E2\u0080\u0099s background, and voiced his doubts in a one-on-one interaction with Ms. Lopez: Extract 7.6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tony: Ms Lopez: Tony: Ms Lopez: Tony: Ms Lopez: What happens if you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re like, um (.) your, your parents, your parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 um, my grandpa, (0.9) my grandpa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a different No, just do, you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re Salvadorian, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s how you identify yourself, right? Salvadorian so I would say that. Yo soy salvadore\u00C3\u00B1o y tambi\u00C3\u00A9n mis padres son de El Salvador. {I am Salvadorian and my parents are from El Salvador too.} So, when, on the white paper, you guys are gonna write Sal- you have to write, um, el pa\u00C3\u00ADs {country}, El Salvador and the nationality. Salvadore\u00C3\u00B1o? {Salvadorian?} Sal-va-do-re-\u00C3\u00B1o. {Sal-va-do-ri-an.} In this exchange, Ms. Lopez overlapped Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s turn to quickly reassured him that his heritage was in fact Salvadorian because of his strong affiliation with those roots (lines 3- 4). Tony then code-switched into Spanish to strongly concur with Ms Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099 conclusion, making a similar statement to the one he made in front of the whole class. From this exchange, as well as the previous one, we can see that Tony positioned himself as a proud Salvadorian in front of the class and that Ms. Lopez supported him in that positioning. However, in a private conversation with her, Tony did not demonstrate the same strong self-positioning; Ms. Lopez, on the other hand, maintained her positioning of Tony as a Salvadorian national model. 7.3.1.2. Pat Pat showed a lot of pride in her dual Canadian and Honduran nationality. When I asked her in her interview if she saw herself as Canadian, she replied (11/30/05): Canadian, Canadian, but I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not like, like as Canadian as other people. Like my house has a second language and we have the cultural food. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have any family on my dad\u00E2\u0080\u0099s side because he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s an only child, so I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have any like English or just English-speaking cousins or aunts or anything. All my family is full Latin so I guess, I grew up with that family more and \u00E2\u0080\u0093 but I wouldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t say that I identify more with the Latin culture than the Canadian. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s just part. 176 This echoed other comments Pat made in class in an interaction with Kimiko and Princess in a conversation about pride of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s background. At the end of the conversation, Kimiko said that Pat was \u00E2\u0080\u009Creally proud of her, um, (0.8) family background.\u00E2\u0080\u009D And Pat overlapped \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfamily background\u00E2\u0080\u009D with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmy halfness.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Another example was Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong reaction of \u00E2\u0080\u009CDon\u00E2\u0080\u0099t say that!\u00E2\u0080\u009D to Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s in- class statement that \u00E2\u0080\u009CPortuguese is better than Spanish.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Asked about Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099 comment in our interview, she stated that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, that was just stupid, I thought. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m usually proud of whatever you are, especially cause I am half of what, like half my culture is what she is so it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s like \u00E2\u0080\u0098kay.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Not only did she feel that one should be proud of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s culture, but she also took Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099 comment somewhat personally since they shared their heritage culture. In our interview, when I asked Pat whether she was proud of her mixed heritage, she emphatically answered \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyeah\u00E2\u0080\u009D three times in a row. Yet Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s identification with her Honduran heritage did not seem to be understood by Ms. Lopez. When Pat asked her during the nationality exercise what to write down, they had the following interaction: Extract 7.7 1 2 3 12 13 14 15 16 17 Pat: Ms Lopez: Kimiko: Pat: Ms Lopez: Pat: What do I say cause my dad\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from Canada but my grandma\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, my grandparents were born in Canada too but their parents were like British but it doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really count. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I would probably put, your dad is Canadian, your mom is from where? Chile. Honduras. Well, just say, can you put \u00E2\u0080\u009Chondure\u00C3\u00B1a\u00E2\u0080\u009D {\u00E2\u0080\u009CHonduran\u00E2\u0080\u009D}, cause we need a few different nationalities up there. All right, okay. At the beginning of the interaction, Pat showed that she had more of a question about her father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage than her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, as she began by asking about her dad\u00E2\u0080\u0099s British roots. Concurring with Ms Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099 earlier assumption that the greater the generational gap between someone and their heritage, the less importance it has, she concluded that this fourth generation British background \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdoesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t really count.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Interestingly, she did not ask about her mother, perhaps because she saw her Honduran heritage as unproblematic. Before Ms Lopez had a chance to respond, however, Kimiko entered the conversation with her own questions, which I will not explore here. When 177 Ms. Lopez refocused on Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s question, she, unlike Pat, glossed over her father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage, focussing on her mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s side. For her this was the interesting side of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage since it was the non-Canadian side. Forgetting where Pat was from, she asked her about this. Kimiko came in with an incorrect answer, although she was a very close friend of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s. The fact that both Ms. Lopez and Kimiko did not know Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage points to them not associating her with her Hispanic heritage very much. Ms. Lopez confirmed this by saying that Pat should put Honduran on the sheet, not (like Tony) because she identified with this heritage, but because the class needed \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca few different nationalities up there.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In her interactions with her friends and myself, then, Pat showed her dual cultural and national identity. This is important because SHL students are often positioned in the HL literature as having only a Hispanic heritage and being from a family with two Hispanic parents (but see Hornberger & Wang, 2008). In this study, though two out of the four SHL students were biracial, this did not in any way lessen their pride in their Hispanic heritage. This shows that SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 amount of cultural and national pride cannot be predetermined by the nature of their heritage nor by how well they speak their heritage language (as Ms. Lopez assumed). Rather each SHL student is unique in their abilities and their cultural pride and the two may or may not be related. 7.3.1.3. Princess As described in the previous section, Princess was ambivalent about her affiliation to Hispanic culture due to its association with certain negative stereotypes. When it came time to put her nationality down, Princess, too, wondered what she should put and shared these doubts with me. Extract 7.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: So if it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s country, I was born in Canada so I put Canada, right? Well, I think it depends on where you would say you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re from, do you identify more with being Canadian or being from El Salvador? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know which one, I like both. So:, I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. Ask her if you can write both. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll just say Canadian because, because if you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re born here, um, then you\u00E2\u0080\u0099re Canadian. (5.4) She said she thinks of herself as Italian even though she was born in Canada. 178 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Princess: Klara: Xx Cause, when I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m with like Spanish people, I, all the kids think that they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re Canadian but then when I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m with like English people, then I think I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m (Spanish). So it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s people. Yeah. (1.8) I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. (2.3) I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll just write Canada. Xxx I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t wanna write I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m from El Salvador. No? Why not? Cause. Cause\u00E2\u0086\u0091 ((Princess laughs)) In this excerpt, Princess explored the different meanings of nationality. On the one hand, she saw nationality as something related to one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s birthplace (line 1, 6-7). On the other hand, she conceded that it could also be related to one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099) background(s) (lines 12-13). To elaborate her point, she pointed to the situatedness of this notion and the importance that context played. She pointed out that when she was with \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish people,\u00E2\u0080\u009D she, along with \u00E2\u0080\u009Call the kids\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e. other second generation Hispanics her age 80 ), thought of themselves as \u00E2\u0080\u009CCanadian\u00E2\u0080\u009D, whereas when she was with \u00E2\u0080\u009CEnglish people\u00E2\u0080\u009D, she thought of herself as \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish.\u00E2\u0080\u009D In a way, Princess was pointing out that she generally made a distinction between herself and those surrounding her, contrasting their backgrounds and hers, except in the case of other Hispanic youth in a similar situation to herself. She was therefore showing the hybrid nature of her own national affiliation. Using this logic, Princess should have been more inclined to write \u00E2\u0080\u009CSalvadorian\u00E2\u0080\u009D for this exercise since the majority of her classmates were not Hispanic. However, in the end, she went back to saying she would write that she was from Canada and that she did not want to write that she was from El Salvador. However, she did end up writing that she was from El Salvador. Perhaps this was as a result of Tony putting down \u00E2\u0080\u009CSalvadorian\u00E2\u0080\u009D for his heritage, the spelling of which Princess even helped him with. Since Princess and Tony shared their heritage, their oral language expertise, as well as some aspects of their personalities, such as their outgoing natures, Princess probably looked up to Tony and she, like many other females in the class, liked having his attention. Therefore putting down \u00E2\u0080\u009CSalvadorian\u00E2\u0080\u009D identified her heritage with his. 80 Princess brought up this point again in an informal interview with me when she talked about how she and these other second generation Latino youth always speak to each other in English and use Spanish to quote their parents. 179 From the different classroom interactions and her interview, it is clear that Princess was in the process of sorting out her feelings towards both Canadian and Hispanic cultures and trying to figure out how they fit into her own life. This ambiguity was in stark contrast with how her teacher, Ms. Lopez, viewed her. As described in Chapter 5, Ms. Lopez talked in her interview about how she saw Tony and Princess as Hispanic, due to, for example, their ease in speaking Spanish. In her view, language and culture were closely tied and when one spoke one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage language, they also identified with their heritage culture as well. This showed Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inclination toward the nationalist language ideology. For Ms. Lopez, then, SHL students either idealized speakers and cultural and national representatives or they were neither, and this positioning was dependent on their displayed oral proficiency. This was not how Princess saw herself since she wanted to be positioned as an idealized speaker but did not always identify with her cultural and national heritage. 7.3.2 Hispanic Artist Project When it came to nationalities, the three Central American HL students felt strongly about one nationality they did not want to be stereotyped as, namely Mexican. They described how people who did not know them often assumed they were Mexican, which was seen as a kind of default Hispanic background (in the same way that many Asians are called Chinese). Aside from mentioning this specifically, all three students expressed a desire to do their Hispanic artist project on an artist that was not Mexican. When trying to choose which artist to write about from Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s list, Pat had the following interaction with Ms. Lopez (1/16/06-TR11): Extract 7.9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Pat: Ms. Lopez: Where are they from? Are they all Mexican? There\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll all His- no, they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re not all Mexican. Where are the rest of them from? Pablo Picasso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from Spain, [but lived in France most of his life. [He\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from Mexico. [Mexico [Mexico. He, Salvador Dali is, I can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t remember where he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from now. I think he\u00E2\u0080\u0099s European. [Mexico. [She\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Mexican. These guys are American but they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re of Hispanic descent. But they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re very modern so I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know if you\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll find anything on them in books. Like they\u00E2\u0080\u0099re pretty 180 13 14 Pat: Ms. Lopez: Diego Rivera would have a lot of information. Yes, you will. In this interaction, Pat asked whether all the artists on Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s list were Mexican and then proceeded to name their nationalities along with Ms. Lopez. However, in the end, she choose a Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, because she thought she would find a lot of information about him. In choosing an artist, then, there were several aspects to consider, and the artist\u00E2\u0080\u0099s nationality ended up being a less important criterion than whether she could find enough information. This showed that Pat placed practical considerations highest and Ms. Lopez concurred, not trying, in any way, to persuade Pat to choose a Honduran or Central American artist. Tony also had a conversation about which artist to choose with Ms. Lopez. However, his went quite a bit differently from Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1/16/06-TR14): Extract 7.10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Tony: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: Ms. Lopez: Silvia: This is a chance for you to choose an artist. Why don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t you choose an artist from El Salvador? That painted in the 1900s or the \u00E2\u0080\u0093 that painted in I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know any painters from El Salvador. How would you find out who they are? What year were you born? 88. Okay, can you choose a painter that was um (1.1) at the time when you were born? Like who are the famous that painted in El Salvador after the World War 2? From like 1945 to 1985? I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know. How can I find that? On the internet. You can search \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpainters + El Salvador\u00E2\u0080\u009D because I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have anybody on the list that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s from El Salvador. There\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tons of famous painters. Well, Pablo Picasso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s probably the easiest one xxx But you know what though? This is a chance for you to go back and look at your heritage and choose a painter from your country. You can even ask your parents if they know of anyone. My mom Do you have access to the internet at home? No. Well you can come to the library at lunch and after school. