Why is it important to transmit Spanish as a heritage language? Spanish values at the Latin American School of Berne

Bürki, Yvette (2023). Why is it important to transmit Spanish as a heritage language? Spanish values at the Latin American School of Berne. Babylonia, 1, pp. 70-75.

[img]
Preview
Text
Buerki_23_Babylonia.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (266kB) | Preview

Although the Swiss Confederation recognises the importance and benefit of teaching heritage languages (HL) and programmatically supports their institutionalised teaching, due to historical and macro-structural issues not all institutions offering HL education enjoy equal financial and material conditions. While some schools receive state subsidies from their countries, others do not. This is the case of the Escuela Latinoamericana de Berna, a non-profit institution with more than 20 years of existence. The question then arises as to what values the social actors involved in this institution attach to Spanish as an HL. Through an analysis based on an ethnographic perspective, this essay provides an answer to this question, showing that social actors assign several values to Spanish as an LH that are not mutually exclusive, but depend on the perspective and purpose for which the LH is mobilised. These values show the importance of HLs not only for the ELB community, but more generally for Swiss society, which benefits from the advantages of positive socialisation in the host country.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Spanish Languages and Literature > Linguistic Studies
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Spanish Languages and Literature
12 Faculty Centers > Center for Cultural Studies (CCS)

UniBE Contributor:

Bürki, Yvette

Subjects:

800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 860 Spanish & Portuguese literatures
400 Language > 460 Spanish & Portuguese languages

Language:

English

Submitter:

Yvette Bürki

Date Deposited:

01 May 2023 14:55

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2024 06:51

Additional Information:

Heritage Languages and Cultures, Verónica Sánchez Abchi & Amelia Lambelet

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Spanish as Heritage Language, social values, meta discourse, ethnographic approach, social justice

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/182178

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/182178

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback