Jennifer Leeman

Professor

Applied and Sociolinguistics; Spanish in the US; heritage language education; ethnicity, race, and language in censuses; language and racialization

Jennifer Leeman’s research focuses on the sociopolitics of language, with particular attention to multilingualism, Spanish in the US, and the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language. Her work is interdisciplinary and employs the theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches of critical applied linguistics and sociolinguistics while also engaging the fields of education, Latinx studies, language policy, and linguistic anthropology.

Leeman has published extensively on the interplay of ideologies of language, race and nation in the US, the racialization of Spanish and Latinxs in the US, multilingual language policy and politics, and critical pedagogical approaches to teaching Spanish. Her scholarship encompasses both theoretically-oriented research as well as studies applying theoretical insights to specific policy concerns and practical problems, including heritage language policy, curriculum and pedagogy; multilingual survey design and administration; and census language questions.

Leeman currently serves on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Applied Linguistics as well as the editorial boards of the journals Language Policy, Linguistic Landscape, Spanish as a Heritage Language, and Spanish in Context.

In addition to her faculty position at Mason, Leeman served as Research Sociolinguist in the US Census Bureau’s Language and Intercultural Research Group (2011-2020).

Current Research

- Ideologies and identities in heritage language education

- Race and racialization in Spanish language education

- Critical pedagogy in language teaching

- The construction and quantification of the category Latino in Europe

- Heritage language speakers and study abroad

Selected Publications

Fuller, J. & Leeman, J. (2020) Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language. Multilingual Matters. [Spanish language edition under contract]

Leeman, J. & Serafini, E. J. (2020). “It’s Not Fair”: Discourses of Deficit, Equity, and Effort in Mixed Heritage and Second Language Spanish Classes. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 1–15.

Leeman, J. (2020). The nexus of academic knowledge, political agendas and self-identification in census ethnoracial classification. Language, Culture and Society (2)1 92-99.

Leeman, J. (2020). Los datos censales en el estudio del multilingüismo y la migración: Cuestiones ideológicas y consecuencias epistémicas. Iberoromania. 2020(91): 77-92.

Leeman, J. (2019). Measured multilingualism: Census language questions in Canada and the US. In T. Ricento. Language Politics and Policies: Perspectives from Canada and the United States. (114-134). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leeman, J. (2018). Becoming Hispanic: The negotiation of ethnoracial identity in U.S. census interviews. Latino Studies 16(4), 432-460.

Leeman, J. (2018). It’s all about English: The interplay of monolingual ideologies, language policies and the US Census Bureau’s statistics on multilingualism. The International Journal of the Sociology of Language , (252) 21-43.

Leeman, J. (2018). Critical language awareness in SHL: Challenging the linguistic subordination of US Latinxs. In K. Potowski (Ed.) Handbook of Spanish as a Minority/Heritage Language, (pp. 345-358). New York: Routledge.

Expanded Publication List

Leeman, J. & Driver, M. (To appear) Spanish heritage speaker identity and study abroad: Shifting identities in new contexts. Submitted to R. Pozzi, T. Quan, & C. Escalante (Eds.) Heritage Speakers of Spanish and Study Abroad. New York: Routledge.

Leeman, J. (To appear). Questioning the language questions: Federal policy and the evaluation of the U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics on language. International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. 34(1,2).

Fuller, J. & Leeman, J. (2020) Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language. Multilingual Matters.

Leeman, J. (2020). The nexus of academic knowledge, political agendas and self-identification in census ethnoracial classification. Language, Culture and Society (2)1 92-99.

Leeman, J. (2020). Los datos censales en el estudio del multilingüismo y la migración: Cuestiones ideológicas y consecuencias epistémicas. Iberoromania. 2020(91): 77-92.

Leeman, J. (2019). Measured multilingualism: Census language questions in Canada and the US.In T. Ricento. Language Politics and Policies: Perspectives from Canada and the United States. (114-134). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leeman, J. (2018). Becoming Hispanic: The negotiation of ethnoracial identity in U.S. census interviews.Latino Studies 16(4), 432-460.

Leeman, J. (2017). Censuses and large-scale surveys in language research. In K. A. King, Y.-J. Lai, & S. May (Eds.), Research Methods in Language and Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing. 83–97.

Leeman, J. & Serafini, E. (2016). Sociolinguistics and heritage language education: A model for promoting critical translingual competence. In Marta Fairclough and Sara Beaudrie (Ed.s) Innovative Strategies for Heritage Language Teaching. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. 56-79.

