The Ginger Marcus Foreign Language Learning Speaker Series: Lecture

Heritage Language Learners: Charting New Pathways for Language Education
Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 4:00 PM
Women's Formal Lounge

Guest Speaker: Maria Carreira

(Executive Director, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), Professor Emerita of Spanish, California State University, Long Beach)

In this presentation, Dr. Carreira introduces a population of language learners who are transforming the landscape of language education: heritage language learners (HLLs). Focusing on language teaching and learning, she explores what distinguishes HLLs from second-language learners (L2s) and highlights specialized pedagogical approaches that address their particular needs while building on their linguistic and cultural strengths.

Following this overview, she discusses some of the key challenges the language education field faces in meeting the needs of these students. She concludes by considering the promise of heritage learners to chart new pathways for language education as a whole - pathways that reshape how instruction is structured, how students are recruited, and how language education can be positioned as an essential, integrated part of the broader K–12 educational enterprise rather than a specialized or peripheral subject area.

This presentation is designed for all language educators, whether or not they currently teach heritage learners, and invites reflection on how the growing presence of these students can enrich and renew the field for everyone.

Sponsored by:
Department of Comparative Literature and Thought, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies; the Applied Linguistics Program; the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.