The value of Spanish as a heritage language: from theory to practice
The Cervantes Institute in Brussels, together with the University of Nebrija in Madrid, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) and the Cultural and Scientific and Education Departments of the Spanish Embassy in the Belgian capital, is organising the conference 'Spanish as a heritage language: from theory to practice'.
In the framework of the programme dedicated to the week of celebration of Spanish Day (UN) and Book and Copyright Day (UNESCO) - which brings together all Spanish-speaking countries - the conference will reflect on the binomial "Language and identity". The conference is aimed at the academic teaching community, the educational and cultural world, associations of Spanish speakers and their descendants ("heritage speakers") and, in general, institutions, organisations and individuals interested in the maintenance and development of languages of origin in contexts of migration.
This conference, whose inaugural lecture will be given by Professor Francisco Moreno Fernández, a world authority of reference in the field of heritage language, will focus on the cultural, educational and scientific value of Spanish as a Heritage Language (ELH). The aim of the session is to exchange experiences and to give an account of the latest research in the field of ELH. Professor Moreno Fernández will be accompanied by renowned experts in the field of heritage language.
The linguist Francisco Moreno Fernández is a world expert in research into the relationship between language and society and is considered one of the most influential sociolinguists. He has particularly focused his research on migratory movements and their role in the complex formation and development of linguistic, social and cultural regions, as well as on the subjective perception of identity and prestige in language. D. in Hispanic Linguistics, he is Professor of Spanish Language at the University of Alcalá (Spain) and Professor awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), where he currently directs the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American-Studies (HCIAS). He is a full member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española and a corresponding member of the Academia Cubana de la Lengua, the Academia Chilena de la Lengua, the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua and the Real Academia Española.
His stays as a researcher and visiting professor have taken him to Japan, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. He has been academic director of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, of the Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States of the same institution at Harvard University and of several centres in its network, and was the first coordinator of the Instituto Cervantes Yearbook "Spanish in the World".
Founder and first editor of the journal Lengua y migración (Language and Migration), he has also been co-editor of the international journals Spanish in Context (John Benjamins) and Journal of Linguistic Geography (Cambridge University Press), member of the editorial board of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language and Journal of World Languages, as well as of several journals devoted to the study and teaching of the Spanish language (Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, Sociolinguistic Studies, Boletín de Filología de la Universidad de Chile, Lingüística Española Actual and Oralia).
Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.