Episode 34: Reframing and Reclaiming Heritage Languages
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Description
When Veronica Benavides decided to reclaim her Spanish, a language she was discouraged from speaking as a child in Texas, and raise her children in her heritage language, she realized that most bilingual parenting resources for non-dominant parents were geared towards second language speakers. Given the unique emotional and linguistic experience with heritage languages and the lack of existing resources for these families, Dr. Benavides founded the Language Preservation Project (https://thelanguageproject.co), which guides families through the process of reclaiming their family languages, discarding harmful deficit-oriented framing of language proficiencies, and focusing on connection as the heart of bilingualism.
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