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m lazy. I know, but it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a good chance for you to xxx Bonus marks if you choose someone from El Salvador. Can I get bonus points too? 181 In this conversation, initiated by Ms. Lopez, she encouraged Tony to choose an artist from El Salvador. Not only did she initiate the idea but she insisted strongly, and when Tony tried to say that he could do Pablo Picasso because he was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprobably the easiest one\u00E2\u0080\u009D (line 14) (much as Pat had done when she picked Diego Rivera), Ms. Lopez insisted that this was \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca chance for you to go back and look at your heritage and choose a painter from your country\u00E2\u0080\u009D (lines 15-16). In the end, she even offered Tony bonus marks if he did his project on a Salvadorian artist (line 25). In fact, Ms. Lopez ended up spending most of the period looking on the internet for a Salvadorian artist for Tony. We can see a sharp contrast between Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interaction with Pat and with Tony. Although Pat began by asking which artists were not Mexican, in the end Ms. Lopez happily agreed with her choice to do Diego Rivera, never once encouraging her to choose a Honduran artist. With Tony, however, it was Ms. Lopez who strongly encouraged him to choose a Salvadorian artist and even spent the whole class looking on the internet to find one for him. This could be because, as described previously, Ms. Lopez did not see Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heritage as a strong part of her identity while she felt that Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s was. Perhaps she also thought that by doing an artist from his background, he would become more interested in the project and would therefore be more likely to complete the assignment; hence it was her way of encouraging a student who was not doing well in class. Finally, Princess also expressed a desire to do her project on a Salvadorian artist. Initially, she rejected different Mexican artists commenting to Funk Machine, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIs there another one that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not Spanish or Mexican? I want to do the least common one.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A few minutes later, she asked me, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhy can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t there be someone from El Salvador?\u00E2\u0080\u009D to which I answered, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThere must be some. You should do research.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Much like Pat, though she was interested in the artist\u00E2\u0080\u0099s nationality, the amount of work she was willing to dedicate to finding one was a more important consideration. In the end, Princess did not take the time to find a Salvadorian artist and merely chose one from the list. These interactions show that when teachers design cultural projects for their students, it is an opportunity for the SHL students to learn more about their own cultural backgrounds. Teachers should therefore make an extra effort to find cultural examples from their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 particular backgrounds in designing their projects. They should also encourage all of them, as much as possible, to do projects that allow them to learn more 182 about their heritages. Many researchers make similar recommendations. For example, Carreira (2004), states that teachers with HL students should, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cadjust curricular goals and instructional approaches according to students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 sociolinguistic and family background\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 21). In the ACTFL/Hunter College Project (Webb & Miller, 2000) study of three high school HL classes, the teachers of those classes planned class assignments involving family interviews, letter writing to relatives living in the country of heritage and article writing from the point of view of the local heritage community. The nationality exercise and Hispanic artist project both show that teachers may not always be aware of their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural and national affiliations or ambiguous feelings toward these. However, Webb and Miller (2000) explain that teachers must make a special effort to get to know their students on a deeper level. Their book has a chapter entitled \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca framework for learning about your students,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which is divided into many sections relating to all aspects of students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 backgrounds and linguistic and cultural knowledge. One of the sections is entitled \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural connectedness\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 52) and asks questions of the nature of the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 affiliations to their heritage. Carreira (2004) also advocates validating students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 identities and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccountering identity negation\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20) as goals for teaching SHL students. It is only by understanding their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 affiliations, personal goals, etc. that teachers can design a curriculum to best suit their needs and interact with them in a way that support their growth and development. 7.4 Summary Both in and out of class, the four SHL students faced dilemmas associated with their identities as Hispanics. Pat felt judged by not having the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D look of a Hispanic while Claude had felt such judgement strongly during her childhood in Mexico. Princess rejected certain stereotypical views of Hispanic girls which were popular in the mass media, particularly on certain websites. As for Tony, while he seemed to embrace the Hispanic \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D image, he realized at times that this way of life was detrimental to his success, particularly in school. Tony, Pat and Princess also struggled when certain aspects of how they spoke were rejected as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot proper\u00E2\u0080\u009D in class. 183 Chapter 8 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 8.0 Introduction This study has sought to investigate how one teacher of Spanish (as a Foreign Language) at the high school level in Canada was able to integrate and teach SHL students in her class. Specifically, the study was concerned with how SHL students were positioned in classroom interactions in terms of their Spanish language and cultural expertise when learning Spanish alongside SFL students and the influence that such positionings had on various classroom interactions among the students and their teacher. In this chapter, I will highlight the principal findings of this study under the three broad categories of (1) social positionings, where I look at how the social environment on the classroom affected the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation and interactions, (2) linguistic positionings, in which I summarize how the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 various language expertise was viewed, and (3) positionings related to different aspects related to their heritage. I will then revisit and answer each of the three research questions. In the next section, I will analyse the SHL student archetype as presented in the research literature and point out areas where findings from this study could contribute to the understanding of the various kinds of SHL students. Finally, I will discuss the pedagogical implications stemming from this study as well as possible directions of future research. 8.1 Summary of Findings Particularly in a high school setting, the social context of the school and classroom has a great effect on how students interact and learn. In Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class, friendship groupings affected who students were willing to work with in class and deprived many of the opportunities which would have been afforded to them through working with one or another SHL student. Certain groups of students were also highly disruptive and took away from the learning of other students. Their presence in class may have partly contributed to one of the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lack of participation in class. Age was also a significant factor in the interactions that took place in this class. Many students felt intimidated by the presence of a small proportion of grade 12 students in the class and one grade 9 SHL student was especially affected by having to sit at a table with these students. Although she had been a vocal participant in the class earlier in the year, 184 after sitting with these students, she became silent in class and ceased volunteering answers in whole-class discussions, having been positioned by them as an immature girl rather than a Spanish language expert. She, however, showed enough agency to move to another group and was able to contribute to that group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s learning though she never regained her initial confidence to display her knowledge in front of the class. Finally, gender also played a role in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class. The only male SHL student was also the one who took up a large majority of class time and attention. He was not only the student whose oral expertise Ms. Lopez most sought out in class but he also dominated class discussions due to his outgoing personality and confidence in speaking Spanish. His three female SHL classmates were much more reserved and perhaps partly deferred to him in class, though some of them had the confidence to speak in class as well. The SHL students in Ms. Lopez\u00E2\u0080\u0099s class displayed various types of language expertise. While two were stronger in oral Spanish and had weaker literacy skills, one had excellent literacy skills but was reluctant to speak, and the other had a much more balanced set of oral and literacy skills. However, Ms. Lopez expected the SHL students, due to past experience, to be especially strong in their oral skills. The willingness of the SHL students to speak Spanish in (and out of) class affected how much Spanish she spoke to them and how she viewed them. She equated performed oral expertise with language proficiency, which she, in turn, linked to their heritage; therefore, those students who displayed their oral expertise were viewed as having a stronger allegiance to their Hispanic roots. Oral expertise was also seen as being one of the key contributions a SHL student could make in class and students who were willing to offer this type of expertise were positioned as language experts or even co-teachers. Certain literacy skills (grammar / metalinguistic knowledge, spelling and translation), on the other hand, were not always as valued and were sometimes seen as more a problem than an asset. For example, while SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 oral help was always seen as positive, their help with their classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 written work was sometimes problematized or seen as giving unfair advantage to others who did not deserve it. Students strong in literacy would also finish their work quickly and had a greater tendency to get bored in class, presenting a challenge to their teacher, who did not always know what to do with them. 185 Several aspects of SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 heritage had an impact on their classroom interactions. The first was the language they had learned at home. On the one hand, this knowledge was seen as a positive asset for them, in that they were seen as being able to receive help at home from their parents (mother). On the other hand, given the wide variety of \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanishes\u00E2\u0080\u009D represented in the class and in the Spanish-speaking world, although often similar to the standard Spanish taught in the class, the language they used at home nevertheless differed in the use of certain vocabulary and grammar. At times, while the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 vocabulary in particular was seen as interesting and educational, their use of non-standard grammatical forms positioned their Spanish as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cimproper.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The SHL students were also affected by various stereotypes of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypical\u00E2\u0080\u009D Hispanic. One seemed to feel judged by others because she did not \u00E2\u0080\u009Clook\u00E2\u0080\u009D Hispanic (too fair in complexion and hair colour), while another reacted negatively to certain stereotypical views of how Hispanics look, dress and adorn themselves on social networking websites, a stereotype which is also prevalent in the (particularly United States) media. The latter student reported feeling ambivalent about her heritage as a result of not identifying with this particular stereotype. Still, another SHL student embraced the Hispanic \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbad boy\u00E2\u0080\u009D image, though at the end of the study he seemed to recognize some of the negative impacts of his behaviour. Here, I will answer each of my initial research questions in turn. The first research question of this study was: How do the SHL learners position themselves and how are they positioned by their teacher and classmates with respect to their prior knowledge of Spanish, as well as their various Hispanic backgrounds and cultural affiliations? Certain orally proficient students who felt comfortable speaking Spanish in front of the class positioned themselves and were positioned by their teacher in whole- class discussions as language experts, co-teachers and models. However, in group work, their classmates did not always position them in those terms, particularly when they viewed the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u009Chelp\u00E2\u0080\u009D as positioning them as students who did not know very much Spanish. In group work, certain SFL students positioned their SHL classmates as experts whose knowledge was not to be questioned, while others had more of a collaborative relationship with these classmates, choosing to work together to find the right answer. In terms of their Hispanic background and cultural affiliation, some SHL 186 students identified with their Hispanic heritage more than others. The latter group did not want to be associated with certain negative Hispanic stereotypes. Certain SHL students also felt discriminated against, either in their past or at present, as a result of their physical features which others may have viewed as not typical of Hispanics. The second research question was: What are the different factors (e.g., oral versus written expertise, age, social groupings in the class) that impact the various positionings of the SHL learners? Oral expertise had an important impact on the positioning of SHL students. Those with such expertise, particularly if they displayed it in class, were more likely to be seen as having a Hispanic heritage. On the other hand, certain SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 reluctance to ask questions in class caused their classmates to position them as competent in Spanish because they saw their lack of questions as an indication of their understanding of the material. Written expertise did not have as much affect on the positioning of the SHL students, as the teacher did not expect SHL students to possess this type of expertise. In fact, she saw this lack of expertise as indicative of a SHL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s typical ability in their HL. Their classmates, on the other hand, showed their surprise at certain SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 weak spelling and grammar skills, initially seeing this lack as incongruent with their HL status, but later accepting it and creating the stereotype that HL students in general were not good at spelling and grammar (with the exception of SHL students who did not fit this stereotype and with whom they had actually had a chance to work). Age was also an important factor in the positioning of SHL students, particularly for the Grade 9 SHL student who was two or three years younger than her classmates. However, her positioning was interactionally constructed and differed depending on which classmates she was sitting and working with. Therefore, while her Grade 12 table mates positioned her as a young, immature girl rather than a competent Spanish speaker, she was positioned as a competent helper by various other grade 11 classmates she worked with. Friendship groups also had an impact on some SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 positioning in class. In particular, one SHL student who was part of a well- known \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreppy\u00E2\u0080\u009D group of girls was positioned more as a disruptive student than a competent SHL student by certain classmates. Even her teacher often associated her with her group of friends rather than seeing her as part of the SHL learner \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgroup\u00E2\u0080\u009D in, for example, her interview. 