Farah Ali, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish

In this Next Page column, Farah Ali, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish, shares why she celebrates “the good, the bad, and the weird” in her reading life, which writer’s grocery lists she would read if given the chance, and why it’s important to read outside of your comfort zone

Gendered Identity and Investment in Language Learning: A Case Study of Heritage Spanish Speakers

Much of the existing research in second and heritage language acquisition (S/HLA) takes a traditional approach of focusing on the cognitive processes involved in S/HLA, as well as the resulting outcomes. A relatively recent approach that has emerged in S/HLA scholarship, however, relates the learner to the social world in terms of how sociocultural contexts may shape an individual’s language learning experiences and their personal investment in the process. This emergent approach also challenges traditional categorical conceptions of identity, positing that it is dynamic, fluid, constructed, and negotiated in social contexts. Following this approach, my objective is to demonstrate how identity plays a role in heritage Spanish speakers’ investment in language learning. Specifically, I rely on learners’ narratives to look at how distinctive gendered identities and social expectations interact with heritage identity, and how they collectively may be contributing factors that shape heritage language learning in and outside of the classroom

Identity and investment in language learning: A case study of heritage Spanish speakers

Norton (2000) argues that investment in L2 acquisition is also an investment in learner identity, which changes in the context of time and space – a notion that also has relevance for heritage learners. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine investment in language learning among HL Spanish speakers and the role of identity in their learning experiences. This study comprises of ten participants enrolled in an HL Spanish course who completed a background questionnaire, interviews, and writing prompts. Using narrative analysis, this study examines participants’ reflections on their heritage identity, HL exposure, and their investment, experiences and progress in their HL course. Results show that participants demonstrate varying degrees of investment in the HL, and heritage identity plays a role in this variance

The Bold and the Beautiful: Portraiture in Pakistani Truck Art

The evolution of portraiture in Pakistani truck painting is indicative of strong global influences and local folk elements coming together. Without much patronage or formal vocational guidance, truck painters have inadvertently created a contemporary pop culture phenomenon internationally recognized today as distinctly Pakistani. Truck art and its artists\u27 role in carving out a national identity for Pakistan is a postmodernist continuation of cultural legacies. I argue that truck art has now transcended into a “glocal” entity, more in terms of subject matter than stylistic representation, mainly due to the relentless underappreciated efforts of its artists and that this fusion of the local and the global is most obvious in the burgeoning of truck portraiture

Instructor L1 Use and Its Impact on L2 Classroom Learning

Despite a general tendency to avoid L1 use in the L2 classroom, pedagogical research has recently begun to challenge the predominantly monolingual approach to L2 teaching, and reassign the role of the L1 as a useful tool for both instructors and learners (Cook, 2001; Levine, 2011; Turball & Dailey O’Cain, 2009). However, while it is evident from previous research that the L1 serves several functions in the L2 classroom - and perhaps has an unavoidable presence that should be acknowledged - few studies look at how L1 use can positively impact L2 learners\u27 classroom experiences and learning outcomes. The present study looks at instructor L1 use as it relates to learners’ perceptions of their learning, as well as actual outcomes in terms of grammatical competence. Using data collected from a pilot study as well as an expanded follow-up study, this article aims to investigate the use of the L1 (English) in the L2 (Spanish) classroom in terms of instructor use and its relation to learners’ perceived competence in L2 grammar. Results from both studies conform to previous findings in terms of the contexts in which the L1 is used by instructors. Furthermore, these results suggest that the L1 plays an important role in facilitating communication and establishing a rapport between instructors and learners, and through this may also positively impact learners\u27 confidence and perceived competence in L2 grammar

Code-Switching Among Heritage Spanish Speakers: Attitudes, Practices, and Pedagogical Implications

Code-switching is perhaps one of the most salient linguistic practices among Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S., and therefore widely investigated. (Bailey 2000; Kern 2019; Lipski 2014). While code-switching is typically associated with bilinguals who are highly proficient in two languages (Balukas & Koops 2014; Benevento & Dietrich 2015; Poplack 1980; Rangel et al. 2015), it is crucial to also highlight the code-switching practices of bilinguals who may have unequal levels of proficiency in each language, such as in the case of some heritage language (HL) learners. The present study examines socio-pragmatic functions of code-switching among heritage learners of Spanish. Using data from questionnaires and interviews, this study looks at instances of and attitudes towards code-switching. Findings indicate that code-switching was generally viewed favorably among participants, and commonly practiced by most of the participants in a variety of social contexts. Interview data also suggests that code-switching serves various socio-pragmatic functions for participants. Given the double stigma attached to both code-switching (Rangel et. al 2015) and to Spanish in the U.S. (Showstack 2012)—which often informs HL pedagogy—it is crucial to examine this linguistic practice in the context of HL learners in the U.S. in order to give code-switching a more prominent place and offer further legitimization of this practice, both in and outside the classroom

Putting Policy into Practice: The Problematisation of Catalan Language Planning and Ideologies in Media Discourse

The revitalization of the Catalan language has been an ongoing effort in Catalonia for decades. The language policies that have stemmed from this effort have perpetuated ideologies that promote the use and legitimization of Catalan as both an official and a vehicular language. While this effort is widely regarded as an example of successful language revitalization, the process has not been without conflict between Spanish and Catalan, particularly in terms of domains of use and disparate attitudes towards the two languages (Newman & Trenchs-Parera, 2015; Woolard, 2016; Soler & Gallego-Balsà, 2019; Ianos et al., 2020). Given that these policies aim to be implemented in public sectors, the objective of this study is to examine how media discourse represents language practices in such domains. Using critical discourse analysis, the present study draws on articles from Madrid- and Catalonia-based news sources that focus on language use in public sectors. While differing perspectives on language use frequently appear together in the same texts, Madrid- and Catalonia-based sources at times use different linguistic strategies to report the same events and often produce seemingly contradictory discourse, such as reporting language discrimination against both Spanish and Catalan speakers in the same domains

Book review: Players and arenas: the interactive dynamics ofprotest edited by James M. Jasper and Jan Willem Duyvendak

Players and Arenas: The Interactive Dynamics of Protest , edited by James M. Jasper and Jan Willem Duyvendak, employs a strategic interaction perspective to the study of social movements, bringing to the fore the relational dynamics between various players across different social arenas. In the face of mounting criticism of the movement-centric nature of the scholarship in this field, this effort is an invaluable contribution, writes Asma Ali Farah