[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-601171-105":59,"doc-detail-601171-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","identifying-and-placing-spanish-heritage-speakers-one-programs-placement-test-approach","Identifying and Placing Spanish Heritage Speakers - One Program’s Placement Test Approach","","Despite the growth of U.S.-born Latinos, correctly placing heritage and native speakers in Spanish curricula remains difficult. This article examines heritage speakers’ distinct needs in Spanish programming, critiques traditional grammar-based placement exams, and presents a multiple-choice placement test used at Georgia State University. Drawing on a sociolinguistic view of Spanish dialect variation, the design focuses on how students—heritage, native, and non-native—perform language tasks and how linguistic norms vary locally, regionally, and generally. It also addresses language standardization through heteroglossia and discusses implications for K-16 learner identification and placement.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/identifying-and-placing-spanish-heritage-speakers-one-programs-placement-test-approach/601171/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/identifying-and-placing-spanish-heritage-speakers-one-programs-placement-test-approach/601171.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"LangkahRina","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-27","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why is placing Spanish heritage speakers in the curriculum challenging?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Heritage and native learners show wide variability in linguistic mastery, and traditional grammar-based exams often reflect idealized native-speaker norms rather than the knowledge base of heritage speakers.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What limitations does the article identify in traditional grammar-based placement exams?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"These exams emphasize formally learned, rule-based skills and declarative knowledge, underestimating heritage speakers whose linguistic foundations may not align with those categories.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How is Georgia State University’s placement test designed to address these issues?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The program coordinator developed a multiple-choice test grounded in a sociolinguistic approach to Spanish dialectical variation, focusing on students’ performance on language tasks and distinguishing local/regional versus general linguistic norms.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},601171,1792161167,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":46,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":31},962090893776,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","5  \nIdentifying and Placing Spanish Heritage Speakers: One Program’s Placement Test Approach  \nOscar Moreno  \nGeorgia State University  \nPaula Garrett-Rucks  \nGeorgia State University  \nAbstract  \nDespite the increasing number of U.S. born Latinos, placing heritage and native speakers in the Spanish curriculum is still a challenge (MacGregor-Mendoza & Moreno, 2020). The present article (a) addresses the unique needs of heritage speakers in the Spanish curriculum; (b) problematizes traditional grammar-based placement exams; and (c) describes a multiple-choice placement exam (free upon request) designed and used at Georgia State University (GSU), a major urban university in the Southeastern U.S. Taking a sociolinguistic approach to the dialectical nature of Spanish, the GSU Spanish Language Program Coordinator developed a placement test based on what students—heritage, native, and non-native—do when asked to perform language tasks. The placement test design is outlined using distinctions of linguistic norms, both local/ regional and general. Reference is made to the ways in which diverse types of Spanish speakers align linguistically with general Spanish. This essay responds to the call for language standardization studies that recognize diglossia within a single named language by examining the role of heteroglossia to challenge monolingual language standardization ideologies (McLelland, 2021). Pedagogical implications for identifying and placing K-16 learners in a meaningful Spanish for Heritage Speakers classroom are discussed. Keywords: placement exam, Spanish heritage speaker, language ideologies, Latinx students  \nIntroduction  \nUS born Latinos—termed Latinx with gender-inclusivity—form the largest growing group driving the increase in diversity in both K-12 schools and higher education (Gramlich, 2017) . There is tremendous variability of linguistic mastery among Latinx students who bring with them a gamut of experiences, skills and knowledge of their heritage language into the Spanish language classroom. Despite scholarly recognition of the linguistic and cultural abilities of the Spanish heritage speaker (HS), traditional Spanish instructional practices tend to deny these HS assets. The teaching of Spanish in schools in the U.S. has been founded largely on an ap-  \nIdentifying and Placing Spanish Heritage Speakers: One Program’s Placement Test Approach 73  \nproach for monolingual, second language (L2) learners who arrive with no previous knowledge of the language (Carreira et al., 2020). The appropriate placement of HSs into a Spanish language curriculum is complicated by traditional, grammar-based placement exams that center on formally learned, rule-based skills and idealized native speaker norms (Fairclough, 2012), underestimating the abilities of Spanish HSs whose foundation of linguistic knowledge does not reside in declarative, rule-based categories. As a result, Spanish HSs are often misplaced in lower-level courses (Belpoliti, 2015) or, as our experience shows, in courses that are too advanced for them to succeed academically. Either way, these students miss an opportunity to build on their existing language skills in a space where HSs can negotiate a positive multilingual identity.  \nReview of the Literature  \nThere has been growing momentum in the field of World Language Education in how to meet the sociolinguistic needs of the increasing numbers of Latinx students. Historically called native speakers, heritage language learners’ needs differ. A Spanish native speaker (NS) is a person who was born, raised, and educated in a Spanish-speaking country who speaks Spanish (Carreira et al., 2020) . A NS’s linguistic performance in Spanish is comparable to that of any speaker of Spanish who lives in a Spanish-speaking country. By comparison, the heritage speaker is defined as an individual “who is raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken, who speaks or at least understands the language, and who is to so","cbCailqA5rDPRkyh","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailqA5rDPRkyh","pdf",255142,"English","# Introduction\n# Review of the Literature\n# Placement Test Approach\n## Sociolinguistic Design Principles","[{\"question\":\"Why is placing Spanish heritage speakers in the curriculum challenging?\",\"answer\":\"Heritage and native learners show wide variability in linguistic mastery, and traditional grammar-based exams often reflect idealized native-speaker norms rather than the knowledge base of heritage speakers.\"},{\"question\":\"What limitations does the article identify in traditional grammar-based placement exams?\",\"answer\":\"These exams emphasize formally learned, rule-based skills and declarative knowledge, underestimating heritage speakers whose linguistic foundations may not align with those categories.\"},{\"question\":\"How is Georgia State University’s placement test designed to address these issues?\",\"answer\":\"The program coordinator developed a multiple-choice test grounded in a sociolinguistic approach to Spanish dialectical variation, focusing on students’ performance on language tasks and distinguishing local/regional versus general linguistic norms.\"}]","Identifying and Placing Spanish Heritage Speakers - One Program’s Placement Test Approach | PDF",1792092114]