AN EMERGENTIST PERSPECTIVE ON HERITAGE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O’Grady ◽  
Hye-Young Kwak ◽  
On-Soon Lee ◽  
Miseon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
The Way

It is widely recognized that the processor has a key role to play in creating and strengthening the mapping between form and meaning that is integral to language use. Adopting an emergentist approach to heritage language acquisition, the current study considers the extent to which the operation of the processor can contribute to an account of what is acquired, what is subsequently retained or lost, and what is never acquired in the first place. These questions are explored from two perspectives. First, morphosyntactic phenomena for which there is apparently substantial input are considered, with a focus on the relevance of salience, frequency, and transparency to the establishment of form-meaning mappings. Second, a phenomenon for which there appears to be relatively little input (i.e., scope) is examined with a view to understanding its fate in heritage language acquisition. In both cases, the emergentist perspective appears to offer promising insights into why heritage language learners succeed—and fail—in the way that they do.

Current Issues in Heritage Language Acquisition

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition

An increasing trend in many postsecondary foreign language classes in North America is the presence of heritage language learners. Heritage language learners are speakers of ethnolinguistically minority languages who were exposed to the language in the family since childhood and as adults wish to learn, relearn, or improve their current level of linguistic proficiency in their family language. This article discusses the development of the linguistic and grammatical knowledge of heritage language speakers from childhood to adulthood and the conditions under which language learning does or does not occur. Placing heritage language acquisition within current and viable cognitive and linguistic theories of acquisition, I discuss what most recent basic research has so far uncovered about heritage speakers of different languages and their language learning process. I conclude with directions for future research.

scholarly journals Language ideologies and identities in Kurdish heritage language classrooms in London

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (253) ◽  
pp. 173-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgul Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Language Schools ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article investigates the way that Kurdish language learners construct discourses around identity in two language schools in London. It focuses on the values that heritage language learners of Kurdish-Kurmanji attribute to the Kurmanji spoken in the Bohtan and Maraş regions of Turkey. Kurmanji is one of the varieties of Kurdish that is spoken mainly in Turkey and Syria. The article explores the way that learners perceive the language from the Bohtan region to be “good Kurmanji”, in contrast to the “bad Kurmanji” from the Maraş region. Drawing on ethnographic data collected from community-based Kurdish-Kurmanji heritage language classes for adults in South and East London, I illustrate how distinctive lexical and phonological features such as the sounds [a:] ~ [ɔ:] and [ɛ]/[æ] ~ [a:] are associated with regional (and religious) identities of the learners. I investigate how these distinct features emerge in participants’ discourses as distinctive identity markers. More specifically this article examines how language learners construct, negotiate and resist language ideologies in the classroom.

scholarly journals Input effects across domains: The case of Greek subjects in child heritage language

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Daskalaki ◽  
Vasiliki Chondrogianni ◽  
Elma Blom ◽  
Froso Argyri ◽  
Johanne Paradis
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
North America ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Interface Hypothesis

A recurring question in the literature of heritage language acquisition, and more generally of bilingual acquisition, is whether all linguistic domains are sensitive to input reduction and to cross-linguistic influence and to what extent. According to the Interface Hypothesis, morphosyntactic phenomena regulated by discourse–pragmatic conditions are more likely to lead to non-native outcomes than strictly syntactic aspects of the language (Sorace, 2011). To test this hypothesis, we examined subject realization and placement in Greek–English bilingual children learning Greek as a heritage language in North America and investigated whether the amount of heritage language use can predict their performance in syntax–discourse and narrow syntactic contexts. Results indicated two deviations from the Interface Hypothesis: First, subject realization (a syntax–discourse phenomenon) was found to be largely unproblematic. Second, subject placement was affected not only in syntax–discourse structures but also in narrow syntactic structures, though to a lesser degree, suggesting that the association between the interface status of subject placement and its sensitivity to heritage language use among children heritage speakers is gradient rather than categorical.

Voices from the Margin: Developing a Profile of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in the FL Classroom

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Heather Weger-Guntharp
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Home Environment ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

While defining a heritage language (HL) learner is problematic, it is critical for how HL issues are framed. Underrepresented in the discussion are those learners who identify the HL as key to their development of self identity while having limited exposure to the HL in the home environment. This study investigates such students in the context of first semester Chinese classes at a U.S. university and draws on theories of motivation, HL learning, and social identity. Results suggest that a learner’s heritage is an important factor in that it affects the construction of a language learner’s identity and the coconstruction of motivation, and influences attitudes towards classroom activities. The study found that the complexity of individual backgrounds problematizes the identification of HL learners based on their home-language use or place of birth. Finally, the data reveal a HL learner classroom profile consisting of at least three interwoven components (self, teacher, and peer).

