Spanish for the Professions and Community Service Learning

Abstract

Spanish heritage language (HL) education in the US emerged in the 1970s as a response to misguided approaches adopted by foreign language departments when they encountered significant numbers of Latina/o students. Spanish for the Professions (SP) emerged as a way to engage second language (L2) learners in functional domains that were not included in the traditional L2 sequence, including Spanish for Business and Spanish for Healthcare. Community Service Learning (CSL) grew out of a desire to expand opportunities for L2 learners to interact with speakers of the target language while simultaneously transforming perceptions and stereotypes about immigrant communities in the US and developing a sense of civic identity and responsibility. The chapter discusses the history of SP and CSL in greater detail concentrating particularly on its interactions with HL education. It traces the development of SP and CSL as single strands that then lead to their entwinement with HL.