Transnational Hispanic Identity and Heritage Language Learning: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract

Bonnie Norton (2013. Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed.). Bristol: Multilingual Matters) has placed the learner’s identity as a key component of language learning. Heritage language learning (HLL) may be one of the most important domains for the confluence of identity and language learning. This intersection is particularly complex in the case of Spanish heritage language (SHL) teaching, since learners in this case not only have to contend with the identities of the different countries of origin and residence but also with a pan-ethnic layer, that of Hispanic/Latino identity. This study examines the role of this pan-Hispanic identity in SHL learning and how it might be useful to foster a wider sense of investment (Norton’s term) in students by allowing them to develop a personal sense of identity that combines all these factors in strategic ways. Most studies of SHL learning have been based on US students, but here Canadian cases will be considered more in detail, since they highlight how identities change with specific local social conditions. It will be argued that the elements that promote this investment in US learners may not work in a Canadian context, where other aspects of Hispanic identity would have to be emphasized.