This digest focuses on teaching Spanish to native or Hispanic heritage language students in the United States. Heritage language students are students who speak another language (in this case Spanish) as their first language either because they were born in another country or because their families speak another language at home. The entrance of these heritage language students into Spanish foreign language classes places huge demands on teachers, particularly at the secondary and postsecondary levels. As a result, a number of secondary schools, colleges, and universities in states with large Hispanic populations are offering Spanish courses tailored to the needs of Spanish speaking students. These courses offer Spanish as an academic subject to students who have some level of exposure to Spanish from their home environment. The digest discusses the need for these special courses; the characteristics of students who participate in Spanish for native speakers (SNS) courses; the goals of SNS instruction, including language maintenance, expansion of the bilingual range, acquisition of the prestige variety, and transfer of literacy skills; evaluation of the goals of SNS instruction; and resources for SNS professionals. (Contains 14 references.) (VWL)