Heritage Language Programs: Home

Welcome to the Heritage Language Program at Brooklyn College!

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures offers Heritage Language Programs in Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish. Our Heritage Language Programs consist of two-semester sequences of courses that prepare students to take content courses in the language. The Heritage Language Programs include beginning and intermediate courses for bilingual learners who have had little or no formal education in the language, but have a connection to the language through community and family ties. Our programs will expand the oral and written communication skills of heritage language learners through a project-based approach to learning.

These courses use the language students have grown-up listening to at home as the foundation for developing their proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking the home language. We know that the proficiency levels and experiences with the home language vary greatly among heritage speakers. In our Heritage Language Programs, heritage speakers of all levels (beginning, intermediate or advanced) can take courses that have been created specifically to respond to their unique needs and build upon the skill set of the heritage learner at different stages of development.

Heritage learners can both meet the Brooklyn College language requirement and continue to expand their knowledge of Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Russian and Spanish and further develop their communicative skills.