Heritage Language Programs in the United States

Heritage Language Programs in the United States: A Brief Survey

COMMUNITY-BASED HERITAGE LANGUAGE SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES

A community-based heritage language school or program teaches the language that the students speak at home or in their community. These schools operate outside the public and private school system (although they may be held in a school) and are often run by members of the community that speaks the language.

Dear colleagues,

During the Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference at American University in Washington, D.C in 2015., participants agreed that community-based heritage language (HL) schools need to be recognized more widely and represented in official statistics on language teaching in the United States. Statistics about language programs exist by state and on a national basis, but they usually do not include the teaching of heritage languages in schools outside the public/private school system. Where they are available, statistics about heritage language speakers and programs are collected only for certain languages, and even those are often difficult to find and use.

This is the first survey that attempts to reach and document all of the community-based schools teaching heritage languages in the United States. The result of this and subsequent surveys will provide important data about heritage language schools and will benefit the field of heritage language education. In addition, it will give us the opportunity to showcase these schools for mainstream educators and the wider public interested in teaching world languages and cultures. The findings of this survey will complement current educational statistics and enhance our knowledge about heritage language schools. The emerging field of heritage language education will benefit markedly from this first attempt at systematic data collection about these programs.

The survey will take you only a few minutes to complete. We will send survey results to Language Representatives for distribution to their communities, and we will welcome your input regarding the results and our next steps.

Please support this newly formed National Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools, our web site at the National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC) at UCLA, which is well underway (http://heritagelanguageschools.org), and ways that you can get involved with the coalition. If you have any questions, please write to us at the email below.

Please visit our Facebook page for news and updates: https://www.facebook.com/HeritageLanguageSchools

We hold an annual conference specifically for community-based heritage language schools for all languages at the American University in Washington, DC, in early October. We would love for you to come and share your experiences with us. You can learn about our next conference here: Annual Conference (heritagelanguageschools.org).

Thank you very much for participating with us in this effort! We look forward to learning about your schools and collaborating with you in the future.

If you have any questions about the survey or anything else about our work, please write to us in the email below.

Data Collection Team
National Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools
Heritage Language (joy@peytons.us)

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* 1. Name of your school/program

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* 2. Street Address of your school/program (to be used on the map so please do not provide PO box information)

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* 3. City of your school/program

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* 4. State where your school/program is located

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* 5. Zip code of your school/program

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* 6. Name and title of a contact person

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* 7. E-mail of contact person

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* 8. Language/s taught in your program

Arabic

Chinese

Czech

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Latin

Lithuanian

Marathi

Norwegian

Passamaquoddy

Persian/Farsi/Dari

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbian

Slovak

Spanish

Swedish

Tamil

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

Urdu

Vietnamese

Other

Other (please specify)

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* 9. Where do you hold your classes?

public school

private school

church, temple, etc.

library, community center or other non-school public place

home or private facility

Other (please specify)

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* 10. Do you own the facility?

Yes

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* 11. Do you rent the facility?

Yes

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* 12. When was your program established (e.g. 1987)?

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* 13. How many classes does your program offer?

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* 14. On what day(s) do your classes meet?

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

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* 15. What is the average instructional time? (How many hours per week per class?)

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* 16. How many teachers work in your program?

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* 17. How many teachers have academic training (degree) in language education, teacher education, or any other closely related field?

	academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	Neither
All	All academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	All teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	All Neither
More than 90%	More than 90% academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	More than 90% teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	More than 90% Neither
More than 70%	More than 70% academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	More than 70% teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	More than 70% Neither
More than half	More than half academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	More than half teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	More than half Neither
Less than half	Less than half academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	Less than half teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	Less than half Neither
Less than 25%	Less than 25% academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential)	Less than 25% teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training)	Less than 25% Neither

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* 18. How many students are enrolled in the program this school year?

