AATSP ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKER (104th AATSP ANNUAL CONFERENCE)

MEET DR. MARIA CARREIRA 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

 104th AATSP ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

July 9-12, 2022

The AATSP is proud to announce our keynote speaker for the 104th AASTP Annual Conference: Dr. Maria Carreira, Professor Emerita of Spanish, California State University, Long Beach, and founder of The Heritage Language Exchange (HLX).

Carreira is widely recognized as the preeminent specialist on heritage language learners. She will address AATSP members in person on Monday, July 11 at the Caribe Hilton, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

You can read about her keynote address below or click here to view a short video in which Dr. Carreira talks about her plan for the keynote address.

Teaching with Vitality in Mind: Aligning Instruction to the State of Spanish in the United States

Spanish is unique among the languages spoken in the United States, not just because of its sheer numbers of speakers, but also because of the variety of ways in which it is used on an everyday basis. 

What does this mean for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language (HL), and more generally, for all Spanish-language education in the U.S.? How do we best prepare our students – heritage and second language learners alike – to use Spanish the U.S. context and how do we train teachers to teach this way? 

Delving into this question, I will examine the current state of Spanish in the U.S. using a framework of language vitality developed by Joseph LoBianco and others. The COD Framework posits that minority languages are vital or healthy when they meet three conditions: they have capacity, which means they have a critical mass of speakers, they provide opportunities for usage in a wide range of domains, and they inspire desire to study and use the language. 

Applying this model to teaching, I will outline some ways in which we can grow capacity and address issues of desire to respond to the realities of the U.S. context. As for opportunity, I will argue that a top priority should be to create opportunities for students of all ages to use Spanish in a wide range of real-life domains. 

Finally, I will examine innovations that have come about during the pandemic that can support this model of education and increase access to rich professional development experiences for all teachers.  

Here is Carreira’s bio:

Maria Carreira is Emerita Professor of Spanish Linguistics at California State University, Long Beach. She was also co-founder of the National Heritage Language Resource Center, at UCLA, and she is Emerita co-director of this center, where she worked for 16 years. Professor Carreira is co-author of four Spanish textbooks and of Voces: Latino Students on Life in the United States (Praeger, 2014). Her research focuses on heritage languages and Spanish in the United States. She is the founder of a new initiative, The Heritage Language Exchange, which focuses on issues of practice and is a hub of resources for teachers. 

Dr. Carreira invites you to the HLXCHANGE and invites you to participate in The Question of the Week, an anonymous, one-minute survey on the state of HL teaching.  

To learn more about the 104th AATSP Annual Conference, click here.

Thank you to Wayside Publishing for sponsoring Dr. Carreira’s keynote address!