Service Learning as a model for linguistics development of students of Spanish as a heritage language and as a foreign language

Abstract

This article presents an investigation carried out to study the linguistic development of students of a Spanish language class. The community service learning (from now on, SL) methodology is used. The students of Spanish as a heritage language (from now on, HLLs) and students of Spanish as a foreign language (from now on, FLLs) participated in SL in which they translated educational and medical materials from English into Spanish. The first objective was to determine whether SL affects vocabulary development and to what extent students’ prior knowledge benefits their linguistic development. The second objective was to observe the intrinsic motivation of the students. This research includes eight FLLs participants and eight HLL participants who, as a task in the Spanish language course, translated the materials. Two diagnostic tests were administered in order to analyze the results. A qualitative analysis shows that the intrinsic motivation of the students underwent favorable changes. Quantitative analysis indicates that vocabulary development increases due to connections between previous and new language skills. This research concludes by highlighting the results; among the results, it can be observed the development of the linguistic aptitude, of the vocabulary, and the sense of belonging to the Hispanic community from part of the students.