Spanish variation: Why teachers should respect haiga and La rufa está liqueando

The Spanish language varies a great deal around the countries in which it is spoken. Although the U.S. has one of the largest populations of Spanish-speakers in the world, our ways of speaking Spanish are often criticized, causing feelings of shame among many young Latinos who frequently end up abandoning the language. After exploring some of the features of U.S. Spanish and how it got that way, I look at mechanisms that lead to linguistic prestige and, conversely, to stigmatization and repression. I conclude with concrete strategies for teachers to show respect for their students’ ethnolinguistic identities while simultaneously engaging them in rich language development.

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