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INTRODUCTION
Educators, activists and policymakers have long made reference to identity in their calls for heritage language education. So too, there is a long-held assumption that heritage learners seek to (re)claim their ethnic identity through language study, reflecting the predominance of ideologies that conceive of ethnocultural identity as embodied in language. Nevertheless, it is only in the past decade or so that researchers have begun to conduct empirical research specifically on identity and heritage language education, and to investigate the two-way relationship between learners' experiences with the heritage language and their sense of themselves, the role of educational policies and practices in shaping identity, and the ways in which speakers of heritage languages construct, negotiate and perform their identities in various educational and extracurricular contexts. Despite the relative recency of the field, there is already a large and growing body of research conducted in a wide array of geographic, linguistic and policy contexts. The present article focuses specifically on empirical research on identity and heritage language education in the United States, although the theoretical and methodological issues discussed are more broadly relevant.
I begin with a discussion of the simultaneous development of heritage language education as a field and the growth of interest in identity and language learning, followed by a critical examination of the terms "heritage language" and "heritage language education," as well as of "heritage language learner" as an identity category. Next, I analyze empirical research conducted within the past five years, including survey-based research that included a consideration of identity in the exploration of students' reasons for heritage language study, as well as qualitative and ethnographic research that had heritage language learner identity as the primary focus. After discussing recent research on pedagogical approaches designed to engage heritage language learners in critical considerations of language and identity, I conclude by suggesting some areas for future research.
THE GROWTH OF HERITAGE LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Although English has been the dominant language in U.S. public education, there is a long history of private and parochial schools using other languages, such as German, French, and Spanish, as the medium of instruction (Schmid, 2001). Community-based schools providing Chinese language instruction to Chinese immigrants and their children date...