Teaching Spanish to Native Spanish Speakers Web site
The Alliance has redesigned the Teaching Spanish to Native Spanish Speakers (SNS) Web site to make information about the Spanish-speaking population in the United States and resources for working with Spanish speakers in Spanish language programs more readily available. Learn more.
The Alliance has developed the Heritage Voices Collection, an online series designed to allow heritage language speakers and programs to share their unique voices with visitors to our Web site.
About Us
Language Representatives
Language Representatives are individuals who are serving in leadership capacities in a language area or geographical area of the country and contribute to the work of the Alliance in one or more of the following ways:
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Help to build the Online Collection of Heritage Language Program Profiles by completing profiles of programs or by contacting heritage language programs and encouraging them to complete a profile.
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Let programs know about the resources available on the Alliance Web site.
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Write about the Alliance Web site, resources, and program profiles in journals, magazines, newsletters, and flyers.
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Build coalitions of programs and individuals in their language group or geographical area that will work with the Alliance in appropriate ways.
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Represent the work of the Alliance in their language or geographical area by taking Alliance flyers to meetings and conferences; letting colleagues, constituents, and programs know about the work of the Alliance; inviting Alliance Steering Committee members to attend and make presentations at meetings and conferences; giving workshops for teachers and sponsoring local meetings on heritage language issues.
Dr. Surendra Gambhir
South Asian Languages
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Dr. Gambhir is collecting profiles of heritage language programs (community-based, K-12, and higher education) that focus on development of South Asian languages, with a specific focus on Hindi and Urdu. He would love to hear from you and profile your program. Contact him at sgambhir@sas.upenn.edu.
Professor Gambhir was a distinguished member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania between 1973 and 2008. His research in the Caribbean countries and the United States has focused on language preservation and decay in immigrant communities. He has been an active participant in the heritage languages movement in the United States for over ten years, with a specialty in Hindi and Urdu. He was a visiting professor at Cornell University and University of Wisconsin, founding Director of the Penn-in-India study-abroad program, Chair of the Language Committee of the American Institute of Indian Studies, and academic director of 13 study abroad South Asian language programs (1998-2007). He has been member/ chair of many national and international committees and a keynote speaker in various national and international meetings in India, Prague, Mauritius, and the United States. He was an invited speaker at the Regional Hindi Conference in Tokyo in 2006, and was recently honored at the World Hindi Convention in New York in 2007 as one of the 27 international scholars of Hindi. He is the author/co-author of five books and numerous articles in linguistics, language pedagogy, Sanskrit literature, study abroad programs, and the Indian diaspora. He has contributed to international journals and encyclopedias and has authored many pedagogic materials for Hindi, including textbooks and proficiency tests. He has conducted language pedagogy workshops and has been consultant to Hindi language programs in the United States. His published articles on heritage language issues include “Truly Less Commonly Taught Languages and Heritage Languages in the United States” in Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource.
Visit the new Web pages focusing on South Asian languages and culture.
Dr. Renate Ludanyi
German
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Dr. Renate Ludanyi is creating a network of community-based heritage language schools in Connecticut and creating a network among German schools in the United States. Dr. Lydanyi is the president of the umbrella organization, the German Language School Conference. In this connection she works with the German school authorities and government agencies in the Federal Republic of Germany responsible for German schools abroad.
Being strongly convinced that "the cultural heritage of the German-speaking countries of Europe and their language [should] not be lost among the German-speaking descendants in the United States," Dr. Ludanyi has made community-based German schools a welcoming place for those interested in studying German and learning about its cultures. Her efforts to sustain awareness about the need to strengthen German heritage culture and language in the U.S. were recognized when she received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr. Ludanyi can be contacted at tludanyi@snet.net.
Dr. Ludanyi is the president, co-founder, and principal of the German School in Connecticut (GSC). The idea of founding the GSC was a reaction to the decline of the teaching of German language in Connecticut schools in the late 1970s. Since its founding in 1978, Dr. Ludanyi, in collaboration with parents and many volunteers, has made the GSC a success and has sought to strengthen the historical and cultural ties among members of the German-speaking community in Connecticut.