187 The third research question was: How do these positionings impact the classroom interactions among the SHL students, their SFL classmates and their teacher? How certain SHL students were positioned during whole class discussions had a significant impact on the classroom interactions. One SHL student who routinely positioned himself and was positioned by his teacher as a language expert or even co-teacher took up a disproportionately large amount of class time, taking away from his classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ability to participate and hence reducing their opportunities to learn and practice Spanish. Many of his classmates resented his domination of class time and positioned him as an annoyance, while others viewed his playful comments and drama with amusement. In group work, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexpert helper\u00E2\u0080\u009D positioning was at times rejected by his group mates who sought to showcase their own expertise, leading to contestation between them. There was also contestation between the teacher and some of the SHL students with regard to some of their ways of speaking typical of their Spanish language variety. In such interactions, the teacher positioned these students (and their families) as less educated and somewhat incompetent, which had an impact on how they and others viewed their background and expertise. Being positioned as a young, immature girl took away from one SHL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s confidence to participate in whole class discussions. As for the teacher, she positioned one of the SHL students who resisted speaking Spanish in class as one who was not able to offer as much help to her classmates during group work, choosing to place another SHL student in her group in order for there to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cone Hispanic helping in each group.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The teacher did not view her excellent literacy skills as a possible asset to her group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work. 8.2 Implications for SHL Theory When reading the literature about SHL students (and HL students in general), one sees the repeated appearance of certain themes about the kinds of people that these students are. In this section, I will explore these themes and present how this study supports or contradicts certain views in the field. 8.2.1 SHL Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Language Proficiency and Use The language proficiencies of SHL students are presented in particular ways in the SHL research literature. Specifically, these students are presented as generally having a certain range and level of oral skills and often poor literacy skills. Yet, this study has 188 shown that SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language abilities can vary significantly as do their language learning needs. Additionally, SHL students are often presented as knowing a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon- standard\u00E2\u0080\u009D variety of Spanish, which must be supplemented by the teaching of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard prestige variety\u00E2\u0080\u009D of the language. However, other authors (Villa, 1996, 2002) make important arguments in favour of the development of SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own language variety, particularly in the spoken form. 8.2.1.1 Orality and Literacy Skills To begin the discussion of the kinds of skills which SHL students are seen as possessing, we will first return to the most accepted definition of a SHL student in the field (see Chapter 2, Section 2.1.1). Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (2001) defines a heritage language learner as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca language student who is raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or at least understands the language, and who is to some degree bilingual in that language and in English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 38). This definition, used not only by researchers in the field of SHL education, but, as Vald\u00C3\u00A9s suggests, of particular practical use to SFL educators, presents a kind of hierarchy of language abilities. At the lowest end of the scale, such students are expected to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cat least understand\u00E2\u0080\u009D Spanish. Many also \u00E2\u0080\u009Cspeak\u00E2\u0080\u009D it and are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cto some degree bilingual\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Spanish and English. That is to say, these students are typically expected to have oral skills. However, though literacy is not specifically mentioned in this definition, much of the SHL literature (Colombi & Alarc\u00C3\u00B3n, 1997; Peyton, Lewelling, & Winke, 2001; Roca & Colombi, 2003; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 2001) focuses on students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 development of this (lacking) expertise. For example, of Vald\u00C3\u00A9s\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1997) four instructional goals for SHL students, two (transfer of literacy skills and language maintenance) directly involve the development of literacy skills in Spanish. Moreover, part of Vald\u00C3\u00A9s\u00E2\u0080\u0099s definition refers to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca language student who is raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken\u00E2\u0080\u009D (2001, p. 38). Yet, the SHL students in this study were exposed to spoken Spanish in the home to varying amounts and some not at all. For example, Claude expressed that her Mexican father did not want her speaking English at home when they all lived together in Mexico. However, when she, her sister and her divorced mother moved to Canada, she was no longer exposed to Spanish at home. In connection with the language skills SHL students are expected to have, as presented in the definition of SHL students and their portrayal in the SHL literature, two 189 problems arise related to how to teach SHL students. The first is with respect to their oral expertise, which are presented in the literature as being easier to learn and master than literacy skills. However, Beaudrie and Ducar (2005) point out that many beginning-level SHL students may be reluctant to speak Spanish in class, although they may have been around Spanish at home and in the SHL community, something that was also observed in this study with Pat (who was not even beginner level). They discuss how the students in their beginner-level SHL classes gained comfort and confidence in speaking Spanish when their teachers promoted a \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpanish only\u00E2\u0080\u009D environment by speaking only Spanish themselves and gradually easing their students into speaking more and more Spanish. Their students were also more comfortable speaking Spanish together in groups rather than in front of the whole class. Overall, it is important for researchers and teachers of SHL students to question their assumptions that SHL students are orally proficient and comfortable with their oral skills and adjust their instructional strategies to help deal with reticent SHL students. Also, their proficiency and comfort displaying it is highly context- bound. The second assumption often made in the literature and classroom is that SHL students struggle with literacy. This may particularly be the case with those who are placed in higher level classes as a result of their high oral proficiency and do not have the opportunity to learn metalinguistic terminology or the basics of literacy which their SFL classmates learned in previous lower level courses. It is also very common in languages with very different orthographic systems (e.g., Chinese, Li & Duff, 2008). However, there are those students, who, due to a reluctance to speak, for example, are identified or self-identify as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbeginning level\u00E2\u0080\u009D SHL students, and may have a more similar language acquisition process to those of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cregular second language [learners]\u00E2\u0080\u009D while being very motivated to learn their HL (Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005, p. 13). These students, like Pat, may first take beginner\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish and so their acquisition of literacy is much like that of their SFL classmates but generally more efficient due to their high-level receptive skills. By the time they are in Spanish 11, the first Spanish course of their orally proficient SHL student classmates, they will have taken two other Spanish courses and will have developed excellent grammar and literacy skills. 190 Although Vald\u00C3\u00A9s (1997) describes eight different SHL student types and each group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s linguistic needs, she makes the assumption that only newly-arrived SHL students can be high in literacy skills while those who are 2 nd or later generation cannot be. In actuality, depending on their learning trajectories, at home and at school, 2 nd generation students may also have well developed literacy skills. In fact the needs of both types of SHL students (those with good oral skills but poor literacy skills and the reverse), as well as others who fall somewhere along the continuum between the one and the other, must be considered if their teaching is to be successful. While the literature often speaks to strategies for teaching the orally proficient, literacy deficient SHL students, there must also be attention given to the development of oral skills of reluctant speakers as well as the question of how to challenge them when they already posses strong literacy skills. 8.2.1.2 Language Variety and Language Ideology The acquisition of standardized Spanish is seen by many researchers in the field (Carreira, 2000; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s 1997) as one of the main goals of SHL instruction. However, other researchers (Hidalgo, 1990; Villa, 1996, 2002) point to problems associated with this instructional goal. These include differentiating between goals for spoken and written language, which language variety should be chosen, as well as the questioning of to what extent such a goal should even be adopted. Woolard (1998) discusses how language standardization and correctness have an ideological side which is often tied to questions of politics and power. In the context of SHL instructions, Villa (1996, 2002) and Hidalgo (1990), among others, have questioned the assumptions behind the goal of teaching \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprestige\u00E2\u0080\u009D varieties of Spanish. First, Villa (1996) argues that researchers who advocate the teaching of a standard variety of Spanish do not define what that variety is and that indeed there are many \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D varieties of Spanish stemming from the many Spanish-speaking countries in the world. Furthermore, even if a specific variety be chosen, it would be difficult to clearly define all the features of that variety since language is continually evolving and speakers do not simply use language according to a prescribed set of linguistic structures. Furthermore, he and Hidalgo (1993) argue that there is a problem in imposing an out-group standard on U.S. (and I would argue Canadian) speakers of Spanish which is not only 191 unrepresentative of the way the language is used in their community but can also have negative affective consequences for students whose own language is not validated. Villa (1996) goes on to talk about the imposition of a standard variety for both oral and written language. He begins by stating that when delineating the goals of SHL instructions, researchers (e.g., Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 1997) do not specify if they are referring to oral or written language. In his view, for oral language, such a variety should not be imposed. Fishman (1991, p. 342) also argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe standard variety need not be as obligatory in speech as in writing. Indeed, all dialects should remain valid in speech, particularly in informal and intimate speech within their own traditional speech networks and communities.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, there are register, genre, and sociolinguistic factors that SHL students need to be aware of in order to learn to speak in appropriate ways in various situations (e.g., using vernacular forms inappropriately). Certain forms may be seen as inappropriate in specific contexts and SHL speakers may experience stigma when using them. Riegelhaupt and Carrasco (2000), for example, found that a Chicana (2 nd or more generation Mexican American) bilingual teacher was looked down upon by her middle- class home stay family for her use of vernacular Spanish they associated with uneducated people from the countryside. Although the non-standard terms she employed were relatively few, the family preferred having an Anglo-American teacher with lower Spanish proficiency in standard Spanish in their home instead. Teachers of SHL students therefore have an obligation to explain to their students the differences between certain vernacular forms and the standard language in order to help these students gain metalinguistic awareness. According to Parodi (2008), raising SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 metalinguistic awareness enables them to analyse their innate grammar knowledge, the first step in acquiring academic Spanish. She also recommends that teachers of SHL students should discuss the negative affects of being judged by their (non-native) accent and speech in order to help students work through these issues. On the other hand, there are times when SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ways of speaking may be quite appropriate and they should be encouraged to use them in those situations. Villa (1996), for example, argues that the stated goals of teaching students a standard variety for reasons of employability and economic success as advocated by many researchers 192 (see for example Carreira, 2000) may not reflect the reality of language use of successful Hispanics. In his view, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit is clear that much research remains to be conducted before any assertions can be made about the correlation between the assimilation of an out-group spoken Spanish variety and economic and societal success.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 195) He argues that it may in fact be the case that the ability to speak the language of the local community could be more beneficial than the speaking of a standard variety that is not reflective in that community\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language use. According to Villa (1996), when trying to teach students who are often undergoing language shift to English, it becomes important to build on what they already know, and thus encourage them to use their own language variety to make their acquisition of it more complete. Indeed, he asserts, such students will not be able to learn the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D variety if they have not acquired their own variety. He asserts that the goal of teaching SHL students is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot to impose any one variety, but rather to facilitate interdialectal communication, which enriches both the instructor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language skills\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 196) and also reflects the reality of living in communities where many varieties of Spanish co-exist. In this study, the teacher would accept the use of certain vocabulary of her SHL students and felt it enriched her and their classmates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Spanish. We have to concede, however, that when teachers are teaching lower proficiency students in mixed SHL and SFL classes, it is a challenge to accept the various SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ways of speaking while also teaching the basics of the language. On the other hand, the differences between various dialects are often limited to a few forms (Parodi, 2008) and can thus be addressed in class. In this study, for example, the adding of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the second person singular preterit form was the only point of difference between the grammar systems of Ms. Lopez and three of her SHL students. Rather than viewing her students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 use of that form as indexing the language of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cuneducated\u00E2\u0080\u009D people (much like was also the case in Riegelhaupt and Carrasco\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2000) study), she could have simply accepted it as a different oral usage and explained to the class, and the SHL students, how it was different and what the correct written form was. When it comes to the teaching of the literacy, most researchers agree (Carreira, 2000; Colombi & Alarc\u00C3\u00B3n, 1997; Peyton, Lewelling, & Winke, 2001; Roca & Colombi, 2003; Vald\u00C3\u00A9s, 1997, 2001; Villa, 1996) that SHL students need to learn to write 193 \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstandard\u00E2\u0080\u009D written language, which may differ from various spoken varieties of the language. It could be argued that it may be more difficult for students to acquire the standard written variety of Spanish if they use non-standard spoken language. However, accepting the spoken variety may also serve as a pedagogical tool. For example, in this study, when Ms. Lopez asked her SHL students not to add an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the second person singular preterit form, she may have done so because adding the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the written form would have made it incorrect. However, in Villa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view, she could have accepted the spoken form, while pointing out its difference with the written form. In fact, this particular feature, which is common to Mexican-American Spanish (Hidalgo, 1990), other non-standard varieties throughout the Spanish-speaking world (Carreira, 2000), and which was observed to being used by the Central American students in this study, could be used as a pedagogical tool in the classroom. As Carreira explains, the reason behind the adding of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the second person singular of the preterit form is an (unconscious) attempt at making this form into one that conforms with how all the other Spanish tenses are formed. In all tenses except the preterit, the second person singular form has an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cs\u00E2\u0080\u009D at the end. If teachers educate themselves on the reasons behind certain \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-standard\u00E2\u0080\u009D forms, they can also educate their students, which would also increase their metalinguistic knowledge. Rather than seeing the use of such forms as linguistic inadequacy, they could be seen as demonstrating an implicit understanding of the core rules of the Spanish language, in much the same way as young children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s overgeneralization of grammatical rules of their mother tongue. While accepting a spoken form but pointing out its difference with the standard written form could make the learning of the written form more difficult, the alternative of calling students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language use (which is common to so many groups of Spanish speakers) \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwrong\u00E2\u0080\u009D could be even more detrimental to their language development. In fact, in Potowski\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2002) study, the SHL students expressed feeling like they spoke \u00E2\u0080\u009Cghetto Spanish\u00E2\u0080\u009D as a result of the over correction of their speech and writing by mostly non- native speaking TAs. Krashen (1998) also documents the detrimental effects of the negative attitudes demonstrated by SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 peers, relatives and even teachers toward their language variety and their subsequent feelings of linguistic inferiority. In this study, Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong defence of the above-mentioned syntactic feature and his use of 194 the argument that his mother used it points to the strong affective component related to students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language use and to the detriment that a rejection of such forms may have on students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 self-esteem and linguistic confidence. 