Portuguese is the sixth-most-spoken native language in the world, with approximately 240,000,000 speakers. Within the United States, there is a growing demand for K-12 language programs to engage the community of Portuguese heritage speakers. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 85,000 school-age children speak Portuguese at home. As a result, more than 100 public schools currently offer Portuguese courses. Given the increasing prominence of Portuguese in the United States, the authors argue that institutions should promote the learning of Portuguese among Spanish-speaking students on their campuses. In addition, they claim that the Spanish-speaking population presents specific advantages and challenges in terms of their acquisition of Portuguese and, therefore, institutions ought to offer specific courses for these learners. Finally, they suggest that pedagogical approaches for this population should emphasize authentic readings and metalinguistic awareness. They believe that the teaching of Portuguese to Spanish speakers presents an extraordinary opportunity to help broaden students' linguistic repertoire and form trilingual individuals, in tune with the Modern Language Association (MLA) recommendations that higher education promote "speakers who have deep translingual and transcultural competence" and strengthen "the demand for language competence within the university."