Eighteen students sit in a classroom and chat as they await the
arrival of their teacher Wednesday afternoon. But rather than
speaking to each other in English, they are talking in Russian.
This is the scene of the heritage language classes on campus
““ classes which cater to students who are familiar with a
certain language but never received proper language
instruction.
Most students who take these foreign language classes learned
the language at home, but never learned how to read or write it,
said Olga Kagan, director of the UCLA National Heritage Language
Resource Center.
“Students who come to language class who speak the
language … at home, usually speak well and understand it better
than students who are just starting to learn it,” Kagan
said.
Over the summer, the UCLA Department of Education awarded the
Center for World Languages at UCLA and the UC Consortium for
Language Learning and Teaching a grant to establish the Language
Resource Center.
The grant provides funding for the center from 2006 to 2010. The
center has already begun to do research on different aspects of
teaching heritage classes, but there is currently no established
curriculum for teaching them.
UCLA was selected to house the center because of the multitude
of languages represented on campus, Kagan said.
“We have been at the forefront for a few years because we
are in California and we have so many people from all over the
world and they want to maintain the languages,” Kagan
said.
The center will focus on creating a curriculum for heritage
language classes as well as developing heritage language
materials.
At UCLA there are few heritage language classes and one heritage
language textbook, which is in Russian. The resource center plans
to expand that number in the coming years, Kagan said.
Another aspect the center hopes to focus on is educating people
about the importance of speaking several languages and the
usefulness of nurturing heritage language speakers, said Robert
Blake, director of the UC Consortium for Language Learning and
Teaching and the codirector of NHLRC.
“We’re hoping to raise some consciousness not only
about the importance of taking advantage of heritage language
speakers but also providing real theory and practice to schools in
the nation who are interested in starting heritage language up in
their normal curriculum,” Blake said.
From what she has seen, students have appreciated the
opportunity to study their heritage languages, said Mariya
Gershkovich, a first-year political science student.
“This is a different type of class than your typical
foreign language class, Gershkovich said. “(Heritage
speakers) can’t take a beginners’ class, because we
already know so much of it that it would be a waste of
time.”
The difference between a regular foreign language class and a
heritage language class is the curriculum is based on the needs of
the students, judging on how much knowledge of the language they
are coming into the class with, Kagan said.
“In a regular foreign language class we take little pieces
and gradually put them together. In a heritage language class you
take what the students already know about, add to it and develop
it,” Kagan said.
In addition to the language basics, Kagan said it is important
to cater to the students’ family expectations.
“Students in heritage language classes have contact with
the language outside of the classroom. They have contact in their
communities and at home,” Kagan said.
“We need to make sure that (what) is being taught in class
is what family supports. In Russian, for example, we teach Russian
literature and culture as well.”