8.2.2 SHL Students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 National and Cultural Affiliations Much of HL literature assumes that HL students naturally identify with their heritage culture. Furthermore, many studies have sought to prove that their amount of identification with the HL culture correlates with proficiency in the HL. Yet, the relationship between the HL and heritage culture is a much more complex and fluid one, as shown by the participants in this study. Using the language expertise, affiliation and inheritance model (Rampton, 1990), we can distinguish between students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language expertise, their allegiance to their HL and culture, and affiliations to other languages and cultures. In general, it is assumed in the SHL literature that SHL students naturally identify with their heritage culture and nationality of heritage. In fact, in many cases such an allegiance is not even mentioned in the literature, whose focus is the SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language development. When it is mentioned, it is seldom explored in depth. For example, Carreira (2004) constructed five fictional SHL students and described their language skills, family backgrounds and cultural affiliations in order to ask various language teachers in which track (HL or FL) they would place these students. Four out of the five of the fictional students had two Hispanic parents and identified with their heritage culture. Only one had one American and one Hispanic parent, low language proficiency and identified himself as American. Although Carreira did not subsequently discuss the various cultural allegiances of the cases, her characterization of only someone with a mixed heritage choosing not to identify with the Hispanic part of his heritage shows the general assumption that someone whose parents are both Hispanic would naturally identify with her Hispanic heritage in all cases. Yet, as shown in this study, Princess did not identify with aspects of her Hispanic heritage in spite of having two Salvadorian parents and speaking Spanish at home. On the other hand, in the ACTFL/Hunter College Project (Webb & Miller, 2000) study, Romero, one of the researchers, discusses how teachers of three HL classes in New 195 York, delved into many issues related to culture and students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 self-concepts. He explains how: Teachers also talked about the personal identities, ambivalence, and self- concepts of their students, all of which, they realized, impacted on the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 willingness to use their heritage language, and, by extension, on the nature of their relationship with family members. In order to ameliorate the personal problems and conflicts that their students face, teachers incorporated literary pieces dealing with migration, conflicts, and adjustment into their courses. (p. 144) The ACTFL/Hunter College Project was not only one of the few studies that has been conducted at the high school level, where students are often searching for who they are and how they fit into the world, but also one that dealt in depth with the topic of cultural and personal identifications of the students. The teachers in the study realized that their students may have ambivalent and conflicting feelings about their heritage and they sought to explore these feelings with their students, using literature and discussions that dealt with these topics. That is, they were engaged in critical practice that truly engaged their students. Unfortunately, many teachers only delve into the teaching of culture in superficial ways and do not allow their students to explore their identity struggles in class where all can learn and benefit from such discussions. Some of the HL literature also assumes a correlation between HL proficiency and identification with the heritage culture. For example, Carreira (2004) presents \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccountering identity negation\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20) as a goal for those HL students who have lower proficiency levels, but not those with higher levels of proficiency. Other researchers sought to study the relationship between these two factors. Cho (2000) found that those with higher HL competence had a stronger connection to their ethnic group. On the other hand, two studies (Lee, 2002; Triantafillidou & Hedgcock, 2007) found that participants with higher HL proficiency were more likely to embrace their bicultural identities, i.e. their heritage culture and the culture of the country they lived in. Furthermore, Maloof, Rubin and Miller (2006) found that both those with high HL proficiency and others with high English proficiency identified strongly with their heritage culture. These studies show that there is no clear connection between language proficiency in the HL and identification with the heritage culture. Moreover, all these studies relied on mainly questionnaire and also interview data. However, none involved observations of 196 participants in real-life interactions where affiliations may be much more fluid than what they reported them to be. In this study, for example, Princess, when interviewed, talked about how she identified with her heritage culture but due to other comments which she was observed making in class, the interviewer asked her to elaborate on these, which produced quite a different response. Had such observations not been part of the data collection, the interviewer may have accepted her initial comments without probing further. Furthermore, as described above, most HL researchers assume that (most) HL students come from families where both their parents belong to the same heritage group. However, such is not always the case. For example, in this study, two participants had only one Hispanic parent, the other being Anglo-Canadian. This impacted not only their cultural backgrounds but also their language learning. For example, Claude explained that she mainly spoke Spanish at home while living in Mexico whereas in Canada, where she immigrated after her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 divorce, she was no longer exposed to Spanish at home. Furthermore, it is quite conceivable that other HL students may have two parents from different heritages, both of whom may wish to encourage their children to learn their HL. This would create a more complex language learning situation. These types of families need to be considered in the HL literature. Both Beaudrie and Ducar (2005) and Hornberger and Wang (2008) urge researchers to include HL learners with unusual family situations (such as those of inter-racial marriages) in the HL literature. Furthermore, Beaudrie and Ducar suggest that those who have no family background but were exposed to the HL extensively, such as through living abroad also be included in the HL student label. In the larger study I conducted, one student in Class B (which was not written up in this thesis) had lived in Mexico for a number of years and his teacher and many of his classmates thought he was Mexican. While we should not fall into the trap of assuming someone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s nationality or heritage as a result of their language proficiency, we should consider that such a student does have a very similar language background and needs as a HL student. Additionally, Hornberger and Wang discuss adoption as a situation in which a child may identify with their original heritage culture and which may lead him and his parents to want to enroll him in HL courses. In this study, another student in Class B had a Hispanic step-father and a mother who was a 197 Spanish teacher and he reported hearing and speaking Spanish frequently at home. This student, though not having a Hispanic heritage by birth, did have a home where the HL was spoken, much as Vald\u00C3\u00A9s\u00E2\u0080\u0099 definition of a HL student describes. Yet it is unclear if such a student would be included in the definition. In my view and that of other researchers (Hornberger & Wang), he should indeed. When delving into the complexity of the relationship between a HL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s language expertise and his or her identification with the heritage language and culture, it is helpful to differentiate between these various aspects by making use of the language expertise, affiliation and inheritance model (Rampton, 1990). This model differentiates between students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 expertise in various languages, their allegiance to the language(s) and culture(s) of their inheritance and their allegiance or affiliations to other languages and the cultures associated with them. By using this model in the area of HL education (cf. Wang & Green, 2001), we can look at these areas separately and thus more completely. For instance, when discussing students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language expertise, we can group students with similar expertise and needs, whether or not they have a HL background, such as those who grew up in another country but who have a different heritage. Thus, Terry, a Japanese student who grew up in Brazil was a very proficient student due to his ability to transfer his knowledge of Portuguese (including literacy skills) to the study of Spanish. In this way, his expertise was quite similar to Claude\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, as Ms. Lopez also pointed out. They were both fluent speakers with excellent literacy skills. However, it is not necessary, nor advisable, to call Terry a Hispanic since his heritage is not Hispanic. His expertise should therefore be separated from his cultural background. As for students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural backgrounds and their allegiances to these backgrounds, this once again, is a separate issue from their expertise in the HL. Here, for example, we could talk about Princess, who was ambivalent about her cultural inheritance but who had a strong (oral) proficiency in Spanish. As argued above, the language class should address issues such as those expressed by Princess when showing mixed feelings about her background. Only by talking about stereotypes and other such topics can we explore this area which affects many students, teenagers in particular. Moreover, it should not be assumed that since a HL student is proficient in the HL, she does not face such issues in her life. 198 Finally, students can show a strong affiliation to a language and culture that is not part of their heritage. In fact, this affiliation can make such students excellent language learners since it may increase their motivation to learn the language and their investment in learning opportunities and communities. The student in Class B with the Hispanic step-father and Spanish teacher mother was one such example. He was an excellent language learner and showed great affiliation to the Spanish language and culture. His teacher, on the other hand, did not recognize his strong feelings and encourage them. A teacher who knows his students better can foster such feelings and also express that people may have strong allegiances to languages and cultures that are not part of their heritage by birth. In conclusion, we must recognize the diversity of HL students both in terms of their exposure to the HL in the home, various family situations and backgrounds, and various levels of identification with their heritage culture. All these conditions make the teaching of HL students all the more complex, a complexity that must be addressed with the goal of improving our teaching of the wide range of HL students we may find in our classrooms. 8.2.3 SHL Students in High School Spanish Classes: The Importance of Social Context Studies dealing with social dynamics of schools and classrooms in particularly the high school context recognize the importance of these dynamics and their effects on the lives and learning of students (e.g. Eckert, 1989). However, such issues have not been explored in the area of HL education. This may be because most studies have been conducted at the post-secondary level where such dynamics are much less prevalent or visible. The few studies which have looked at HL learning in the high school context (Webb & Miller, 2000) have focussed on curricular goals and have not studied the interactions and social dynamics of the HL classes. In this study, three issue related to the social context played a major role in the interactions and participation of both SHL and SFL students. These were friendships groupings, age and gender. Many HL (and non-HL) studies take for granted that students will interact with other students that they can learn from. In fact, it is one of the cornerstones of CLT, task- based teaching, communicative-experiential curricula and so on, and also of current SLA 199 theory (e.g., Gass & Selinker, 2008). For example, they seem to assume that FL students will choose to work with HL students for the purposes of improving their Spanish language skills. However, in the high school context, choosing who to work with is often much more related to bonds of friendship than who one can most learn from. That is to say, students would rather work with their friends, who may or may not be strong Spanish students, than someone who is a strong student but not their friend. This was observed in this class in which students chose not to have any interaction with those students who were antagonistic to their own friendship group. In this way, many students deprived themselves of working with either Pat or Claude. This limited how much learning students were able to benefit from. In the area of HL learning in the high school context, researchers must take into account dynamics such as those involving social groupings. Furthermore, the HL literature does not take into account the potential problem of trying to integrate much younger SHL students into more advanced Spanish classes at the high school, the pitfalls of not paying due attention to such students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 integration having been clearly demonstrated in this study. Finally, a variety of other factors, such as gender, students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 personalities and so on can play a role in their participation in class, creating a challenging situation for teachers who try to balance the participation of all their students. The HL literature must take into account the social aspects of HL teaching because these issues, such as friendship groupings, age and gender, can have a very significant impact on the amount and type of interaction which students in those classes engage in. While researchers recognize the important role which interaction plays in language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 2008), they also need to recognize the types of factors which mitigate such interactions and address how any obstacles stemming from such factors can be overcome by teachers. 8.2.4 Re-examining Theories of Positioning, Identity and Language Ideology In Chapter 2 I examined various studies that examined the relationship between HL proficiency and identification with the heritage culture. Those studies viewed identity as a static and stable entity that was not affected by context. However, positioning theory views identities as being situationally and discursively accomplished and negotiated. I found this theory very useful in my analysis of various class and interview interactions which showcased how the participants positioned themselves in 200 very different and even contradictory ways in different contexts. The theory helped me analyze the co-constructed, negotiated and dynamic nature of identity formation. On the other hand, I found it a little challenging to apply the theory at times because it is rather broad and does not present a concrete method for its use, leaving much freedom to the researcher when interpreting data. Furthermore, when using positioning theory, the distinction between \u00E2\u0080\u009Cposition\u00E2\u0080\u009D and identity is also rather vague. The question arises of when can we analyze a participant\u00E2\u0080\u0099s expression of self as a context-related example of positioning and when is it an indication of someone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (more stable) identity? Another analytic lens used in this study was language ideology. The concept of language ideology is a very useful one for examining the (language-related) views and beliefs of various study participants. We can also see how the language ideology of a more powerful figure, such as a teacher, can influence the beliefs and actions of other participants and the impact that her ideological beliefs have on what goes on in the class. Until such beliefs are analyzed in an explicit fashion, they may remain hidden and their power left unchecked. Articles describing the nature of language ideologies and some studies using that theoretical lens do not always present ways of countering certain language ideologies. Furthermore, study participants, whose language ideologies are analyzed, are often left in the dark about their nature and do not have the opportunity to reflect on and question their beliefs in a critical way. Yet, language ideology analysis can be a powerful tool and has much potential for transforming practice. 