Hebrew Heritage Language Education in K-12 Settings and the Alignments/Misalignments of Student and Teacher Learning Goals

• In Event: Hebrew as a Heritage Language: to Whom, How and Where

Abstract

For several decades, researchers have studied the field of heritage language (HL) teaching and learning. In the case of students in K-12 learning settings, applications from other heritage language settings are limited for several reasons. First, virtually all HL studies focus on the children of immigrants who speak or are learning the new region’s majority language while attempting to preserve their HL. While children of Israeli emigrants fit this definition, most K-12 Hebrew language learners speak English as their home language and do not have parents or grandparents who speak or use Hebrew. Further, “Hebrew” is an umbrella term that includes biblical, prayer/liturgical, literary, and modern colloquial genres and uses of the language and that can be meaningful for communal, religious, affective, nationalistic, and instrumental purposes.
This paper will review several large-scale research studies of the past several years, with a focus on private Jewish day schools and public and charter school programs across the United States. It will investigate the motivations, experiences and learning outcomes of K-12 students and other involved stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and administrators. This paper will demonstrate the complexities of defining the “heritage learner,” difficulties in designing an individualized and appropriate program of language study for this diverse and differentiated population given constraints in classrooms, and the alignments and misalignments of the learning goals of the aforementioned stakeholders. More often than not, student and family language learning goals stray sharply from educator expectations. I will conclude with recommendations and best practices, as well as implications for future research on individualized and differentiated pedagogical strategies.

Author

• Avital Karpman