Spanish in Chicago: Writing an Online Placement Exam for Spanish Heritage Speakers

Abstract

United States is the third country in the world with the largest Hispanic population (over 45 million of Spanish speaking people). As Fairclough (2003) claims, the national, ethnic and socioeconomic differences of Hispanic immigrants provide a heterogeneous community whose unifying element is the Spanish language. Chicago is third largest city in the country with a significant Hispanic population. In the latest years, Spanish for Heritage speakers’ programs in higher education have developed and effective placement tests are needed.

Keywords

• heterogeneous community
• Spanish for Heritage Speakers
• placement tests
• second language teaching
• Chicano
• Spanglish