Along with providing educators with an opportunity to learn more about heritage language education and create pedagogical materials, the purpose of this colloquium was to start a community of teachers who understand the heritage speaker experience.
The following are comments & feedback from participants at our 2022 Heritage Roots Virtual Colloquium!
“Thank you for the amazing opportunity to connect with all the educators throughout the Heritage Roots Colloquium. It felt so refreshing to meet other educators who are committed to the work of empowering HLLs and actually accepting us for the incredible bilingual (and bicultural) people that we are.
The language classroom has always been a scary place for me due to the various language ideologies that were always perpetuated. But it’s nice to see that we’re changing this one classroom at a time. I really hope y’all keep this amazing work up and host another colloquium next year!!”
“I absolutely loved the group collaboration with the hands-on activities/assignments which were examples of what we can use with our students.”
“I loved the panel on building heritage learner confidence. Such a great discussion and a strong sense of solidarity. I also really appreciated the many stories shared by people about experiences specifically as heritage speaker educators. It felt like I was finally around who understood.”
“I loved that everyone understood what it meant to be a heritage speaker and/or work with heritage speakers, and to come from unique linguistic, cultural, national backgrounds that don’t fit any single category. It was just a safe and comforting space!!”
“[I will take away] the depth of an individuals language [from this colloquium]. Being more open minded about the experience of each student in their heritage language rather than being caught up in the technicalities of the target language.”
“It was an honored pleasure to be a part of this panel and share out on this important topic. Again, thank you Gaby and Meagan for this wonderful colloquium!! Your efforts in coordinating everything is greatly appreciated! 😁
Looking forward to staying connected for future collaborations!”
“Thank you for getting me involved with the Heritage Roots colloquium. It was really inspiring to hear from other heritage-speaking language teachers. I would love to be a part of trying to communicate our experience.”
“I will definitely take the conversations about being reflexive about our own identities in our interactions with students and other educators and people in general in mind.”
“These discussions are things we should be talking about in the HL classrooms, not just amongst like-minded individuals.”
“I wanted to thank you for getting me involved with the Heritage Roots colloquium.
It was really inspiring to hear from other heritage-speaking language teachers. I would love to be a part of trying to communicate our experience.”
“Many thanks again to you for preparing such welcoming and rich environments– the panels and also the information sessions and workshops and pod networking and pair meetings!– for us to meet and discuss openly about so many relevant and thought-provoking topics.
I so much appreciate your thoughtfulness and organization in designing and carrying out the colloquium, you really taught us a lot :)”
