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Getting to Know Your Heritage Language Learners: Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts

The Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages (OBEWL) of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) presents this next webinar in its 2023 Professional Learning Series: Getting to Know Your Heritage Language Learners: Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts. This webinar is offered free of charge for world language educators and administrators working and studying in New York State educational institutions.

Original webinar date:  Monday, April 24th, 2023, 4:00—5:00 p.m.

Presenter:  Dr. Carolina Bustamante

Webinar description:  In this session, participants will identify the differences between native, heritage, and second language speakers in terms of proficiency and their pedagogical needs as language learners. Participants will learn about language dialect, register, standard, Spanglish and its characteristics, and why it is important for teachers to be aware of sociolinguistic considerations in order to better advocate for heritage learners in world language programs.

Link to webinar flyer

Link to Handouts folder from webinar

Link to recording of webinar

Link to post-assessments

To receive a certificate of completion (including a CTLE certificate), NYS educators must view the recording of the webinar (see link above) in its entirety and then answer at least seven out of ten questions correctly on the post assessment.  If the minimum required score (7 out of 10) is achieved, the educator will receive a certificate via email within an hour.  For the convenience of our World Language educators, there are multiple versions of the post assessment available, should the required score not be achieved on the first attempt.  Educators may take each version of the post assessment once.

Important notes:

  1. Educators may take each version of the post assessment once.  Credit will not be given for taking a single version of the post assessment more than once. 
  2. Credit will not be given for more than one passing score on any of the post assessments for a webinar (listed below) in a single academic year.  
  3. Educators may receive credit for viewing the webinar recording and passing a post assessment once in each academic year and are encouraged to take a different version of the post assessment on a yearly basis to review and test their knowledge of the webinar's content. 
  4. It is the responsibility of the individual educator to keep track of the information on the professional learning they complete each year, including the number of CTLE hours.
  5. Questions about this webinar or the post assessments, should be directed to Candace Black at (518) 473-7505 or at candace.black@nysed.gov.

Webinar Summary 

# of attendees: 156
# of CTLE certificates issued: 114
# of certificates of attendance issued: 42
# of organizations represented by attendees:

  • 130 participants from district schools
  • 13 participants from charter schools
  • 2 participants from non-public schools
  • 5 participants from colleges or universities
  • 5 participants from BOCES or RBERNs
  • 1 participant from a government agency

Quotes from Participants of this Webinar

Thank you! This was awesome! Can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this!  ~ Karen D.

Thank you! Very interesting and useful information and examples.    ~ Chrysanthe F.

Thank you for a very informative and inspiring webinar! ~ Daniela P.

Super informative, thank you! ~ Jeff S.

(Last updated 6/25/23)

Webinar presenter:  Dr. Carolina Bustamante is an associate professor of world language education and Spanish at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. She coordinates the Graduate Spanish Adolescence Education Program and teaches courses on language pedagogy for second language learners and heritage speakers, second language acquisition, and Spanish. Her published research has focused on professional development on technology for teachers of Chinese, German, and Spanish, mixed methods research, and the development of heritage speakers as language teachers.