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* 19. Rank the student age groups by size:
(1=age category with the most students, 5=age category with the least students)

Preschool

K-4 (elementary)

5-8 (middle school)

9-12 (high school)

adults

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* 20. By approximate percentage, how many of the students in the program are heritage speakers of the language taught? (They and their family members speak the language at home.)

90-100%

70-90%

50-70%

Less than 50%

Less than 25%

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* 21. Do you train your students to take official tests?

	Prepare students for the test(s)	Administer the test(s)
AP	AP Prepare students for the test(s)	AP Administer the test(s)
One of the AAT’s (if available)	One of the AAT’s (if available) Prepare students for the test(s)	One of the AAT’s (if available) Administer the test(s)
OPI, etc.	OPI, etc. Prepare students for the test(s)	OPI, etc. Administer the test(s)
Standard tests of your country	Standard tests of your country Prepare students for the test(s)	Standard tests of your country Administer the test(s)
Tests of your government created for students abroad	Tests of your government created for students abroad Prepare students for the test(s)	Tests of your government created for students abroad Administer the test(s)
We do not prepare students for any official tests	We do not prepare students for any official tests Prepare students for the test(s)	We do not prepare students for any official tests Administer the test(s)

Other (please specify)

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* 22. Do you charge tuition?

Yes

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* 23. If Yes, how much per year?

$50 – $250

$251 – $750

$751 – $1,000

$1,001 – $1,250

More than $1,251 (please specify below)

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* 24. Do you receive funding other than from tuition fees?

Yes

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* 25. If Yes, please check all that funding sources that apply

From your government

From companies

From grants

From private/individual donors

Other (please specify)

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* 26. Does your program also offer activities, classes, or lectures for parents of the students in the program?

Yes

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* 27. If Yes, what programs do you offer? Mark all that applies

Classes

Films

Lectures

Family events, community dinners

Traditional holiday events

Excursions, visits to museums, etc.

Other (please specify)

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* 28. If you answer Yes for question 26, how often does this take place?

Once a week

Once every two weeks

Once a month

Less often than once a month

Other (please specify)

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* 29. Please indicate if you are willing to be included in further data collection efforts about HL schools.

Yes

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* 30. If you would like to receive the results of the survey, please put your name and email address here.

Name

E-Mail address

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* 1. Name of your school/program

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* 2. Street Address of your school/program (to be used on the map so please do not provide PO box information)

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* 3. City of your school/program

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* 4. State where your school/program is located

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* 5. Zip code of your school/program

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* 6. Name and title of a contact person

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* 7. E-mail of contact person

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* 8. Language/s taught in your program

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* 9. Where do you hold your classes?

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* 10. Do you own the facility?

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* 11. Do you rent the facility?

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* 12. When was your program established (e.g. 1987)?

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* 13. How many classes does your program offer?

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* 14. On what day(s) do your classes meet?

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* 15. What is the average instructional time? (How many hours per week per class?)

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* 16. How many teachers work in your program?

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* 17. How many teachers have academic training (degree) in language education, teacher education, or any other closely related field?

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* 18. How many students are enrolled in the program this school year?

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* 19. Rank the student age groups by size:(1=age category with the most students, 5=age category with the least students)

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* 20. By approximate percentage, how many of the students in the program are heritage speakers of the language taught? (They and their family members speak the language at home.)

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* 21. Do you train your students to take official tests?

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* 22. Do you charge tuition?

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* 23. If Yes, how much per year?

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* 24. Do you receive funding other than from tuition fees?

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* 25. If Yes, please check all that funding sources that apply

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* 26. Does your program also offer activities, classes, or lectures for parents of the students in the program?

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* 27. If Yes, what programs do you offer? Mark all that applies

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* 28. If you answer Yes for question 26, how often does this take place?

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* 29. Please indicate if you are willing to be included in further data collection efforts about HL schools.

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* 30. If you would like to receive the results of the survey, please put your name and email address here.

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* 31. Please suggest additional questions that should be asked.

* 19. Rank the student age groups by size:
(1=age category with the most students, 5=age category with the least students)