Heritage Language Project Documents First-Person Narratives & Creates Classroom Learning Opportunities

A new heritage language project, Multilingual Minnesota, began this past summer to create a searchable video database documenting the voices, languages, and cultural narratives of Minnesota’s heritage language communities. It features first-person narratives in the speakers’ heritage languages framed around ten culturally focused themes such as family, celebrations and traditions, food, and challenges and resilience. The project was launched this past summer with support from the University’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) to fund a summer graduate research assistantship. Emma Reeder, a PhD student in Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, was selected to work with Amanda Dalola, director of the Language Center and associate professor of Linguistics at the University of Minnesota, to establish the framework for the project.

A heritage language is a language learned by its speakers at home as children; however, often the full range of language skills aren’t fully developed because the language isn’t spoken in official settings or the broader community. Since heritage learners face these language-learning difficulties, as well as tension between classroom instruction and lived cultural identities, Reeder and Dalola sought to design and create a multilingual video archive to preserve diverse voices, affirm the legitimacy of heritage languages and identities, and support long-term language retention.

"I hope that in participating in projects like this, members of the heritage community get the message that they are worthy of being recorded for a database and that they can inspire or influence people who are just like them in their community.” –Amanda Dalola, director of the Language Center and associate professor of Linguistics

The Language Center is in the midst of a Vietnamese initiative, which includes the creation of  the University’s VIET 1015 and 1016 courses, a two-semester sequence for Vietnamese heritage learners that fulfills the language requirement. Learners can use a newly created self-placement tool, which is a non-binding assessment that guides them toward either a beginning second-language sequence or an accelerated heritage language sequence. According to the Language Center, a main reason for the Vietnamese initiative is that Minnesota is home to one of the largest Vietnamese foreign populations in the Midwest, and our University student population includes a thriving group of Vietnamese heritage students. 

The heritage language project has also created lesson plans for courses such as VIET 1015 and 1016 to help educators integrate the videos into heritage language instruction. Lesson plans include identity mapping, in which students analyze the relationship between their own identity, language, and culture, and "a day in the life," in which students construct a visual daily lifemap of one of the speakers after watching their video.

This summer, Reeder and Dalola conducted background research, drawing inspiration from similar databases. This fall, they’re adding to their collection of recordings, cultures, and languages, as well as working with the University’s Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services to finalize video hosting and website design. Next summer, they plan to launch the project, publishing both the website and database with an initial focus on Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese heritage language speakers.

To learn more about the heritage language project, view CARLA’s recent webinar featuring Reeder and Dalola.