Semi-Structured Interview Guide for Spanish Heritage Language Learners in Mixed Spanish-Language Secondary School Classrooms

Within a sociolinguistic study on the representation of Spanish diatopic varieties in mixed Spanish-language secondary school classrooms in Verona, a set of interview questions were designed to interview Spanish Heritage Language Learners (hereinafter SHLLs). These questions aimed to capture SHLLs’ perspectives on how Spanish varieties are represented and treated in the classroom, their learning experiences, and identity-related issues connected to the Spanish language and their Hispanic American heritage. Interviews were conducted as part of a linguistic ethnography incorporating multiple data sources, including classroom observations, questionnaires for SHLLs and classmates, teacher interviews, and textbook analysis. The first set of questions focused on the representation and treatment of variation in class, investigating SHLLs’ own linguistic ideologies and perceptions of those prevailing in class. This included recognition of diatopic varieties and Spanish-speaking regions, both as represented in the classroom and in the textbook. The second thematic group of questions explored motivations for taking the Spanish course, their learning objectives, perceived progress, the difficulties and shortcomings they encounter, and the extent to which they feel included and involved as students, as well as how their Spanish proficiency is perceived by the teacher and their classmates. The third set addressed identity-related aspects of the SHLLs, including prestige associated with their own variety, their Spanish-speaking identity both in-class and out-of-class, and their aspirations for future use of the language. All interviews were conducted orally and face-to-face, and combined open-ended, yes/no, and ranking questions. The grounding of the interview questions in existing literature and the triangulation of multiple data sources played a fundamental role in ensuring methodological validity.