No Child Left Behind Kids Go to College: Mediating Linguistic (In)Security With Multilingual Instruction

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtable Session 5
  In Invited Roundtable: Policy, Practice, and Identity in Language Learner Education (Table 17)

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind era (2002-2015), anchored in monolingual educational policies, deleteriously impacted heritage speakers of Spanish (HSS) through promoting linguistic insecurity. Despite the stigma perpetuated against their multilingualism during their childhood, these new HSS are now entering college and are increasingly interested in embracing their multilingualism by enrolling in Romance language courses, notably French. Could learning French contribute to remedy HSS' linguistic insecurity? This mixed-methods study 1) compares HSS learners of French to other learners of French in terms of letter grade performance, linguistic insecurity and socioeconomic pressures, and 2) sheds light on how HSS navigate their experiences with linguistic (in)security throughout their education in French.

Author

• Scarlet Peterson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign