Assessment Approaches
Luce Heritage Language Scholar Program & Modern
Language Department Placement Tests
LaGuardia Community College, NY
Habiba Boumlik
Community Based Heritage Language Conference
American University, Washington DC
September 18-19, 2015
Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation
2013-2014: 9 heritage speaker students - 3 Spanish, 3 Mandarin, 2
Japanese, 1 Mandarin-Spanish
2014-2015: 12 heritage speaker students – 2 Arabic, 3 Japanese, 3
Mandarin, 4 Spanish
2015-2016: 12 heritage speaker students – 3 Arabic, 3 Japanese, 3
Mandarin, 3 Spanish
Luce Heritage Scholars Program
Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation for
2013-2015 and 2014-2015 academic years
Overview
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Mentorship with faculty who speak the target language
Developing leadership skills through a weekly seminar
Developing participants’ heritage language proficiency
Fully-funded overseas internship in summer (overseas for some)
Annual stipend ($ 8,000)
Goals
• To improve HL proficiency and knowledge of HL culture
• To link HL skills with untapped and unimagined academic
and career opportunities for HL speakers
Pre-planning Stage: Definition of HL Speakers
Ethnic background
• Fishman’s socio-historical definition for HL (Fishman, 2001) identifies HLs
based on each individual’s ethnic and ancestry background.
Parents’ native language / language used at home
• A prototypical factor for defining HL speakers, prominently expressed in
Valdes’s definition (Valdés, 2000).
Ethnic identity & sociopolitical circumstance
• The HL from psychological and sociopolitical perspectives (Hornberger &
Wang, 2008).
Linguistic profiles of the HL
• HL’s proficiency levels vary, but their proficiency in oral skills usually
outclasses that in written skills.
Country of birth / Age of arrival
• Another critical factor for HL speakers. Most HLs are US-born or arrived
in the U.S. during youth (typically before puberty).
Luce Heritage Language Scholars Participants
Recruitment Process
•  We established highly selective requirements:
•  GPA of 3.0 or above
•  Minimal 15 cumulative credits
•  Reference letter(s) from faculty
•  Proficiency in the HL
•  LaGuardia IRD used to Identify Target Applicant Pool
•  An estimated number of heritage language speakers - 2,036 3,562 students in LaGuardia Community College (out of 19,464
students)
•  Participants recruited from several different heritage languagesMandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese – Arabic added to
2014-2015 cohort
Luce Heritage Language Scholars
Language Assessment
•  PPR (Periodic Program Review, 2014) 2007-2012
•  In-house placement exam
•  ACTFL OPI and WPT tests (as pre- and exit tests)
•  The results of the pre-test (ACTFL OPI and WPT) show their oral
skills are higher than their literacy skills
Program Specifics
•  Heritage language courses as part of their degree curricula
•  Independent Studies
•  Conversation Partners
Luce Heritage Language Scholars
Language Study
Credit-based language courses in respective heritage
languages.
•  Students placed into different levels of language classes,
corresponding to their individual language skills.
•  ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages) oral and written proficiency examinations
administered to each student.
•  These standardized measurements informed the placement
of students in appropriate language courses. This year, biannual instead of tri-annual testing will be employed to
yield a more accurate picture of students’ developing
heritage language abilities: at the beginning of the program
and after the completion of their internship.
Language Partner
Conversation classes: intensive work with language partners
biweekly from September to December, and weekly January
through February. Weekly meetings during short Fall II
semester ensure that students’ language abilities don’t
decline as there are no heritage language courses during this
time.
Conversation in HL
•  Language partners serve as a rich resource for the
scholars.
•  Offer a structured, but informal setting for the Luce
Heritage Scholars to improve their language skills.
•  Conversation topics based on weekly sessions.
•  Some conversation topics include business ethics and
human rights, other meetings are dedicated to helping
students write bilingual resumes and prepare for bilingual
interviews.
Assessment and Credit for
Proficiency
•  Challenges
•  Key activities
•  Successes