8.3 Pedagogical Implications This study has brought out important themes which can serve to make teachers reflect on their practice. In this section I will suggest ways in which teachers teaching mixed HL and FL classes at the high school level can improve their practice. I will look at areas of how teachers can get to know their students better and how this can improve their teaching. Next, I will examine various ways of grouping students and explore different instructional strategies. Finally, I will explore how teachers can address cultural stereotypes and other topics that directly impact how language students view the language and culture they are studying. 201 8.3.1 Getting to Know Your Students Many teachers feel that it is hard to really know their students since they are so busy with planning, teaching and marking. However, I contend that getting to know one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s students is more of a mindset and attitude than a time-consuming task. It is also rewarding in that not only will students who feel like they matter and be more motivated in class, teachers will also have more tools and strategies to be able to teach them better. Finally, the very activities through which we can get to know our students can also be ones that they may find most interesting and empowering. In the book based on their study of three HL classes in New York area high schools, Webb and Miller (2000) include a section called, \u00E2\u0080\u009CA framework for learning about your students\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 47-54). As a rationale for including this section they state: All students bring with them to the classroom a set of personal stories, experiences, and emotions that affect how they behave, interact, and learn. By asking the right questions, teachers can acquire the essential insights into the minds and the worlds of their learners and, in so doing, develop the sensitivity and the responsiveness that will help them to achieve success in school. (p. 47) Knowing their students well can help teachers with the development of their instructional activities and also to be more responsive to their students. Many language teachers usually know a lot of information about their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language proficiencies, what language skills their students need to develop, and how to help them improve. They do not question that this knowledge is important to their teaching. However, Webb and Miller point to five other areas in which teachers should be knowledgeable about their students. These include, motivation, academic preparedness, cultural connectedness, emotional factors and societal factors. They then present lists of questions under each heading. I agree with Webb and Miller that these areas impact students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 work habits, responsiveness to various exercises, self-esteem, and so on, all of which may influence how well they do in class. One area that teachers of HL and FL students might explore is cultural connectedness. In this study, we have seen that Ms. Lopez was not always in tune with her HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 level and type of cultural allegiance and did not know, for example, about Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s struggle with certain Hispanic stereotypes. Had she known about this, 202 she could have conducted an activity in class about stereotyping and allowed students to discuss this important topic, guiding them to a greater understanding of it. Unlike how they are represented in the HL literature, HL students may have various types of ambiguous feelings about their heritage and the language class is one of the best places where such ideas can be addressed for the learning and growth of all students. There are different ways that teachers can go about gaining a greater understanding of their students. One way to begin is to have students fill out questionnaires about themselves and these questionnaires should have many open-ended questions. Although questionnaires do not always yield very complex answers, they can be a starting point from which to explore topics that come up. They are also good for learning about a student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s general background and history. When the teacher reads the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 questionnaires, she may be able to spot, for example, certain stereotypical views or identity struggles. She can then initiate discussions in class related to these topics or assign readings that address them, followed by discussions. Of course, she must first establish a trusting relationship with her students and also among the students; otherwise they will be reluctant to reveal such struggles. Teachers can also find out about their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 views by being a kind of researcher in their own classrooms. If they listen closely to their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interactions and statements, they will see that many such topics come up. In fact, in this class, Ms. Lopez heard various things, such as Princess saying that she hates being called a Mexican. Although she briefly addressed this comment, she could have dealt with it more substantially and for the benefit of the whole class by making cultural stereotyping and the ideologies underlying them a topic of discussion. Learning about students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 views of themselves can also allow teachers to support their personal and academic growth. According to Menard-Warwick (2007), \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceducators can best facilitate learners\u00E2\u0080\u0099 constructions of L2 identities and voices when they listen for and support their diverse reflexive positionings.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 286) In her study of an adult ESL class, the teacher did not understand the reflexive positioning of one of her Latina students as a business-woman in her country of heritage, assuming instead that her students were mainly housewives. When that student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s positioning was not supported by her teacher, she did not continue to speak and thus improve her language skills. Other 203 students, who were in fact housewives, felt more empowered and spoke and learned much more in the class. Her study shows that if teachers do not listen closely to their students, they may miss learning about a key aspect of their identity, the encouragement of which would not only validate their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 self-concepts but also encourage them to speak more and thus improve their language proficiency. Listening closely to their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 statements both in whole-class discussions and group work can therefore be a simple yet effective way for teachers to learn about various aspects of their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 identities which they can then build on in class. In this study, Ms. Lopez was not aware of Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong identification with her Honduran roots and therefore did not encourage her to, for example, find a Honduran artist to do her artist project on. Had she done so, Pat would have not only learned more about an aspect of her cultural heritage but may have felt more validated in her Honduran identity. In that very class, Pat had spent much of the time reading a book about Honduras and sharing parts of it with her (not very enthusiastic) friends. Had her teacher seen this, she could have encouraged her to explore her cultural roots to a greater extent in various class assignments. Romero (2000) reports that many of the teachers in the ACTFL/Hunter College Project dedicated much time outside of class to getting to know their students. Many coached or sponsored student extra-curricular activities and one teacher even visited the neighbourhood where many of his students lived. These attempts met with much success and students had very good relationships with their teachers and worked harder in class. Getting to know students outside of class changes the dynamic between teacher and student because students feel that their teacher really cares about other aspects of their lives and they respond by becoming more invested in class. In this study, Ms. Lopez had such a relationship with some of her (grade 12) students; however, other groups of students also would have benefited from feeling more connected to their teacher. Although it is a task which requires effort and also a certain mindset and commitment, it is very important for language teachers, particularly those with HL students, to get to know different aspects of their students beyond simply their language abilities (i.e., to see them as complex, multifaceted young adults). They will then be able to design activities and discussions which will stimulate their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 thinking and 204 validate their identities. Students may also feel more encouraged to speak and participate in class if they sense that their teachers understand where they are coming from. 8.3.2 Student Groupings Deciding how to group students is a very important and complicated issue for teachers. Grouping decisions may be based on language proficiency and friendships, among other factors. In my view, teachers must think carefully about this topic and not simply allow groupings to take place on their own since students may or may choose suitable groupings for themselves. Many teachers seem to take one of two views of grouping students. Some want their students to feel comfortable and so allow them to choose their own groups to work with. Others control groupings much more, reasoning that they are the ones most able to group their students well for their own language learning benefit. In my view, teachers should take both approaches and especially vary and monitor groupings a great deal throughout the year. In order to do this successfully, teachers must first become aware of the existing friendship groups and also keep in mind things such as students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 ages. When teachers purposefully group students, they allow them to work with others with whom they may not have chosen to work on their own and yet may benefit from by working with. On the other hand, if they are aware of any possible antagonism among students in the class, they should not ask two students who have a strong dislike for each to work together. In this class, we have seen that when Princess was seated near Pat, they were able to overcome small disagreements of the past, became friends and learned a great deal from each other. Varying student groupings in order to allow many students the opportunity of working with a SHL student in a mixed SHL/SFL class would be very beneficial to all. In this class, many students did not have the opportunity to work with a SHL student or more than one and this, in my view, was a lost learning opportunity. Varying groupings may also lessen disruptions caused by students who are good friends and are always allowed to sit together. Having a new seating plan every month would be more beneficial for students and the classroom atmosphere. In classes with HL students who have been moved to more advanced classes due to their higher language proficiencies, teachers must be especially sensitive to these much younger students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 needs. First, they should not seat them with students who are more 205 than two years older than they as this age gap may too large for them to negotiate. Second, it would perhaps be advisable to discuss with these students about their own seating preferences so that they can sit with whom they feel most comfortable and eventually be encouraged to sit with other students, but always following a discussion. Teachers must be sensitive to the fact that these students may not feel comfortable sitting with certain students. If students express such feelings, they should be taken very seriously and moved quickly rather than letting the problem linger. By helping these young HL students find the best seat for themselves, they are improving not only the HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 learning but by extension, the learning of their classmates who can benefit from their participation which may increase if they feel more comfortable in class. 8.3.3 Instructional Activities and Strategies Teaching HL students in mixed FL classes presents many challenges and opportunities for teachers. One type of activity that such teachers can focus their teaching on are those which encourage their students to learn about their and others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 HL culture and allow HL students to develop greater connections with the HL community, language varieties and so on. Reading can serve important instructional functions in promoting students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 literacy development while giving them interesting reading material can lead to greater learning and lend itself to interesting class and group discussions. In this class, unfortunately, there was little meaningful reading and therefore such opportunities were lost. Finally, teachers must think careful about what roles they want their HL to play in the class, a decision which should also take into account their FL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 needs and feelings. In Section 8.1.2 above, we have seen that HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural identifications may be more ambivalent (Romero, 2000) than much HL literature seems to suggest. When discussing successful teaching activities, the teachers in the ACTFL/Hunter College Project (Webb & Miller, 2000) found it important to address these feelings of their students and found ways to incorporate such topics into the curriculum. Romero (2000) describes their teaching method as the following: In order to ameliorate the personal problems and conflicts that their students face, teachers incorporated literary pieces dealing with migration, conflict, and adjustment into their courses. By including such themes, students were more likely to make personal connections to what 206 was being read. This inclusion also enriched the level of dialogue and the contribution of students to the discussion. (p. 144) In this way, teachers not only found material that was relevant and interesting for their students, but also used it to address their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 struggles. Teachers can also find materials dealing with stereotypes, racism and other issues, as a way of addressing these important issues in class. Students can then voice their concerns about being stereotyped in groups and in class discussions facilitated by a skilled teacher rather than having to deal with these issues on their own (for example, Princess\u00E2\u0080\u0099s struggle with certain stereotypes of Hispanic young people and Pat\u00E2\u0080\u0099s defence of her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnon-typical\u00E2\u0080\u009D look to various classmates). Teachers can also create projects which encourage their students to learn more about the local Hispanic community, such as interviewing members of the community, having guest speakers, and so on. This would be very interesting for FL students and even more rewarding for the HL students. When choosing topics for research projects, teachers can strive to incorporate their HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural backgrounds into the projects. For example, when assigning a project such as the Hispanic artist project which was described in Chapter 7, teachers can do more research ahead of time to find Hispanic artists from the countries of origin of their HL students. Providing a greater variety of choices will allow students to exercise their agency about which artist or which background they wish to learn more about. This will allow their students to learn more about their culture and feel more pride in their heritage. When asking HL students to do various projects, however, teachers must be careful not to position them as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexoticised foreigners\u00E2\u0080\u009D (cf. Talmy, 2004), by asking them to do projects on \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmy country,\u00E2\u0080\u009D for example. Instead, choosing projects which are interesting for all students and allow everyone to learn more about various Hispanic cultures, will allow HL students to learn and share more in the context of a cultural project that all students find interesting. One struggle that was evident in this study was how to deal with HL students who were strong in literacy skills and tended to get bored in class since the material was too easy for them or vice versa. Other teachers of HL students may find this problem with students who are not placed in higher levels of Spanish but choose to complete the regular sequence of courses. Since in many schools there is no clear placement policy for 207 SHL students, this may be one outcome of students choosing which courses to take. In this study, the teacher suggested that allowing such students to read simple material of