5. Using Technology and Art in a Middle School Exploratory Heritage Language Program: Diversity Matters
Advancing Critical CALL across Institutions and Borders - Reimagining Possibilities for Languages, Literacies, and Cultures - Emma Britton
Lulu Ekiert [+]
Holyoke Public Schools
Theresa Austin [+]
UMass Amherst
Description
We describe an ongoing initiative to build a three-way school-community-university collaboration making use of various computer-assisted technologies that provide both tools and medium for heritage language (HL) learners to leverage and develop their repertoires. First, we introduce ourselves and how our collaboration has sustained a praxis from our learning and theorizing throughout. We strive to continue creating a mutually supportive context that can permit learners to use the arts to build connections to their HL communities and expand the understanding and use of these languages and cultures. In the long term, we expect this small effort may be able to positively impact acceptance of in-school use of diverse languages and impact usage in multiple communities.