Heritage Language Programs in the United States: A Brief Survey


COMMUNITY-BASED HERITAGE LANGUAGE SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES


Dear colleagues,

During the Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference at American University in Washington, D.C in 2015., participants agreed that community-based heritage language (HL) schools need to be recognized more widely and represented in official statistics on language teaching in the U.S. Statistics about language programs exist by state and on a national basis, but they usually do not include the teaching of heritage languages in schools outside the public/private school system. Where they are available, statistics about HL speakers and programs are collected only for certain languages, and even those are often difficult to find and use.

This is the first survey that attempts to reach and document all of the community-based schools teaching heritage languages in the U.S. The result of this and subsequent surveys will provide important data about HL schools and will benefit the field of HL education. In addition, it will give us the opportunity to showcase these schools for mainstream educators and the wider public interested in teaching world languages and cultures. The findings of this survey will complement current educational statistics and enhance our knowledge about HL schools.

The survey will take you only a few minutes to complete. Please share this survey with your colleagues and ask them to fill it out as well.


Thank you very much for participating with us in this effort! You can review the survey’s current findings and see the Map of HL Schools that are already documented. We look forward to learning about your schools and collaborating with you in the future.



Data Collection Team

National Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools

Coalition Website
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* 1. Name of your school/program

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* 2. Street Address of your school/program (to be used on the map so please do not provide PO box information)

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* 3. City of your school/program

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* 4. State where your school/program is located

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* 5. Zip code of your school/program

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* 6. Name and title of a contact person

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* 7. E-mail of contact person

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* 8. Language/s taught in your program

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* 9. What is your school/program's website? (Leave it blank if there is none.)

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* 10. Where do you hold your classes?

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* 11. Do you own the facility?

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* 12. Do you rent the facility?

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* 13. When was your program established (e.g. 1987)?

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* 14. How many classes does your program offer?

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* 15. On what day(s) do your classes meet?

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* 16. What is the average instructional time? (How many hours per week per class?)

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* 17. How many teachers work in your program?

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* 18. How many teachers have academic training (degree) in language education, teacher education, or any other closely related field?

  academic training (degree) in language education (do not include non-US government credential) teacher education, or any other closely related field? (includes professional development training) Neither
All
More than 90%
More than 70%
More than half
Less than half
Less than 25%

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* 19. How many students are enrolled in the program this school year?

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* 20. Rank the student age groups by size:
(1=age category with the most students, 5=age category with the least students)

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* 21. By approximate percentage, how many of the students in the program are heritage speakers of the language taught? (They and their family members speak the language at home.)

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* 22. Do you train your students to take official tests?

  Prepare students for the test(s) Administer the test(s)
AP
One of the AAT’s (if available)
OPI, etc.
Standard tests of your country
Tests of your government created for students abroad
We do not prepare students for any official tests

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* 23. Do you charge tuition?

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* 24. If Yes, how much per year?

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* 25. Do you receive funding other than from tuition fees?

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* 26. If Yes, please check all that funding sources that apply

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* 27. Does your program also offer activities, classes, or lectures for parents of the students in the program?

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* 28. If Yes, what programs do you offer? Mark all that applies

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* 29. If you answer Yes for question 26, how often does this take place?

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* 30. Please indicate if you are willing to be included in further data collection efforts about HL schools.

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* 31. If you would like to receive the results of the survey, please put your name and email address here.

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* 32.  Please suggest additional questions that should be asked.

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