Viana da Silva, Eduardo; Svetlana Abramova; Michele Aoki; and Bridget Yaden. “Getting to Advanced: Challenging Heritage Language Learners to Step Outside Their Comfort Zone.” The Language Educator. (vol. 8, n. 3). American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages: New York, March 2018.
This article describes the summer language courses of Portuguese and Russian focused on STEM and offered through the STARTALK Program at the University of Washington. The courses are described in a way that can serve as a model for others, sharing proficiency results that students use to earn Competency-Based World Language Credits that can be applied to a Seal of Biliteracy, and providing some tips based on what we have learned over the seven years of working with heritage language secondary school students.