Problematizing heritage language identities

Abstract Heritage speaker identities have traditionally been a relevant topic of inquiry among scholars of heritage language pedagogy. Nevertheless, there is little research on Spanish heritage language identities in a study abroad context. Additionally, most existing studies on this topic focus on heritage speakers of Mexican descent studying in Mexico (e.g., de Félix & Cavazos Peña, 1992; McLaughlin, 2001; Riegelhaupt & Carrasco, 2000). This study examines heritage language identities in a non-heritage context by exploring the experiences of three heritage speakers of Mexican descent studying in Mendoza, Argentina. By focusing on a non-heritage context, we move away from the presumption that all heritage speakers seek to (re)claim a specific ethnic identity through language study (see Leeman, 2015). Instead, our qualitative analysis illustrates the diverse ways heritage speakers in a non-heritage context construct, contest, and negotiate their identities with respect to linguistic awareness, negotiation between varieties, and perceptions of their abilities.

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Preposition Stranding in Spanish as a Heritage Language

Heritage Language Journal ◽

10.46538/hlj.12.2.4 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 186-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Diego Pascual y Cabo

Keyword(s):

Heritage Language ◽

Comparison Group ◽

Control Group ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

The Core ◽

Preposition Stranding ◽

Crosslinguistic Influence ◽

Spanish Heritage Speakers ◽

Timing Of Exposure

Previous research examining heritage speaker bilingualism has suggested that interfaceconditioned properties are likely to be affected by crosslinguistic influence (e.g., Montrul & Polinsky, 2011; White, 2011). It is not clear, however, whether the core syntax can also be affected to the same degree (e.g., Cuza, 2013; Depiante & Thompson, 2013). Departing from Cuza’s (2013) and Depiante and Thompson’s (2013) research, the present study seeks to determine the extent to which this is possible in the case of Spanish as a heritage language. With this goal in mind, a total of thirty-three Spanish heritage speakers (divided into sequential and simultaneous bilinguals) and a comparison group of eleven late Spanish-English bilinguals completed a battery of off-line tasks that examined knowledge and use of preposition stranding (i.e., a syntactic construction whereby the object of the preposition is fronted while the preposition itself is left stranded), an understudied core syntactic phenomenon that is licit in English but precluded in Spanish. Overall findings reveal that the sequential heritage speakers pattern with participants from the control group. The simultaneous heritage speakers, on the other hand, seem to have a grammar that is not so restricting as they accept and produce ungrammatical cases of preposition stranding. Herein, we argue that these results do not obtain the way they do due to incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition but crucially because of the timing of exposure to the societal language. We propose that this property was completely acquired, although differently acquired due to the structural overlap observed between the two languages involved (e.g., Müller & Hulk, 2001), and most importantly, to the timing of acquisition of English (e.g., Putnam & Sánchez, 2013).

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Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/1367006916654355 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (5) ◽

pp. 564-582 ◽

Cited By ~ 92

Author(s):

Tanja Kupisch ◽

Jason Rothman

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Causal Factors ◽

Early Child ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

Heritage Language Acquisition ◽

Formal Instruction ◽

Bilingual Literature ◽

Incomplete Acquisition

This paper integrates research on child simultaneous bilingual acquisition more directly into the heritage language acquisition literature. The child simultaneous bilingual literature mostly focuses on development in childhood, whereas heritage speakers are often tested at an endstate in adulthood. However, insights from child simultaneous bilingual acquisition must be considered in heritage language acquisition theorizing precisely because many heritage speakers demonstrate the adult outcomes of child simultaneous bilingual acquisition. Data from child simultaneous bilingual acquisition raises serious questions for the construct of incomplete acquisition, a term broadly used in heritage language acquisition studies to describe almost any difference heritage speakers display from baseline controls (usually monolinguals). We offer an epistemological discussion related to incomplete acquisition, highlighting the descriptive and theoretical inaccuracy of the term. We focus our discussion on two of several possible causal factors that contribute to variable competence outcomes in adult heritage speakers: input and formal instruction in the heritage language. We conclude by offering alternative terminology for heritage speaker outcomes.

