ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews major research on language ideologies and identity in heritage language teaching and learning and argues that there is a need for scholarship that situates heritage language education in a broader social context. We introduce the discursive practice framework as a valuable approach to bridging the gap between diverging ways of understanding context in the analysis of language learning, and we explore the connections between identity, language ideologies, and stancetaking in heritage language learning. Finally, we argue in support of Kramsch and Whiteside’s (2008) notion that the ultimate goal for language learners should be for them to develop ‘symbolic competence,’ or “the ability to shape the multilingual game in which one invests…and to reframe human thought and action” (p. 668). In the case of heritage language learners, this means that instead of allowing themselves or their home linguistic practices to be positioned as legitimate or illegitimate within a particular discursive practice, students employ their own agency to claim the power to create value.
