Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish
IntroductionWhile a growing body of research indicates that Spanish language courses can promote Spanish maintenance and lead to overall improved educational outcomes among heritage speakers, there is little empirical or longitudinal evidence of factors that shape their enrollment in Spanish languag...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035716/full |
| _version_ | 1797947471954968576 |
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| author | My V. H. Nguyen Ellen J. Serafini Jennifer Leeman Adam Winsler |
| author_facet | My V. H. Nguyen Ellen J. Serafini Jennifer Leeman Adam Winsler |
| author_sort | My V. H. Nguyen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionWhile a growing body of research indicates that Spanish language courses can promote Spanish maintenance and lead to overall improved educational outcomes among heritage speakers, there is little empirical or longitudinal evidence of factors that shape their enrollment in Spanish language courses at the secondary level. To address this issue, the current study takes a large-scale, longitudinal approach to investigate rates of enrollment in secondary school (6th–12th grade) Spanish and other non-English language courses, as well as factors that predict heritage speakers’ enrollment and performance in non-English language courses.MethodWe analyzed subsample data from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP), a large-scale, longitudinal study consisting of 17,341 heritage speakers of Spanish (47% female, 95.4% Hispanic/Latino, 82.8% received free/reduced-price lunch, and 18.3% with a disability) who were followed from 4 years old until the end of high school.ResultsIn general, Heritage speakers enrolled in Spanish language courses at a higher rate than other non-English language courses (52.2 and 25.3%, respectively). Enrollment patterns varied across different type of languages and grade level. Student-level factors including disability status, poverty status, early behavioral problems, and prior academic achievement significantly predicted students’ enrollment in Spanish and performance in non-English language courses.DiscussionFindings shed light on the long-term patterns of language study of this growing segment of the US school population with implications for future research and school policies that seek to improve heritage language learning and maintenance as well as equitable access to language education for language-minority students. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:28:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-789c65a9c3864435b46382ce57757226 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:28:31Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-789c65a9c3864435b46382ce577572262023-01-19T15:21:51ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-01-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.10357161035716Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of SpanishMy V. H. Nguyen0Ellen J. Serafini1Jennifer Leeman2Adam Winsler3Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United StatesDepartment of Modern and Classical Languages, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United StatesDepartment of Modern and Classical Languages, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United StatesIntroductionWhile a growing body of research indicates that Spanish language courses can promote Spanish maintenance and lead to overall improved educational outcomes among heritage speakers, there is little empirical or longitudinal evidence of factors that shape their enrollment in Spanish language courses at the secondary level. To address this issue, the current study takes a large-scale, longitudinal approach to investigate rates of enrollment in secondary school (6th–12th grade) Spanish and other non-English language courses, as well as factors that predict heritage speakers’ enrollment and performance in non-English language courses.MethodWe analyzed subsample data from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP), a large-scale, longitudinal study consisting of 17,341 heritage speakers of Spanish (47% female, 95.4% Hispanic/Latino, 82.8% received free/reduced-price lunch, and 18.3% with a disability) who were followed from 4 years old until the end of high school.ResultsIn general, Heritage speakers enrolled in Spanish language courses at a higher rate than other non-English language courses (52.2 and 25.3%, respectively). Enrollment patterns varied across different type of languages and grade level. Student-level factors including disability status, poverty status, early behavioral problems, and prior academic achievement significantly predicted students’ enrollment in Spanish and performance in non-English language courses.DiscussionFindings shed light on the long-term patterns of language study of this growing segment of the US school population with implications for future research and school policies that seek to improve heritage language learning and maintenance as well as equitable access to language education for language-minority students.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035716/fullheritage language learnersSpanishlanguage courseslanguage learninglanguage educationeducational equity |
| spellingShingle | My V. H. Nguyen Ellen J. Serafini Jennifer Leeman Adam Winsler Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish Frontiers in Psychology heritage language learners Spanish language courses language learning language education educational equity |
| title | Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish |
| title_full | Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish |
| title_fullStr | Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish |
| title_full_unstemmed | Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish |
| title_short | Factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish |
| title_sort | factors predicting secondary school language course enrollment and performance among u s heritage speakers of spanish |
| topic | heritage language learners Spanish language courses language learning language education educational equity |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035716/full |
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