ABSTRACT
Language curriculum design according to Nation and Macalister is a complex process that involves the following activities: discovering needs, following principles, establishing goals, deciding on content and sequencing, designing lessons, monitoring and assessing learning, and evaluating the course. Program designers are constrained and informed by the system and, moreover, by ideologies of language and theories of language acquisition, language development, and bilingualism/multilingualism. The chapter proposes a common analytical framework for examining goals and pedagogical approaches in teaching Spanish to heritage learners. Publications in the field of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) have multiplied. The literature includes much information about ongoing research and pedagogy initiatives. The chapter focuses on goals, objectives, and pedagogical approaches in the teaching of heritage languages as a beginning step in establishing such a framework. The schools with more restricted funding are limited to having pockets of heritage speakers within each of their existing traditional levels, requiring extreme differentiation by the teacher.