Voices from the Margin: Developing a Profile of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in the FL Classroom

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Heather Weger-Guntharp
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Home Environment ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

While defining a heritage language (HL) learner is problematic, it is critical for how HL issues are framed. Underrepresented in the discussion are those learners who identify the HL as key to their development of self identity while having limited exposure to the HL in the home environment. This study investigates such students in the context of first semester Chinese classes at a U.S. university and draws on theories of motivation, HL learning, and social identity. Results suggest that a learner’s heritage is an important factor in that it affects the construction of a language learner’s identity and the coconstruction of motivation, and influences attitudes towards classroom activities. The study found that the complexity of individual backgrounds problematizes the identification of HL learners based on their home-language use or place of birth. Finally, the data reveal a HL learner classroom profile consisting of at least three interwoven components (self, teacher, and peer).

scholarly journals Practical and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Heritage Language Acquisition

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-332
Author(s):  
William O'Grady ◽  
On-Soon Lee ◽  
Jin-Hwa Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Heritage Language Learning ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The Many ◽  
Promising Source

A promising source of insights into heritage language learning comes from the broader study of the role of input in language acquisition. We concentrate here on the possibility that qualitative differences in the proficiency of heritage and monolingual language learners can be traced to a qualitative difference in the input available to each group. By examining a series of representative phenomena (case, differential object marking, and disjunction), we illustrate how shortfalls in experience can shed light on the many instances of partial acquisition and of attrition that are reported in the literature on heritage language learning.

Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110176
Author(s):  
Julio César López Otero ◽  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Jian Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Object Clitics ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Furthermore, we found higher levels of overextension among the HSs with lower patterns of heritage language use. Results are discussed along the lines of the model of heritage language acquisition and maintenance.

Voices from the Margin: Developing a Profile of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in the FL Classroom

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Heather Weger-Guntharp
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Home Environment ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

While defining a heritage language (HL) learner is problematic, it is critical for how HL issues are framed. Underrepresented in the discussion are those learners who identify the HL as key to their development of self identity while having limited exposure to the HL in the home environment. This study investigates such students in the context of first semester Chinese classes at a U.S. university and draws on theories of motivation, HL learning, and social identity. Results suggest that a learner’s heritage is an important factor in that it affects the construction of a language learner’s identity and the coconstruction of motivation, and influences attitudes towards classroom activities. The study found that the complexity of individual backgrounds problematizes the identification of HL learners based on their home-language use or place of birth. Finally, the data reveal a HL learner classroom profile consisting of at least three interwoven components (self, teacher, and peer).

scholarly journals Home and School Language Practices and Their Effects on Heritage Language Acquisition: A View from Heritage Italians in Germany

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Irene Caloi ◽  
Jacopo Torregrossa
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Home And School

This paper intends to provide some speculative remarks on how consistency and continuity in language use practices within and across contexts inform heritage language acquisition outcomes. We intend “consistency” as maintenance of similar patterns of home language use over the years. “Continuity” refers to the possibility for heritage language speakers to be exposed to formal education in the heritage language. By means of a questionnaire study, we analyze to what extent Italian heritage families in Germany are consistent in their use of the heritage language with their children. Furthermore, by analyzing the educational offer related to Italian as a heritage language across different areas in Germany, we reflect on children’s opportunities to experience continuity between home and school language practices. Finally, we interpret the results of previous studies on Italian heritage language acquisition through the lens of consistency and continuity of language experience. In particular, we show that under the appropriate language experience conditions (involving consistency and continuity), heritage speakers may be successful even in the acquisition of linguistic phenomena that have been shown to be acquired late in first language acquisition.

Voices from the Margin: Developing a Profile of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in the FL Classroom

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Heather Weger-Guntharp
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Home Environment ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

While defining a heritage language (HL) learner is problematic, it is critical for how HL issues are framed. Underrepresented in the discussion are those learners who identify the HL as key to their development of self identity while having limited exposure to the HL in the home environment. This study investigates such students in the context of first semester Chinese classes at a U.S. university and draws on theories of motivation, HL learning, and social identity. Results suggest that a learner’s heritage is an important factor in that it affects the construction of a language learner’s identity and the coconstruction of motivation, and influences attitudes towards classroom activities. The study found that the complexity of individual backgrounds problematizes the identification of HL learners based on their home-language use or place of birth. Finally, the data reveal a HL learner classroom profile consisting of at least three interwoven components (self, teacher, and peer).

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