Selecting Materials To Teach Spanish to Spanish Speakers. ERIC Digest.

Rapid demographic changes and an increasing recognition of the critical need for professionals who are proficient in languages other than English have led to an interest in developing language programs and classes for "heritage language learners" students who are raised in a home where a non-English language is spoken and who speak or at least understand that language. The fastest growing heritage language population in the United States is Hispanic Americans, and the number of Spanish speakers studying Spanish is on the rise. As a result, language educators are developing programs, classes, and instructional strategies to address the needs of these students, which are different from those of native-English-speaking students studying Spanish as a foreign language. Appropriate instructional materials are essential for these classes, which are often referred to as Spanish for Spanish speakers (SNS) classes. Although the development of SNS materials has a 30-year history, and many new SNS textbooks and materials continue to appear, developing a well-articulated sequence for SNS instruction continues to be a challenge. The purpose of this digest is to raise awareness of the range of SNS materials available to teachers and school districts, and to emphasize the importance of articulated SNS programs with well-sequenced materials. It describes published resources that list and review available SNS materials and gives an overview of the types of materials available. It also provides guidelines for selecting textbooks and other materials for SNS classes or for classes with both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students. (VWL)