ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the richness of the bilingual practices that Spanish heritage students bring to K-16 classrooms, in the belief that an understanding of the practices will allow educators to take full advantage of their pupils' competencies in the further development of linguistic, metalinguistic, and analytic skills. The chapter devotes to an overview of pertinent research literature, focusing principally on studies in education that promote hybrid language practices and translanguaging curricula. It echoes the call of many for fostering an appreciation of code-switching and translanguaging in contributing to scholarship and teaching and in leveraging heritage bilinguals' practices in the service of their success and well-being. The chapter examines the biases about language, class, power, and equity that underlie language practices and develop the knowledge and tools to respond to linguistic discrimination and subordination.