Leeman, J. (2016) La clasificación de los latinos y latinas en la historia del censo de los Estados Unidos: la racialización oficial de la lengua española. In José Del Valle (ed.) La historia política del español. Madrid: Editorial Aluvión

Leeman, J. (2015). Identity and heritage language education in the United States. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. 35. 100–119.

Leeman, J. (2015). Cognitive Testing of the American Community Survey Language Questions in Spanish. Research and Methodology Directorate, Center for Survey Measurement Study Series (Survey Methodology #2015-02). U.S. Census Bureau. Available online at <https://www.census.gov/srd/papers/pdf/ssm2015-02.pdf>.

Rabin, L. & Leeman, J. (2015) Critical service-learning and literary study in Spanish. In L. Grobman and R. Rosenberg (Eds.) Service Learning and Literary Studies in English. (New York: Modern Language Association). 128-137.

Leeman, J. & King, K. (2015). Heritage language education: Minority language speakers, second language instruction, and monolingual schooling. In M Bigelow & J. Ennser-Kananen (Ed.s) The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. New York: Routledge. 210-223.

Leeman, J. (2014) Critical approaches to the teaching of Spanish as a local-foreign language. In M. Lacorte (Ed.) The Handbook of Hispanic Applied Linguistics. Routledge. 275-292.

Pan, Y., Fond, M., Leeman, J., (2014) Expert Review of the Spanish 2014 Census Test. Research and Methodology Directorate, Center for Survey Measurement Study Series. U.S. Census Bureau.

Pan, Y., Leeman, J., Fond, M., and Goerman, P. (2014). Multilingual Survey Design and Fielding: Research Perspectives from the U.S. Census Bureau. Center for Statistical Research & Methodology Research Report Series (Survey Methodology #2014-01). U.S. Census Bureau.

Leeman, J. (2013). Categorizing Latinos in the history of the US Census: The official racialization of Spanish. In J. Del Valle (Ed.) A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 305-324.

Pan, Y., Leeman, J., Fond, M. (2013) Development of Census Bureau Survey Interpretation Guidelines. Research and Methodology Directorate, Center for Survey Measurement Study Series (Survey Methodology #2013-27). U.S. Census Bureau.

Leeman, J. (2013). “Evidence and U.S. language policy” in Liebow, E., Dominguez, V. R., Peregrine, P. N., McCarty, T. L., Nichter, M., Nardi, B. and Leeman, J. (2013), On Evidence and the Public Interest. American Anthropologist, 115: 642–655.

Leeman, J. (2012). Investigating language ideologies in Spanish as a heritage language. In S. Beaudrie and M. Fairclough (Ed.s), Spanish as a Heritage Language in the US: State of the Science. (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press). 43-59.

Leeman, J. (2012). Illegal accents: Qualifications, discrimination and distraction in Arizona's monitoring of teachers. In O. Santa Ana and C. Bustamante (Eds.) Arizona Firestorm. (Lanham, MI: Rowman & Littlefield). 145-166.

Leeman, J., Rabin, L., & Román-Mendoza, E. (2011). Identity and social activism in heritage language education. Modern Language Journal (95)4, 481–495.

Leeman, J., Rabin, L., & Román-Mendoza, E. (2011). Critical pedagogy beyond the classroom walls: Community service-learning and Spanish heritage language education. Heritage Language Journal 8(3) 1-21.

Leeman, J., Rabin, L. & Román-Mendoza, E. (2011). La web 2.0 al servicio de la comunidad en un programa de español como lengua de herencia en Estados Unidos (Using web 2.0 tools in a community-based service-learning program with Spanish heritage speakers in the United States). Revista Teoría de la Educación: Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información. 12(3), 118-140.

Leeman, J. (2011). Standards, commodification, and critical service learning in minority language communities. Modern Language Journal (95)4, 10-13.

Leeman, J. & Modan, G. (2010). Selling the City: Language, ethnicity and commodified space. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael and M. Barni (Eds.) Linguistic Landscape in the City. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 182-197.

Leeman, J. (2010). The sociopolitics of heritage language education. In S. Rivera-Mills & D. Villa (Ed.s) Spanish of the US Southwest: A Language in Transition. Madrid: Iberoamericana. 309-317.

Leeman, J. & Modan, G. (2010). Trajectories of language: Orders of indexical meaning in Washington, DC’s Chinatown. In M. Guggenheim & O. Söderstrom (Ed.s) Re-Shaping Cities: How Global Mobility Transforms Architecture and Urban Form. London: Routledge. 167-188.

Leeman, J. (2010). Questionable language measures: US Census data, ideologies and constituencies. Anthropology News. 51(5) 7-8.

