UC Merced

Critical pedagogy surrounding Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) has focused on the student’s attitudes regarding their language and culture, specifically as it relates to Spanish and Latinxs in the United States. These heritage language (HL) learners, who were exposed to Spanish in the home, enroll in Spanish classes to further a sense of identity and recover, develop, and foster their first language. Research in linguistics and pedagogy has explored writing through different genres in the HL as it is the skill with which the learners have the least experience and is perceived as the most difficult to learn the heritage language by the students themselves according to preliminary surveys. However, few have examined SHL speakers’ writing in both English and Spanish in the US context. Additionally, studies have had a disciplinary focus, while this project engages applied linguistics, writing studies and Chicanx/Latinx studies. Looking at English and Spanish writing concurrently creates a space for HL speakers that would not be included in Spanish-only focused studies. This bilingual and bicultural research space not only invites the student to write about their attitudes regarding culture and identity, but it also generates possibilities for the use of features of language that have been previously unexplored in this context: namely using figurative language like metaphors in both languages. This study pairs genre theory from systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and conceptual metaphor theory to examine the use of figurative language reported here as initial findings, in 192 SHL speakers through the students’ written texts (86 in English and 106 in Spanish). The exploration of students’ work through various genres provides differing spaces to explore their ideas about language and identity, and the focus on metaphor provides insights into both their cognitive and affective experiences. Preliminary findings demonstrate students’ use of metaphors to conceptualize their identity and cultural experience as well as to explain their language learning experiences. Using a holistic approach that incorporates the use of conceptual metaphors in the bilingual heritage context has yet to be studied, even though it has the potential to give instructors important insights into how students feel about their identity and cultural development. This study provides context-specific, culturally relevant insights and structured guidance on how to further enhance students’ social, emotional, and academic engagement in language development with particular benefit to multilingual speakers. This project presents a qualitative and quantitative case-study to produce a theoretical pedagogical framework that maps the affective experiences of Hispanic students through their cognitive achievements. By focusing on cognitive and affective understandings, we can approach new ideas, reform current instruction, and contribute to critical heritage pedagogy. This project will follow an integrative vision of the study through a presentation of the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks of metaphor and genre theories. It continues with a discussion of the current research methodology, dissertation framework, Spanish, English, and genre chapter analysis. It ends with findings, pedagogical implications, and a summary presenting this work in conjunction with its broader significance.