Over the past decade, there has been a notable surge in Open Education Resources (OER) for the instruction of Spanish as a Heritage Language (Duran & Meiners 2019; Vaño García 2023). These resources aim to align with core objectives within the field (Beaudrie & Vergara Wilson 2022) while enhancing accessibility to relevant content for Hispanic learners from diverse backgrounds. Despite the proliferation of such resources, current research lacks an in-depth examination of OER, particularly in their treatment of linguistic diversity. This qualitative study seeks to fill this gap by presenting an analytical framework to assess ten OER for SHL instruction; the study seeks to explain how these OER depict, exemplify, and validate Spanish language variation, focusing on the integration of Spanish varieties, their perspectives on language contact phenomena, and the extent to which they foster critical language awareness through content, language samples, and activities.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Become familiar with current OER dedicated to teaching and learning Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL)
- Understand how OER integrate current frameworks in Heritage Language Education
- Understand how OER in SHL deal with topics of linguistic diversity, language contact, and critical language awareness, all components of main goals in Heritage Language Education.
