ABSTRACT
This article presents an investigation carried out to study the linguistic development of students from a Spanish Language class. The community service learning (from now on, due to its initials in English, SL) methodology is used. The students of Spanish as heritage language learners (from now on, due to its initials in English, HLLs) and students of Spanish as a foreign language (from now on, due to its initials in English, FLLs) participated in SL in which they translated educational and medical materials from English into Spanish. The first objective was to determine whether SL affects vocabulary development and to what extent students’ prior knowledge benefits their linguistic development. The second objective was to observe the intrinsic motivation of the students. This research includes eight FLLs participants and eight HLLs participants who, as an assignment of the Spanish language course, translated the materials. Two diagnostic tests were administered in order to analyze the results. A qualitative analysis shows that the intrinsic motivation of the students underwent favorable changes. Quantitative analysis indicates that vocabulary development increases due to connections between previous and new language skills. This research concludes by highlighting the results; among the results it can be observed the development of the linguistic aptitude, of the vocabulary, and the sense of belonging to the Hispanics community from part of the students.
Spanish heritage speakers; vocabulary development; service learning; Spanish as a foreign language; Spanish as a heritage language