Dr. Kim Potowski
Spanish
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Dr. Kim Potowski works with the Alliance as a Spanish language representative in the Midwest, specifically working with heritage language schools in Chicago. Dr. Potowski directs the Heritage Language Cooperative, a multidisciplinary initiative housed in the Department of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Participants conduct original research on heritage language communities in the Chicago area. If you are interested in collaborating on a project involving a heritage language in the Chicago area, please contact Dr. Potowski at kimpotow@uic.edu.
Dr. Potowski is Associate Professor of Hispanic linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she directs a Spanish for heritage speakers program. Her research focuses on Spanish in the United States. Her publications include a book about a dual immersion school, Language and identity in a dual immersion school (Multilingual Matters, 2007) and recent studies about discourse markers, Spanish use in Chicago quinceañeras, and ethnolinguistic identity among “MexiRican” individuals. Her most recent book, Language Diveristy in the U.S. (Cambridge University Press, 2009) profiles the top 11 non-English languages spoken in the United States, with special chapters devoted to Native American languages, language contact, and language policy. She has given lectures, workshops, and courses around the United States, Canada, and Spain on teaching Spanish to heritage speakers. She is executive editor of the journal Spanish in Context. She has developed a curriculum for teaching Spanish to Spanish speakers, described in an article and soon to be available online (Potowski, Berne, Clark, & Hammerand, 2008, Spanish for K-8 heritage speakers: A standards-based curriculum project. Hispania, 91(1), 25-41).
Dr. Chang Pu
Chinese
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Dr. Pu is supporting the Alliance by profiling community-based Chinese heritage language programs. In addition, she plans to work to establish coalitions and collaboration between the Alliance and Chinese heritage language schools, share information and resources from the Alliance with heritage language practitioners, support heritage language teachers’ professional development, conduct research on heritage language issues, and make conference presentations on her research. Contact her at pu.chang@gmail.com.
Dr. Chang Pu is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education (ESOL) at Berry College, GA. Her research interests include language minority education (heritage language education, ESL, and bilingual education), second language teaching and learning, classroom-based research in language and literacy development, and language teacher preparation. She has published on language minority education, language planning, and discourse analysis. She conducted a series of research projects with her colleagues on Chinese American students’ heritage language learning, language use, and identity construction in Chinese heritage language classrooms.
Ezzeddine Saidi
Arabic
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Ezzeddine Saidi was Scholar in Residence for the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages at the Center for Applied Linguistics in the summer 2009. His tasks at CAL included writing profiles and spotlights of two French and German heritage languages programs. Ezzeddine is a native speaker of Arabic and teaches general and applied linguistics at the Higher Institute of Languages, University of Gabes, Tunisia. He is committed to working with the Alliance from his country by helping with writing profiles, spotlights, and heritage voices on Arabic and French. Ezzeddine is looking forward to receiving information about Arabic and French heritage language programs in the US and will be happy to work with these programs to add them to the Alliance database. He can be contacted at esaidi@cal.org.
Ezzeddine is a PhD candidate in the Applied Linguistics program at the Higher Institute of Languages, University of Tunis, Tunisia. His PhD research project t is on “Evaluation of Tunisian EFL teachers’ pre-and in-service EFL teacher training: Exploring the form and content of teacher development and its impact on classroom practice.” His other research interests include the teaching of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) and language-in-education planning and policy.
Daniela Schiano di Cola
Italian
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Daniela graduated in 2009 from the College of William and Mary, where she studied Linguistics with a concentration on heritage language policy and education. Her research interests include heritage language education and methodology, foreign and heritage language policy, and linguistic discrimination. In the spring of 2009, Daniela co-founded a student-run organization, Heritage Language Learners of William and Mary (HelloWM), which seeks to expand the breadth of heritage and foreign languages taught on campus. The organization connects students who want to teach their heritage languages with those who want to learn their heritage languages. Learn more about HelloWM's mission and initiatives at www.hellowm.org. Daniela is working with the Alliance by contacting and profiling community-based Italian heritage language programs. Contact her at daschi87@gmail.com.
