ABSTRACT
While the main focus of national policy and research has continued to be on foreign language teaching, in the past two decades increasing attention has been given to heritage language learners and to the development of pedagogies which address their particular needs as well as the opportunities available to them. This chapter will chart general developments in language pedagogy beyond communicative language teaching noting both the degree to which they might be considered to apply to both foreign language and heritage language learning and where there are important distinctions to be made. Reference will be made here to groundbreaking work by Claire Kramsch and to the distinction she draws between communicative and subjective/symbolic competence in both language learning and use. It will then go on to set out a number of developments which are proving to have particular significance in the heritage language context, including interdisciplinary perspective (Content-Based Instruction –/Content and Language Integrated Learning –/Project-Based Language Learning ); intercultural/transcultural language learning perspective; multilingual, translanguaging perspective; learner agency and identity investment perspective; multisemiotic and intertextual perspective; digital technology perspective; arts perspective; decolonising, activist citizenship perspective. Finally, it will be argued that, taken as a whole, these developments provide a robust foundation for (a) a much more unified and democratic/ pluralist view of language and literacy education, (b) the development of dialogue between specialists across the spectrum of language education and indeed across the curriculum and (c) fostering closer collaboration between mainstream and community-based sectors.