Lacorte, M. & Leeman, J. (Eds). (2009). Español en Estados Unidos y otros contextos de contacto: Sociolingüística, ideología y pedagogía / Spanish in the US and other contact environments: Sociolinguistics, ideology and pedagogy. Madrid: Iberoamericana.

Leeman, J. & Modan, G. (2009). Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. The Journal of Sociolinguistics 13(3), 333-363. Blackwell. Republished in: The Journal of Sociolinguistics Virtual Issue: Language and the City. June 2012.

Leeman, J. (2007). Feedback in L2 learning: Responding to errors during practice. In R. DeKeyser (Ed.) Practice in a Second Language: Perspectives From Linguistics and Psychology, Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 111-137.

Leeman, J. & Martínez, G. (2007) From identity to commodity: Discourses of Spanish in heritage language textbooks. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 4(1), 35-65. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leeman, J. & Rabin, L. (2007). Reading language: Critical perspectives for the literature classroom. Hispania. 90 (2) 304-315. American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

Leeman, J. (2006/07). The value of Spanish: Shifting ideologies in US language teaching. ADFL Bulletin 38 (1-2) 32-39. Modern Language Association.

Leeman J. (2005). Engaging critical pedagogy: Spanish for native speakers. Foreign Language Annals. 38 (1) 35-45. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Leeman, J. (2004). Racializing language: A history of linguistic ideologies in the US Census. The Journal of Language and Politics, 3 (3) 507-534. John Benjamins.

Leeman, J. (2003). Recasts and L2 development: Beyond negative evidence. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25 (1) 37-63. Cambridge University Press.

Mackey, A., Oliver, R. & Leeman, J. (2003). Interactional input and the incorporation of feedback: An exploration of NS-NNS and NNS-NNS adult and child dyads. Language Learning, 53 (1) 35-56. Blackwell.

Leeman, J., Arteagoitia, I., Fridman, B. & Doughty, C. (1995). Integrating attention to form with meaning: Focus on form in content-based Spanish instruction. In R. Schmidt (Ed.), Attention and awareness in foreign language learning and teaching. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 217-258.

Courses Taught

ANTH 399 The Sociopolitics of Language
FRLN 385 Multilingualism, Identity, and Power
FRLN 551 Heritage Language Education
HNRS 121Reading Cultural Signs

SPAN 109 Intensive Spanish

SPAN 301 Spanish Grammar and Syntax
SPAN 305 Spanish in Context
SPAN 315 Spanish for Heritage Speakers
SPAN 385 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics
SPAN 430 Spanish in the US
SPAN 476 Teaching Spanish in the US
SPAN 500 History of Spanish
SPAN 502 Hispanic Sociolinguistics
SPAN 551 Spanish Teaching Materials & Methods
SPAN 551 Teaching Spanish as a Heritage Language
SPAN 551 Language Ideologies and Spanish

SPAN 551 Language Policies & Politics

Education

BA (Spanish) University of Pennsylvania
MA (Hispanic Civilization) New York University
MAT (TESOL & Bilingual Education) Georgetown University
PhD (Hispanic Linguistics) Georgetown University

Recent Presentations

2019-2020:

Census statistics about heritage languages and speakers: Epistemological, discursive, and policy concerns. Heritage Languages Around the World, Lisbon, Portugal, May 2020. [P0STPONED]

Linguistic variation and the teaching of Spanish: Critical perspectives. Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. May 2020. [MOVED ONLINE]

Critical approaches to language education: Diversity, equity, and inclusion. University of Washington, Seattle. April 2020. [POSTPONED]

Questioning multilingualism: Census statistics and the politics of language. Georgetown University Roundtable (GURT), Washington DC. March 2020. [CANCELLED]

Producing Latinxs: Ethnoracial, linguistic, and migrant identities in national censuses. Centre for Applied Linguistics, University College London, UK. December 2019.

Producing Latinx identities in the census: A comparative analysis of ethnoracial and linguistic classification. Centre for Mexico-Southampton Collaboration, University of Southampton, UK. November 2019.

Constructing and negotiating ethnoracial identity through language: Latinxs in the US census and beyond. Institute of Multilingualism, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, October 2019.

Counting Latinxs: The production of ethnoracial, linguistic, and migrant identities in national censuses. Center for the Study of Language and Society, University of Bern, Switzerland, October 2019.

La variación lingüística y la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia: Un acercamiento crítico. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. October 2019.

Defining and quantifying transnational, global and local Latinx identities. Spanish in Society – El español en la sociedad biennial conference. University of Edinburgh. September 2019. (Plenary address)