Language Ideologies and Linguistic Identity in Heritage Language Learning

Rachel Showstack, PhD, is Associate Professor of Spanish at Wichita State University, USA. Her work on Spanish heritage language learning, Spanish in the US, and language and health equity has appeared in various scholarly journals and edited collections, and she is co-editor of Contexts of Co-Constructed Discourse: Interaction, Pragmatics, and Second Language Applications and co-author of Health Disparities and the Applied Linguist. She is also the founder and president of the community-based health equity organization Alce su Voz, for which she has received multiple federal and foundation grants.

Diego Pascual y Cabo, PhD, an Associate Professor at the University of Florida, USA. He is a formally trained linguist who studies and cares deeply about Spanish heritage speaker bilingualism. In his work, not only is he intentional about raising critical language awareness, he is also committed to dispelling negative and simplistic ideologies about minoritized bilinguals and their linguistic practices. As a teacher, he is passionate about the pursuit of a more equitable and more critically conscious education.

Damian Vergara Wilson, PhD, is a Professor of Spanish at the University of New Mexico, USA. Although he has worked extensively on language evolution in Spanish through a usage-base perspective and has a foundation in sociolinguistics, he has always maintained a focus on issues facing Spanish speakers, especially heritage learners, in the US context. His current research agenda evaluates heritage learner perspectives of their learning experiences and how these may inform critical pedagogies.