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A longitudinal study of bilingual identity development in a heritage language learner

Language and Dialogue ◽

10.1075/ld.6.2.03bat ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 254-274 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicoleta Bateman

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Identity Development ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Language Learner ◽

Growing Up ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Linguistic Identity ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Community Membership ◽

Heritage Speaker

Research on linguistic identity and community membership negotiation in the fields of second language acquisition and heritage language has rightly focused on adolescents and older individuals. Aiming to fill a gap in the literature, this paper addresses this topic from the perspective of younger heritage speakers, focusing on what dialogue reveals about such negotiation by the young heritage speaker, and on what purposes the heritage language serves. By presenting data from a case study of a heritage learner, a child growing up in an English-Romanian bilingual home, this paper shows that dialogue reveals the child’s use of language to negotiate linguistic identity and community membership both for herself and her interlocutors. Recognizing the significance of developing a bilingual identity for heritage speakers, and the broader goal for our society to embrace multilingualism, the paper concludes with implications from this research for family, community, and public education.

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Aspectual distinctions in Dutch-Ambon Malay bilingual heritage speakers

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/1367006915608515 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 178-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Francesca R Moro

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Great Likelihood ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Languages ◽

Related Factors ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

Aspect Markers ◽

Contact Situation

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This paper investigates the effects of Dutch on the tense-aspect system of heritage Ambon Malay, a variety spoken by Dutch-Ambon Malay bilinguals in the Netherlands. The study asks whether the cross-linguistic contrasts between the two languages – Dutch obligatorily marks past/non-past and finiteness, whereas Ambon Malay lacks a grammaticalized expression of these distinctions – has an effect on the aspectual system of heritage Ambon Malay. Design/Methodology/Approach: The database for the study consists of video descriptions provided by 32 bilingual speakers (the experimental groups) and by three control groups: 27 homeland speakers of Ambon Malay, 5 first generation speakers of Ambon Malay in the Netherlands (late bilinguals), and 10 monolingual speakers of Dutch. Data and Analysis: The frequency and distribution of aspect markers is analysed statistically in the four groups. Findings/Conclusions: The analysis of the data reveals that, under the influence of Dutch, the Ambon Malay progressive marker ada has undergone a shift in temporal status and frequency and it is now interpreted as a marker of present tense, as well as of progressive aspect. The other two aspect markers, the iamitive/perfective su and verbal reduplication (iterative) are used significantly less by heritage speakers. Originality: This study shows that when a grammatical category is present and productive in the dominant language of a bilingual heritage speaker, but not in the heritage language, there is a great likelihood that it will undergo contact-induced grammaticalization, even in a relatively short time contact situation. The study also shows that input-related factors, such as transparency and phonological salience, contribute to the (in)stability of aspectual forms in the heritage language. Significance/Implications: This finding has implication for the incomplete acquisition perspective on heritage languages, which sees these languages as grammatically simplified systems (see, e.g., Montrul, 2009; Polinsky, 2008), because it shows that heritage languages can also gain grammatical distinctions previously absent in the (homeland) language.

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The Late(r) Bird Gets the Verb? Effects of Age of Acquisition of English on Adult Heritage Speakers’ Knowledge of Subjunctive Mood in Spanish

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages4030069 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 69

Author(s):

Giancaspro

Keyword(s):

Heritage Language ◽

Relative Clauses ◽

Age Of Acquisition ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

Subjunctive Mood ◽

Language Research ◽

The Us ◽

Preference Task ◽

Specific Factors

Many previous studies have found that adult heritage speakers exhibit significant variability in their production and comprehension of mood morphology in Spanish. Nonetheless, it remains unclear what specific factors predict heritage speakers’ likelihood of exhibiting such variability. The present study contributes to this question by testing the effect of both (a) age-of-acquisition of English and (b) Spanish proficiency on heritage speakers’ productive and receptive knowledge of mood morphology. Seventeen “early” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 0 to 3.5 years), 20 “late” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 4 to 6 years), and 18 later childhood immigrants (age of arrival in the US: 8 to 12 years) completed a Contextualized Elicited Production Task and a Mood Preference Task. Results of the two experiments suggest that the later childhood immigrants, despite “overusing” subjunctive in +Presupposition adjectival relative clauses, are significantly more likely than “early” and “late” heritage speakers to produce and prefer subjunctive mood in expected subjunctive contexts (with para que and in -Presupposition adjectival relative clauses). Within the heritage speaker groups, however, Spanish proficiency was a stronger predictor of subjunctive knowledge than age of acquisition of English, a finding with implications for both heritage language research and pedagogy.

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Current Trends and Emerging Methodologies in Charting Heritage Language Bilingual Grammars

10.31234/osf.io/pa83g ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fatih Bayram ◽

Jason Rothman ◽

Grazia Di Pisa ◽

Roumyana Slabakova

Keyword(s):

Heritage Language ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Behavioral Data ◽

Developmental Studies ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

Current Trends ◽

Language Studies ◽

History Of ◽

Online Methods

This chapter contextualizes the methodological landscape of formal linguistic heritage language studies, with a special emphasis on emerging, innovative trends. The chapter is divided in three parts. Part 1 reviews methodological challenges related to testing heritage speaker knowledge (e.g., modality of testing, issues pertaining to baselines) as well as the history of offline behavioral experimentation that typically compares heritage speakers to monolingual baselines (Montrul 2008, 2016; Polinsky, 2018). We will seek to take stock of what has been robustly studied to date versus where there is welcomed room for further investigation in the near future (e.g. the imbalance between heritage speaker developmental studies in young and older aged children and adolescents versus the highly studied case of competence outcomes in (young) adult ultimate attainment, e.g. Kupisch & Rothman, 2016). Part 2 considers recent trends in heritage language empirical studies adopting online methods (e.g., Villegas, 2014; Kim, Montrul & Yoon, 2015; Jacob, Şafak, Demir, Kırkıcı, 2018), contributing both complementary evidence to the considerably larger behavioral data base that dominates the field as well as some challenges for claims made on this basis of behavioral data alone. Part 3 unpacks the emerging trend focusing on the continuum of differences within heritage speakers themselves, attempting to quantify, reveal and understand correlations of individual experiences (using regression statistical analyses) with access to and engagement with input as well as opportunities for converting input to intake that might shed light on how and why individual grammars take the developmental path and end state they do (Bayram et al., 2017; Lloyd-Smith et al., under review).

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VOICE ONSET TIME IN MULTILINGUAL SPEAKERS: ITALIAN HERITAGE SPEAKERS IN GERMANY WITH L3 ENGLISH

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263121000280 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

Miriam Geiss ◽

Sonja Gumbsheimer ◽

Anika Lloyd-Smith ◽

Svenja Schmid ◽

Tanja Kupisch

Keyword(s):

Heritage Language ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

English Speakers ◽

Control Group ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Third Language ◽

Bilingual Advantage ◽

L3 Acquisition ◽

Crosslinguistic Influence

Abstract This study brings together two previously largely independent fields of multilingual language acquisition: heritage language and third language (L3) acquisition. We investigate the production of fortis and lenis stops in semi-naturalistic speech in the three languages of 20 heritage speakers (HSs) of Italian with German as a majority language and English as L3. The study aims to identify the extent to which the HSs produce distinct values across all three languages, or whether crosslinguistic influence (CLI) occurs. To this end, we compare the HSs’ voice onset time (VOT) values with those of L2 English speakers from Italy and Germany. The language triad exhibits overlapping and distinct VOT realizations, making VOT a potentially vulnerable category. Results indicate CLI from German into Italian, although a systemic difference is maintained. When speaking English, the HSs show an advantage over the Italian L2 control group, with less prevoicing and longer fortis stops, indicating a specific bilingual advantage.