interest to them in Spanish would be a good way of keeping them busy and expanding their learning. In my opinion, such an activity would be beneficial for all FL and HL students. In Chapter 6, Section 6.2, I explored the benefits of free voluntary reading (sustained silent reading), documented by a variety of studies (Chang & Krashen, 1997; Cho & Choi, 2008; Kim & Krashen, 1998; Krashen, 2004; McQuillan & Krashen, 2007). For those students with lower literacy skills (such as some HL students), reading is one of the best ways for them improve their spelling and writing skills, while all students can benefit from learning more vocabulary through reading. Allowing students to choose what to read also increases the chances of them making the necessary effort to engage in the reading since, for many, reading in the foreign or heritage language is quite a struggle. Finally, teachers of mixed HL and FL classes have to reflect on the kinds of roles they wish their students to take in class. Although there is clear benefit to having HL students in class such as allowing other students to listen to them speaking Spanish with the teacher, teachers must be careful to not let some outgoing HL students who are very comfortable speaking Spanish \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctake over\u00E2\u0080\u009D the whole class (cf. Duff, 2002). In this study, some FL students complained that they did not have opportunities to practice speaking in class because some of their HL classmates were always able to answer the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s questions before they were. This not only impeded their learning but also did not allow them to showcase their knowledge in class. Teachers must therefore work hard to facilitate class discussions in order to allow all students to participate at their own speed and level. One way is to enforce rules such as asking students to raise their hands to the teacher can choose who is to speak next and if other students \u00E2\u0080\u009Cblurt out\u00E2\u0080\u009D answers, teachers can simply remind them that it is not their turn to speak and select another student. Teachers must also find ways to encourage the Spanish speaking of students who are more shy or lack confidence. Beaudrie and Ducar (2005) discuss how their beginning HL students who were reluctant to speak in class were often more comfortable practicing 208 their speaking in groups, rather than in front of the class. Therefore, doing more group work and encouraging students to speak more Spanish, in groups facilitated by SHL students comfortable speaking Spanish, seemed to be a helpful strategy in their study. Such a strategy may also help in mixed HL/FL classes. In this study, students seemed to use more Spanish when they engaged in a jigsaw activity and had SHL students in their groups than they often did in a whole class discussion. In conclusion, teachers can do a great deal to promote HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural knowledge and appreciation by choosing instructional activities which encourage them to learn more about their and other Hispanic cultures. For class discussions, they can choose topics that address issues their students may be struggling with, such as stereotypes or identity. Making time for students to engage in free voluntary reading would not only improve students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 literacy and vocabulary acquisition but also engage their interest and appreciation for the language. When grouping students, teachers must take into account issues such as age and friendship groups but still create groups which give students opportunities to work with those students that they may not normally choose to work with but would benefit from working with. Finally, teachers must be conscious of the kinds of roles their wish their HL students to play in a mixed HL/FL class. While such students can be an asset by providing a kind of immersion experience for their classmates, teachers must navigate their participation careful and take into account their FL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 needs to learn and showcase their learning by also giving them the floor. 8.4 Directions for Future Research This study sought to discover some of the ways that SHL students were positioned and positioned themselves with respect to, for example, their language expertise, and national and cultural heritage, in mixed SHL and SFL classes. The findings suggest that such positionings are indeed complex and depend on many factors such as the HL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 various language proficiencies, their displays or performances of such proficiencies, their views of Hispanic culture and their views of themselves in relation to various cultural stereotypes. While the findings in this study are valuable to the field of SHL research, particularly at the high school level, they are nevertheless limited to what goes on in one 209 language classroom. One direction of future research, therefore, would be to expand the scope of such a study by also observing the SHL students in their activities outside the class, both at school and in their home. For example, it was observed that one student in this study, Claude, engaged in code-switching and spoke more Spanish outside of class with her Hispanic friends, who were not in her Spanish class. Therefore, comparing SHL students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language use and cultural positioning in and out of class would make for very interesting research. Also interesting would be looking at how these same students used Spanish and engaged with their heritage at home, in the SHL community, and in courses not involving Spanish. Studies investigating interrelationships between learning at school and at home would be particularly illuminating. Another way in which this research could be expanded would be to conduct longitudinal, ethnographic studies of SHL students across several years of Spanish language study. Since age and social context are such important factors in students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 learning, it would be interesting to observe the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 language learning experiences in various classes, with various classmates and teachers. In this study, I was able to visit one class of Spanish 12 in the fall after my data collection, in which all four SHL students were students. I was struck by the different dynamic in the class and the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 different engagement. Making such comparisons in a more thorough and systematic way would provide many useful insights. Moreover, youth undergo many changes in the development of their identity and worldview during the adolescent years and following such students for several of their high school years would help us discover how these changes affect various aspects of the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 life, including their language learning. 8.5 Scope of the Study This study sought to investigate the positionings of SHL students in mixed high school SHL/SFL classes. Results from this study increase our understandings of the dynamics of teaching SHL students in high school settings. As a result of its qualitative nature, this study was concerned with the dynamics of a small sample of mixed SHL/SFL high school classes, focussing on just one for most of this thesis. The findings, while contributing to the research in this field, cannot be viewed as representative of such classes in other settings. This was, after all, a case study of one specific Spanish class with a particular group of students and teacher. The findings may therefore be more or 210 less applicable to classes in other settings. If more studies are undertaken, we will begin to see certain patterns, similarities and differences, which will help create a more complex picture of the dynamics at work in various such settings. As with other case studies, the research presented here provides an in-depth analysis of one unique Spanish 11 class. This class was dominated by a particularly strong focal participant, Tony, and also had a teacher with a unique biographical profile, in having been previously married to a Mexican, that no doubt influenced her teaching of SHL students and Spanish in general. As she herself pointed out during our interview, her own pre-teen son was a (future) SHL student. The class was also dominated by certain ideologies privileging oral performance of SHL students, which served to magnify Tony\u00E2\u0080\u0099s already-strong personality. In fact, displays of oral proficiency were equated with SHL student status. However, this study was also part of a larger study of three classes, in which each class presented a unique setting. For example, in one class the teacher (and students) placed a much stronger emphasis on literacy skills. In that context, the SHL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strong literacy skills were seen by them as indexing her SHL status to a greater degree than her oral skills, which not displayed to the same extent. All three classes, however, had certain key aspects in common. In all three, the teachers and students subscribed to various language ideologies which conflated certain language proficiencies and heritage, especially in relation to the SHL students in the class. Often it was the language skill most valued in each class that served to index SHL student status in that class. All classes also presented rich examples of positioning by teachers and students and showcased the identity struggles of various students. These themes, common to all three classes, are representative of the kinds of issues which may be encountered by teachers of SHL (and SFL) students at the high school level, and which need to be explored further in future studies. My own positionality as a non-Hispanic (former) high school Spanish teacher no doubt affected the findings in this study. At times I felt that my teacher identity influenced how I interacted with the students in the class, as well as how I reported my findings. For example, during my observations, I had a confrontation with Tony when I saw him copying Pat and, after subsequently reflecting on this interaction, I decided to try 211 to distance myself from my teacher persona and avoid such interactions in the future. Furthermore, my feeling that Tony did not make enough effort to learn in class impacted some of the wording of this thesis, particularly certain of my descriptions of Tony, which contained judgemental language. Since I did not share the same ethnicity as my focal participating students, it may be that my ability to understand their emic points of view was somewhat limited. On the other hand, having immigrated to Canada at a young age and having a heritage language myself did give me a point of commonality with these students. The fact that I was a high school Spanish teacher may also have affected how these students related to me although my (official) role in their class was that of researcher. However, this too could be seen as an asset in that I was able to understand their language struggles and being able to help them at times with their work may have helped the rapport between us. Finally my teacher identity may have also affected the teacher in my study as she may have felt more self-conscious of her teaching; on the other hand, she may also have viewed me as someone who understood the struggles she was facing in class. In fact, Ms. Lopez expressed both points of view at different times, at times expressing her self-consciousness at having me observe her classes (particularly the more challenging ones) while also expressing feelings of being understood by me as a fellow-teacher and discussing ways to approach various situations she encountered. 8.6 Concluding Remarks I believe this study highlights that language teachers are not simply teachers of language; they are teachers of students who have various histories, experiences and struggles. And they are positioners, socializers, performers, role models, identity workers, and so on. In their classroom, they have the opportunity to influence these students in many deep ways, one of which is helping them reconnect with their heritage language and culture, two very important goals in these students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives, or for novice learners, to make new connections with other cultures. Particularly during the teenage years, many students struggle with their identities and teachers represent one group of adults who can influence these students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 development in an important way. While the teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s role is very important, we must also not forget the important role that parents, families and communities play in this equation. If teachers are able to connect with a HL student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family and work together for that student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s benefit, the 212 results can be even more impressive. Teachers who are involved in and involve their HL students in the greater community of heritage can also have an important impact on their students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives. The task of teaching HL students in the same class as FL students represents many challenges and also many opportunities for the teacher. While this study highlights some of these, much remains to be learned about how to teach these groups of students successfully and in a way that benefits and provides opportunities for the students. It is a challenge that will only become more complex as people marry others from different cultures, families decide to move to different countries, and parents attempt to raise their children to learn their heritage language(s) and learn about their heritage cultures. 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New York: Teachers College Press. 225 Appendix A Certificate of Approval 226 Appendix B Recruitment Letter Dear Spanish teacher, My name is Klara Abdi and I am a Master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s student in the Department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). I am currently in the process of looking for Spanish teachers to participate in the research part of my thesis, supervised by Dr. Patricia Duff, LLED, UBC. The purpose of my study is to examine the interactions of students with a Hispanic background, who are known as heritage language students, and those from other backgrounds, in regular Spanish high school classes. The larger purposes behind the study are (1) to understand the processes and challenges of teaching diverse groups of Spanish language learners (e.g. heritage and non-heritage), and (2) to identify and understand ways to better assist other Spanish teachers in teaching diverse student populations. As part of the study I would be observing one of your Spanish classes in order to gain an understanding of the interactions taking place in that class. I would also be distributing questionnaires to you and your participating students and conducting interviews with you and selected focal students. The study would begin in the fall of 2005. If you are interested in participating or if you have any questions or desire further information with respect to this study, please contact Ms. Klara Abdi at 604-709-3403 or by email at writeklara@yahoo.com, or Dr. Patricia A. Duff at 604-822-9693 or by email at patricia.duff@ubc.ca. I truly appreciate your assistance with this research effort. Sincerely yours, Klara Abdi 227 Appendix C Informed Consent and Assent Forms Parental Consent Form Title of study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia A. Duff, Associate Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, 604-822-9693. Co-Investigator: Ms. Klara Abdi, Master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Student, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, 604-709-3403. This research is for Ms. Abdi\u00E2\u0080\u0099s MA thesis (public document). Purpose: The purpose of my study is to examine the interactions of students with a Hispanic background, which are known as heritage language students, and those from other backgrounds, in regular Spanish high school classes. The larger purpose behind the study is to assist Spanish teachers to teach diverse student populations. The study is being funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Study Procedure: From approximately September 2005 to March 2006, I will be observing your child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish class three times per week, taking notes about what goes on in the class, and audio taping the class activities. I will also hand out a 15-30 minute questionnaire to all participating students and the teacher. After a few weeks of observations, I will select my main participants with whom I will conduct a total of 2 hours of interviews (outside of class time at mutually convenient times and locations, on school grounds) and who I will be audio taping during class work. If you withhold consent for your child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation, they will continue to participate in the class in the same way they did before. No observations of your child will be recorded on paper nor will anything s/he says be transcribed from the audio tape. Confidentiality: Participants and the school will not be identified by name and pseudonyms will be used in any reports of the completed study. The identities of all participants will be kept strictly confidential and the audio tapes will be used only for data analysis. All information collected will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and on a computer that is password protected in Ms. Abdi\u00E2\u0080\u0099s home. Only Ms. Abdi and Dr. Duff, her faculty advisor, will have access to the data. All data will be destroyed 5 years after the end of the study. 228 Contact for information about the study: If you have any questions or desire further information with respect to this study, you may contact Dr. Patricia A. Duff at 604-822-9693 or Ms. Klara Abdi at 604-709-3403. Contact for concerns about the rights of research subjects: If you have any concerns about your child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s treatment or rights as a research subject, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC Office of Research Services at 604-822-8598. Consent: Your child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation in this study is entirely voluntary and you may refuse his/her participation or withdraw him/her from the study at any time without jeopardy to his/her results in Spanish class. 229 Statement of Informed Consent Title of study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Your signature below indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your own records. I consent / I do not consent (circle one) to my child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation in this study. Parent or Guardian Signature Date Printed Name of Parent or Guardian signing above. 230 Student Assent Form Title of study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia A. Duff, Associate Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, 604-822-9693. Co-Investigator: Ms. Klara Abdi, Master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Student, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, 604-709-3403. This research is for Ms. Abdi\u00E2\u0080\u0099s MA thesis (public document). Purpose: The purpose of my study is to examine the interactions of students with a Hispanic background, which are known as heritage language students, and those from other backgrounds, in regular Spanish high school classes. The larger purpose behind the study is to assist Spanish teachers to teach diverse student populations. The study is being funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Study Procedure: From approximately September 2005 to March 2006, I will be observing your Spanish class three times per week, taking notes about what goes on in the class, and audio taping the class activities. I will also hand out a 15-30 minute questionnaire to all participating students and the teacher. After a few weeks of observations, I will select my main participants with whom I will conduct a total of 2 hours of interviews (outside of class time at mutually convenient times and locations, on school grounds) and who I will be audio taping during class work. If you withhold assent for your participation, you will continue to participate in the class in the same way you did before. No observations of you will be recorded on paper nor will anything you say be transcribed from the audio tape. Confidentiality: Participants and the school will not be identified by name and pseudonyms will be used in any reports of the completed study. The identities of all participants will be kept strictly confidential and the audio tapes will be used only for data analysis. All information collected will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and on a computer that is password protected in Ms. Abdi\u00E2\u0080\u0099s home. Only Ms. Abdi and Dr. Duff, her faculty advisor, will have access to the data. All data will be destroyed 5 years after the end of the study. 231 Contact for information about the study: If you have any questions or desire further information with respect to this study, you may contact Dr. Patricia A. Duff at 604-822-9693 or Ms. Klara Abdi at 604-709-3403. Contact for concerns about the rights of research subjects: If you have any concerns about your treatment or rights as a research subject, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC Office of Research Services at 604-822-8598. Consent: Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary and you may refuse your participation or withdraw from the study at any time without jeopardy to your results in Spanish class. 232 Student Assent Form Title of study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Your signature below indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your own records. Your signature indicates that you consent to participate in this study. Student Signature Date Printed Name of the Student 233 Appendix D Questionnaires Questionnaire for Teachers Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL) students refers to those who have Spanish- speaking parents, grandparents or other ancestors and who have been exposed to Spanish in informal settings, such as the home or the community. 1. Where were you born? _________ 2. What is your first language? _________ 3. What is your dominant language? _________ 4. Please list all the languages you know and how well: English: oral: excellent good fair poor written: excellent good fair poor Spanish: oral: excellent good fair poor written: excellent good fair poor _________ oral: excellent good fair poor written: excellent good fair poor _________ oral: excellent good fair poor written: excellent good fair poor _________ oral: excellent good fair poor written: excellent good fair poor 5. If English is not your first language, when did you first start learning it? (indicate age) _________ (indicate context) __________ 6. If Spanish is not your first language, when did you first start learning it? (indicate age) _________ (indicate context) __________ 7. Please indicate in what context(s) you learned Spanish. (Check off all that apply.) ____ speaking with my family ____ in elementary school ____ in high school ____ in college or university ____ at work ____ during travel ____ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ 234 8. Have you ever visited a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where, in what year and how many months did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 9. Have you lived in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where, when and how many months or years did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 10. Have you gone to school in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where and in what grade(s) did you attend? Place(s): ___________________________ Grade(s): ___________________________ 11. How many years have you taught Spanish and at what levels? ____ _____________________________________________ 12. Please briefly describe your language teaching methodology. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 13. What are some of the factors that affect how you teach your class? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 14. How much Spanish do you think you use in class (the one that is being observed)? (e.g. Spanish 60%, English 40%) ______________________ 15. Do you think your amount of Spanish use is: (circle one) too much just right not enough Explain why you think so: __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 16. Do you use more Spanish with heritage language (HL) students? Yes No (Circle one) Why or why not? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 17. How do you feel about teaching a class that has HL students in it? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 235 18. What advantages or strengths, if any, do HL students in your classes have over other students because they learned Spanish at home? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 19. What disadvantages, if any, do HL students in your classes have in comparison with other students because they didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t learn Spanish in a formal classroom setting? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 20. How do you group students for group or pair work? Please describe different groupings (e.g. lower proficiency & higher proficiency; HL & non-HL) you have used and explain how effective they have been (their pros and cons). __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 21. What label(s) would you use to describe your ethnic background? (e.g. Mexican, Czech-Canadian, Canadian) ____________________________________ 22. Why do you prefer that label / those labels over others? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 23. In what ways are you currently exposed to Spanish in your free time? ___ I watch Spanish language TV and/or movies ___ I listen to Spanish language music ___ I listen to Spanish language radio programs ___ I read Spanish language books ___ I read Spanish language magazines and/or newspapers ___ I surf Spanish language sites on the Internet ___ I email in Spanish ___ I speak Spanish with friends and/or family ___ I hear and/or speak Spanish in my neighbourhood ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ THE END! THANK YOU FOR FILLING OUT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE! 236 Questionnaire for Spanish as a Heritage Language Students Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL) students refers to those who have Spanish- speaking parents, grandparents or other ancestors and who have been exposed to Spanish in informal settings, such as the home or the community. Please give the most accurate response(s) for the following questions. 1. Please provide your name, birth date and the grade you are currently in. _____________________________________________________________________ 2. Where were you born? ______________ 3. If you were not born in Canada, please indicate in which year you moved to Canada. _____________________________________________________________________ 4. If you ever moved away from Canada and lived abroad, please indicate where and in which years to you lived there. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 5. What is your first language? ________________ 6. What is your dominant language (the one you use most)? ____________ 7. If English is not your first language, when did you first start learning it? (indicate age) _________ (indicate context) ______________ 8. If Spanish is not your first language, when did you first start learning it? (indicate age) _________ (indicate context) ______________ 9. Please indicate the birthplace, first language and all additional languages spoken by each of the following people in your family: your younger sibling(s): _________ _________ ____________________ your older sibling(s): _________ _________ ______________________ your mother: _________ _________ ____________________________ your father: _________ _________ _____________________________ your maternal grandmother: _________ _________ ________________ your maternal grandfather: _________ _________ _________________ your paternal grandmother: _________ _________ _________________ your paternal grandfather: _________ _________ __________________ 237 10. Please indicate which language(s) you speak with each of the following and the percentage of the time. (e.g. mother: English 55%, Tagalog 45%) younger sibling(s): _______________________________ older sibling(s): ______________________________ mother: _______________________________ father: _______________________________ maternal grandparents: _______________________________ paternal grandparents: _______________________________ friends: _______________________________ acquaintances in your neighbourhood: ___________________________ strangers in your neighbourhood: _______________________________ 11. Please indicate which language(s) you speak in each of the following places and the percentage of the time. (e.g. Spanish class: Spanish 60%, English 30%, Vietnamese 10%) Spanish class: _______________________________ school hallway: _______________________________ home: _______________________________ store: _______________________________ place of worship: _______________________________ neighbourhood: _______________________________ 12. How important are each of the languages you speak in your personal life? (Circle a number next to each language \u00E2\u0080\u0093 5 means very important; 1 means not at all important. Add all languages you speak.) very somewhat not very not at all important important important important important Spanish: 5 4 3 2 1 English: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 13. How important are each of the languages you speak for your future professional life? (Circle a number next to each language \u00E2\u0080\u0093 5 means very important; 1 means not at all important. Add all languages you speak.) very somewhat not very not at all important important important important important Spanish: 5 4 3 2 1 English: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 238 14. Have you taken any other Spanish courses prior to this one? Yes No If you answered yes, please indicate the name of the course(s), where you took it/them and for how long. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 15. Have you ever visited your country of heritage or other Spanish speaking countries? Yes No If yes, where, in what year and how many months did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 16. Have you lived in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where, when and how many months or years did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 17. Have you gone to school in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where and in what grade(s) did you attend? Place(s): ___________________________ Grade(s): ___________________________ 18. How much Spanish do you think the teacher speaks in class? (e.g. Spanish 60%, English 40%) _________________________ 19. How would you rate your teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish abilities? (circle one) excellent good fair poor Explain your answer: __________________________________________________________________ 20. What do like most about this class? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 21. What do you like least about this class? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 22. What classroom activities do you enjoy most? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 23. What classroom activities do you enjoy least? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 239 24. Are there any classroom activities that you wish were done more often in this class? Why do think these activities are important? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 25. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with the teacher? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 26. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with students who have a background in Spanish (HL students)? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 27. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with students who do not have any background in Spanish (non-HL students)? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 28. Please indicate how much class time you spend talking to each of the following. (e.g. teacher: 15%; HL students: 70%; non-HL students: 15%) teacher: ______ HL students: ______ Non-HL students: ______ 29. How do you feel about being in a class where most of the students have no background in learning Spanish? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 30. What advantages or strengths, if any, do you feel you have over these students because you learned Spanish in at home? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 31. What disadvantages, if any, do you feel you have in comparison with these students because you learned Spanish at home? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 240 32. What label(s) would you use to describe your ethnic background? (e.g. Mexican, Czech-Canadian, Canadian) ____________________________________________ 33. Why do you prefer that label / those labels over others? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 34. Why did you decide to formally study Spanish? (Please check off all that apply.) ___ language requirement for college / university ___ counselors placed me in this class ___ my parents told me to enroll ___ I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to take French ___ I want to learn Spanish ___ I want to improve my Spanish ___ for an easy grade ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ 35. In what ways are you currently exposed to Spanish in your free time? ___ I watch Spanish language TV and/or movies ___ I listen to Spanish language music ___ I listen to Spanish language radio programs ___ I read Spanish language books ___ I read Spanish language magazines and/or newspapers ___ I read Spanish comics ___ I surf Spanish language sites on the Internet ___ I email or send text-messages in Spanish ___ I speak Spanish with friends and/or family ___ I hear and/or speak Spanish in the neighbourhood ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ 36. In what situation(s) do you foresee yourself using Spanish in the future? ___ with family members ___ in my neighbourhood ___ for my job ___ in my post-secondary studies ___ with my partner ___ with my children ___ during my travels ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ THE END! THANK YOU FOR FILLING OUT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE! 241 Questionnaire for Spanish as a Foreign Language Students Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL) students refers to those who have Spanish- speaking parents, grandparents or other ancestors and who have been exposed to Spanish in informal settings, such as the home or the community. Please give the most accurate response(s) for the following questions. 1. Please provide your name, birth date and the grade you are currently in. _____________________________________________________________________ 2. Where were you born? ______________ 3. If you were not born in Canada, please indicate in which year you moved to Canada. _____________________________________________________________________ 4. If you ever moved away from Canada and lived abroad, please indicate where and in which years to you lived there. Please indicate details of all such moves. