Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
Summer 6-16-2025
Recommended Citation
Vergara Wilson, Damián; Brisa del Bosque; and Elizabeth Zavala. "Autonomy from prescriptivism: Spanish as a Heritage Language and the OER." (2025). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/oer_at_tech_days/4
Autonomy from prescriptivism.pptx (879 kB)
Comments
While OERs are valuable for educators in all fields, they hold a particular importance in the teaching of UNM’s Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL). This talk will elaborate on the importance of OER creation in the teaching of SHL and will also describe a culturally responsive OER that is being created in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for our SHL program.
Presenter: Damián Vergara Wilson, Professor
Presenter Bio: Professor Damián Vergara Wilson is a Professor of Spanish in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at UNM and directs the Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He and his team are preparing an OER that will be implemented in the beginning levels of the SHL program and that focuses on the Spanish(es) of New Mexico. As a life-long New Mexican from the northern part of the state, he is dedicated to language maintenance of our unique varieties of Spanish and has focused his recent research agenda to examining issues related to language maintenance. He promotes the facilitation of critical language awareness in the classroom so that students can grapple with sociolinguistic issues facing Spanish speakers in the Southwest and includes these notions in the OER he is creating.
Presenter: Brisa del Bosque, PhD student and Instructor of Spanish
Presenter Bio: Brisa del Bosque has been teaching Spanish as a Heritage Language and as a Second Language, in the US. for the last 23 years. She founded several Spanish programs in high schools in Denver Colorado. She was the founder of the first SHL programs in Denver, 20 years ago. She's a bilingual teachers trainer in Mexico and the US. Her passion is to advocate and work to make sure that Spanish is not lost in the US.
Presenter: Elizabeth Zevala, PhD student and Instructor of Spanish
Presenter Bio: My name is Elizabeth A. Zavala, I was born in Bakersfield, California, but I grew up in a small village in Guanajuato Mexico. I received my bachelor’s degree in Spanish and my master's Degree in Hispanic linguistics at New Mexico State University (NMSU). I am currently a PhD student in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Nuevo Mexico (UNM). I am the assistant coordinator for the Spanish as a Heritage Language program and as a teacher's assistant (TA). My research interests focus on investigating the Spanish language changes in society. For my dissertation, I will investigate the linguistic and social changes of agricultural workers in Hatch, NM. I plan to give visibility to these people and their stories.