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There are thousands of community-based heritage language schools across the United States, teaching hundreds of languages. Joshua Fishman identified 1,855 schools in the 1960s and 6,533 in the 1980s (Fishman, 1966, 1985, 2001). The Coalition, established in 2012, seeks to connect, support, and advocate for these schools and build their visibility as a significant part of the national language learning landscape.
Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools
The Coalition does the following:
Collaborates with a group of Language Representatives, who represent the languages taught in community-based schools, are often teachers and administrators in these schools, and connect with their language communities and engage them in Coalition activities.
Documents community-based schools across the United States. Our goal is to document the thousands of schools teaching hundreds of languages that Joshua Fishman described. We have a long way to go!! If you know of schools, please ask them to complete the school survey. Here you can see a map of the schools documented at this point.
Hold an annual conference, which brings together school representatives across the country for panel discussions and workshops. The next conference will be held online Friday and Saturday, October 7 and 8, 2022, with an on-site component at American University in Washington, DC. Registration will begin in July. Please join us and let your heritage language colleagues know about it!
10th Annual 2023 Heritage Language Schools Conference
Plenary speakers:
Shuhan Wang, Ph.D.,
ELE Consulting international Chinese Language Education, Asia Society
Telling the Stories of Community-Based Language Schools in the United States
Felix Kronenberg, Ph.D.,
National LCTL Resource Center
Supporting Sustainable Less Commonly Taught Community-Based Language Programs
Kristin Davin, Ph.D.,
Professor, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Motivating Students to Continue Language Development With the Seal of Biliteracy
Register now to attend the 10th Annual Heritage Language Schools Conference!
You can learn about and register for the conference and other activities by signing up for our newsletter. Newsletter (heritagelanguageschools.org)
If you would like to get involved in other ways, contact Joy Peyton, [email protected], Coalition President.