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 5. What is your first language? _________ 6. What is your dominant language (the one you use most both orally and in writing)? _________ 7. If English is not your first language, when did you first start learning it? (indicate age) _________ (indicate context) ______________ 8. Please indicate the birthplace, first language and all additional languages spoken by each of the following people in your family: your younger sibling(s): _________ _________ ____________________ your older sibling(s): _________ _________ ______________________ your mother: _________ _________ ____________________________ your father: _________ _________ _____________________________ your maternal grandmother: _________ _________ ________________ your maternal grandfather: _________ _________ _________________ your paternal grandmother: _________ _________ _________________ your paternal grandfather: _________ _________ __________________ 242 9. Please indicate which language(s) you speak with each of the following and the percentage of the time. (e.g. mother: English 55%, Tagalog 45%) younger sibling(s): _______________________________ older sibling(s): ______________________________ mother: _______________________________ father: _______________________________ maternal grandparents: _______________________________ paternal grandparents: _______________________________ friends: _______________________________ acquaintances in your neighbourhood: ___________________________ strangers in your neighbourhood: _______________________________ 10. Please indicate which language(s) you speak in each of the following places and the percentage of the time. (e.g. Spanish class: Spanish 60%, English 30%, Vietnamese 10%) Spanish class: _______________________________ school hallway: _______________________________ home: _______________________________ store: _______________________________ place of worship: _______________________________ neighbourhood: _______________________________ 11. How important are each of the languages you speak in your personal life? (Circle a number next to each language \u00E2\u0080\u0093 5 means very important; 1 means not at all important. Add all languages you speak.) very somewhat not very not at all important important important important important English: 5 4 3 2 1 Spanish: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 12. How important are each of the languages you speak for your future professional life? (Circle a number next to each language \u00E2\u0080\u0093 5 means very important; 1 means not at all important. Add all languages you speak.) very somewhat not very not at all important important important important important English: 5 4 3 2 1 Spanish: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 ________: 5 4 3 2 1 243 13. Have you taken any other Spanish courses prior to this one? Yes No If you answered yes, please indicate the name of the course(s), where you took it/them and for how long. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 14. Have you ever visited a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where, in what year and how many months did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 15. Have you lived in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where, when and how many months or years did you spend there? Place(s): ___________________________ Year(s) Visited and Length of stay: _______________________________ 16. Have you gone to school in a Spanish speaking country? Yes No If yes, where and in what grade(s) did you attend? Place(s): ___________________________ Grade(s): ___________________________ 17. How much Spanish do you think the teacher speaks in class? (e.g. Spanish 60%, English 40%) _______________________ 18. How would you rate your teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish abilities? (circle one) excellent good fair poor Explain your answer: __________________________________________________________________ 19. What do like most about this class? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 20. What do you like least about this class? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 21. What classroom activities do you enjoy most? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 22. What classroom activities do you enjoy least? Why? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 244 23. Are there any classroom activities that you wish were done more often in this class? Why do think these activities are important? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 24. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with the teacher? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 25. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with students who have a background in Spanish (HL students)? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 26. Do you feel comfortable speaking Spanish with students who do not have any background in Spanish (non-HL students)? Yes No Explain your answer. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 27. Please indicate how much class time you spend talking to each of the following. (e.g. teacher: 10%; HL students: 20%; non-HL students: 70%) teacher: ______ HL students: ______ Non-HL students: ______ 28. How do you feel about being in a class where some of the students have a background in learning Spanish? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 29. What advantages or strengths, if any, do you feel you have over these students because you have learned Spanish in a classroom setting? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 30. What disadvantages, if any, do you feel you have in comparison with these students because you have learned Spanish in a classroom setting? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 245 31. What label(s) would you use to describe your ethnic background? (e.g. Mexican, Czech-Canadian, Canadian) ____________________________________ 32. Why do you prefer that label / those labels over others? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 33. Why did you choose to study Spanish? (Please check off all that apply.) ___ language requirement for college / university ___ counsellors placed me in this class ___ my parents told me to enrol ___ I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to take French ___ I want to learn Spanish ___ I want to improve my Spanish ___ it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s an easy class ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify _________________________________________________ 34. In what ways are you currently exposed to Spanish in your free time? ___ I watch Spanish language TV and/or movies ___ I listen to Spanish language music ___ I listen to Spanish language radio programs ___ I read Spanish language books ___ I read Spanish language magazines and/or newspapers ___ I read Spanish comics ___ I surf Spanish language sites on the Internet ___ I email or send text-messages in Spanish ___ I speak Spanish with friends and/or family ___ I hear and/or speak Spanish in the neighbourhood ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ 35. In what situation(s) do you foresee yourself using Spanish in the future? ___ with family members ___ in my neighbourhood ___ for my job ___ in my post-secondary studies ___ with my partner ___ with my children ___ during my travels ___ other \u00E2\u0080\u0093 please specify below _________________________________________________ THE END! THANK YOU FOR FILLING OUT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE! 246 Appendix E Interview Questions Interview for Teachers Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies 1. Tell me about yourself (your background). 2. How did you learn the different languages you speak and was it effective? 3. Tell me about your teaching background. 4. Tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of teaching a mixed class with HL students in it? 5. What specific strategies do you use to help all students in the class advance in their levels of Spanish? 6. What specific strategies do you use to make all students feel that their contributions to the class are important? 7. a) What do you see as successful participation in your class? b) Are there any students which you feel are not participating successfully in the class? c) Why do you think these students are not participating? d) What have you done to increase these students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation? 8. Do you think HL students participate more in class? 9. What topics / tasks do you notice HL students participating more in? 10. What topics / tasks do you notice non-HL students participating more in? 11. Do you usually group HL students together or try to separate them during pair/group work? Why? 12. Do you ask more questions of HL students or non-HL students? 13. What kinds of questions are you more likely to ask of HL students? 247 14. What kinds of questions are you more likely to ask of non-HL students? 15. How do you think being a native or non-native speaker of Spanish impacts your interactions with HL students? 16. How do you think being a native or non-native speaker of Spanish impacts your interactions with non-HL students? 17. Do you feel comfortable using Spanish with HL students? Why or why not? 18. Do you use more Spanish with them than with non-HL students? Why or why not? 19. Do you feel comfortable using Spanish with non-HL students? Why or why not? 20. Overall, do you feel good about your Spanish ability? Why or why not? 21. You stated on your questionnaire that you use Spanish ____% of the time in class. a) Why do you think that amount is effective? (if s/he stated that on the questionnaire) b) What keeps you from using more Spanish in class? (if s/he stated that s/he doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t use enough) c) Why do you think you use too much? (If s/he stated that s/he uses too much on questionnaire) 22. a) Do you feel you that HL students have more advantages over other students because they learned Spanish at home? b) How does that play out in the classroom? 23. a) Do you feel you that HL students have more disadvantages to other students because they didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t learn Spanish in a formal classroom setting? b) How does that play out in the classroom? 24. Do you use any Hispanic pop culture materials, such as music, magazines or internet sites, in class or for homework assignments? 25. How do you teach about Hispanic cultures in the class? 26. Which cultures do you focus on (e.g. Spanish, Mexican, indigenous)? 27. Do you take the class on any fieldtrips? If yes, please tell me about some of the fieldtrips you have taken. 28. Do you have to class participate in any activities or do any assignments where students have a chance to speak to members of the local Hispanic community? 29. How do you think the class could be run more effectively? 248 30. How many HL students do you usually have in your Spanish 11 class (other classes)? 31. What is the largest number of HL students which you have had in your class? (When and in what class?) 32. How are the classroom dynamics different when there are more HL students? 33. Do you see any trends in the numbers of HL students enrolling in Spanish classes over the years? 34. Do you know any Hispanic students who have shared with you why they did NOT choose to take Spanish? 35. How many students per year usually challenge the Spanish 12 exam (rather than enrol in Spanish class) as far as you are aware? 36. What do you think is the reason that those students choose to challenge the exam (rather than enrol in Spanish class)? 37. In general, do you encourage or discourage HL students from taking Spanish? 38. Is there any context in which you would discourage (if said encourage) / encourage (if said discourage) the students? 39. Please describe any other context (other than Spanish class) in which you taught HL students? 40. How were these classes successful or unsuccessful and why? 249 Interview for Spanish as a Heritage Language Students Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. What do you feel are some of the strongest aspects of your identity? 3. How would you describe yourself in terms of your ethnic background? 4. Tell me which language(s) are most important to you and why. 5. Which language(s) do you think will be important to you in the future and why? 6. Tell me about your reasons for studying Spanish in a formal context. 7. What has your experience been like in this Spanish class? Tell me about your positive and negative experiences. 8. What do like most about class? Why? 9. What do you like least? Why? 10. What classroom activities do you enjoy most? Why? 11. What classroom activities do you enjoy least? Why? 12. What topic(s) of study have you enjoyed most? Why? 13. What topic(s) of study have you enjoyed least? Why? 14. Has your experience in this class been different from your experiences in other Spanish classes in the past? How? 15. How would you describe your teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish ability? 16. Would your perception of your teacher change if s/he was a (non-) native speaker of Spanish? How? 17. What language do you usually use with the teacher in class? Why? 18. What language do you usually use with the teacher outside of formal class time? Why? 250 19. How much time do you spend talking to HL students in the class a) during group work? b) for social reasons? 20. What language do you usually use with them? Why? 21. How much time do you spend talking to non-HL students in the class a) during group work b) for social reasons 22. What language do you usually use with them? Why? 23. Do you feel you have more advantages over non-HL students because you learned Spanish in at home? Why or why not? 24. Do you feel you have more disadvantages to non-HL students because you learned Spanish at home? Why or why not? 25. How do you think the class could be run better? 26. In what circumstances would you be more likely to use Spanish in class? 27. How do you think the class would be different is there were more Hispanic students in it? 28. Would you like it better if there were more HL students in it? 29. Tell me about some of the ways that you are exposed to Spanish outside of class. 30. Do you have Spanish-speaking friends with whom you spend time? 31. Are they enrolled in Spanish? 32. (If they are not taking Spanish) \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Do you know why they are not taking Spanish? 251 Interview for Spanish as a Foreign Language Students Title of Study: Teaching Spanish Heritage Language Learners and Foreign Language Students in Integrated Classrooms: Finding Effective Strategies 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. What do you feel are some of the strongest aspects of your identity? 3. How would you describe yourself in terms of your ethnic background? 4. Tell me which language(s) are most important to you and why. 5. Which language(s) do you think will be important to you in the future and why? 6. Tell me about your reasons for choosing to study Spanish. 7. What has your experience been like in this Spanish class? Tell me about your positive and negative experiences. 8. What do like most about class? Why? 9. What do you like least? Why? 10. What classroom activities do you enjoy most? Why? 11. What classroom activities do you enjoy least? Why? 12. What topic(s) of study have you enjoyed most? Why? 13. What topic(s) of study have you enjoyed least? Why? 14. Has your experience in this class been different from your experiences in other Spanish classes in the past? How? 15. How would you describe your teacher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Spanish ability? 16. Would your perception of your teacher change if s/he were a (non-) native speaker of Spanish? 17. What language do you usually use with the teacher? Why? 18. What language do you usually use with the teacher outside of formal class time? Why? 252 19. How much time do you spend talking to HL students in the class c) during group work? d) for social reasons? 20. What language do you usually use with them? Why? 21. How much time do you spend talking to non-HL students in the class 22. during group work 23. for social reasons 24. What language do you usually use with them? Why? 25. Do you feel you have more advantages over HL students because you learned Spanish in a class? Why or why not? 26. Do you feel you have more disadvantages to HL students because you learned Spanish in a class? Why or why not? 27. How do you think the class could be run better? 28. In what circumstances would you be more likely to use Spanish in class? 29. How do you think the class would be different is there were more Hispanic students in it? 30. Would you like it better if there were more HL students in it? 31. Tell me about some of the ways that you are exposed to Spanish outside of class. 32. Do you have Spanish-speaking friends with whom you spend time? 33. Are they enrolled in Spanish? 34. (If they are not taking Spanish) \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Do you know why they are not taking Spanish? 253 Appendix F Transcription Conventions 81 (0.4) The number in brackets indicates a time gap in tenths of a second. (.) A dot enclosed in a bracket indicates a pause in the talk of less than two tenths of a second (( )) A description enclosed in a double bracket provides additional information. It may indicate a non-verbal activity, for example ((nodding his head)). It may provide grammatical information in a translation, for example ((m.s.)) indicates the original word in Spanish was marked for masculine singular. : Colons indicate that the speaker has stretched the preceding sound or letter. The more colons the greater the extent of the stretching. x An \u00E2\u0080\u0098x\u00E2\u0080\u0099 indicates the presence of an unclear word in the recording. The number of \u00E2\u0080\u0098x\u00E2\u0080\u0099s indicates the number of unclear words. (guess) The words within a single bracket indicate the transcriber\u00E2\u0080\u0099s best guess at an unclear fragment in the recording. Under Underlined words indicate speaker emphasis Bold Words in bold indicate sections of talk the author wants to draw the reader\u00E2\u0080\u0099s attention to. CAPITALS With the exception of proper nouns, capital letters in indicate a section of speech noticeably louder than that surrounding it. \u00CB\u009A \u00CB\u009A Degree signs are used to indicate that the talk they encompass is spoken noticeably quieter than the surrounding talk. = The \u00E2\u0080\u0098equals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 sign indicates contiguous utterances. [ A left-hand bracket indicates the beginning of overlapping speech, shown for both speakers. It also indicates that speakers start a turn simultaneously. 81 Adapted from Wooffitt (2001) 254 Italics Utterances in italics indicate the utterance is in Spanish. { } Words inside curly brackets provide the English translation of an utterance in Spanish. "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "2009-11"@en . "10.14288/1.0067630"@en . "eng"@en . "Modern Languages Education"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International"@en . "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"@en . "Graduate"@en . "Spanish heritage language learners in Canadian high school Spanish classes : negotiating ethnolinguistic identities and ideologies"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12569"@en .