ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the California Spanish vernacular (SV) as spoken in the Los Angeles area. It presents the information that is based on a study involving 120 heritage speakers in several advanced Spanish classes at Long Beach City College during the years 1999 to 2002. The chapter discusses the stigma attached to SV, both in the classroom and out, elaborating on the problems SV speakers face while learning standard Spanish in the classroom and while attempting to communicate with monolingual speakers of Spanish. It proposes a model of language teaching to SV speakers that aims to alleviate some of these problems. The chapter provides data and makes some generalizations on heritage speakers’ knowledge of Spanish. It also discusses why SV is stigmatized among monolingual speakers of Spanish, and what heritage speakers of Spanish know when they arrive in the classroom. The chapter addresses some issues related to what heritage speakers of Spanish know when they arrive in the classroom.