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Sentence comprehension in heritage language: Isomorphism, word order, and language transfer

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658321997900 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026765832199790

Author(s):

Anna Chrabaszcz ◽

Elena Onischik ◽

Olga Dragoy

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Word Order ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Language Transfer ◽

Processing Strategy ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Dominant Language ◽

Sequence Of Events ◽

Linguistic Transfer

This study examines the role of cross-linguistic transfer versus general processing strategy in two groups of heritage speakers ( n = 28 per group) with the same heritage language – Russian – and typologically different dominant languages: English and Estonian. A group of homeland Russian speakers ( n = 36) is tested to provide baseline comparison. Within the framework of the Competition model (MacWhinney, 2012), cross-linguistic transfer is defined as reliance on the processing cue prevalent in the heritage speaker’s dominant language (e.g. word order in English) for comprehension of heritage language. In accordance with the Isomorphic Mapping Hypothesis (O’Grady and Lee, 2005), the general processing strategy is defined in terms of isomorphism as a linear alignment between the order of the sentence constituents and the temporal sequence of events. Participants were asked to match pictures on the computer screen with auditorily presented sentences. Sentences included locative or instrumental constructions, in which two cues – word order (basic vs. inverted) and isomorphism mapping (isomorphic vs. nonisomorphic) – were fully crossed. The results revealed that (1) Russian native speakers are sensitive to isomorphism in sentence processing; (2) English-dominant heritage speakers experience dominant language transfer, as evidenced by their reliance primarily on the word order cue; (3) Estonian-dominant heritage speakers do not show significant effects of isomorphism or word order but experience significant processing costs in all conditions.

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The Development of Subject Position in Dutch-Dominant Heritage Speakers of Spanish: From Age 9 to Adulthood

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages4040088 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 88

Author(s):

van Osch ◽

García González ◽

Hulk ◽

Sleeman ◽

Aalberse

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Age Groups ◽

Judgment Task ◽

Subject Position ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽

Language Literature

This exploratory study investigates the knowledge of word order in intransitive sentences by heritage speakers of Spanish of different age groups: 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds and adults. In doing so, we aim to fill a gap in the heritage language literature, which, to date, has mainly focused on adult heritage speakers and preschool bilingual children. The results from a judgment task reveal that child- and adolescent heritage speakers do not entirely resemble monolingual age-matched children in the acquisition of subjects in Spanish, nor do they assimilate adult heritage speakers. The data suggest that several different processes can occur simultaneously in the acquisition of word order in heritage speakers: monolingual-like acquisition, delayed acquisition, and attrition. An analysis of the influence of extraneous variables suggests that most of these effects are likely to be the consequence of quantitatively reduced input in the heritage language and increased input in the majority language.

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Sequential bilingual heritage children's L1 attrition in lexical retrieval: Age of acquisition versus language experience

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728921001139 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Kitaek Kim ◽

Hyunwoo Kim

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Heritage Language ◽

First Language ◽

Age Of Acquisition ◽

Naming Task ◽

Lexical Retrieval ◽

Language Attrition ◽

Language Experience ◽

Length Of Residence ◽

Heritage Speakers

Abstract This study investigated the unresolved issue of potential sources of heritage language attrition. To test contributing effects of three learner variables – age of second language acquisition, length of residence, and language input – on heritage children's lexical retrieval accuracy and speed, we conducted a real-time word naming task with 68 children (age 11–14 years) living in South Korea who spoke either Chinese or Russian as a heritage language. Results of regression analyses showed that the participants were less accurate and slower in naming target words in their heritage language as their length of residence in Korea and the amount of Korean input increased. The age of Korean acquisition did not significantly influence their performance. These findings support the claim that heritage speakers’ language experience is a more reliable predictor of first language attrition than age of acquisition. We discuss these findings in light of different approaches to explaining language attrition.

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