Exploring the role of translanguaging in linguistic ideological and attitudinal reconfigurations in the Spanish classroom for heritage speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 306-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Prada
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Spanish Classroom

Roadblocks to Bilingualism

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-90
Author(s):  
John Evar Strid ◽  
James A. Cohen ◽  
Autumn Gathings ◽  
Raven Stepter ◽  
Amor Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
The Us ◽  
Bilingual Teacher

Most teacher candidates have little experience with learning other languages. They therefore become cogs in the assimilationist machine that causes immigrants to lose native languages and become monolingual in English (Rumbaut, Massey, & Bean, 2006). In a time of devaluing immigrants (and their languages) and failure on the part of most Americans to learn other languages, educators need to focus on the role of other languages in promoting multicultural understanding and to increase language learning in the US. This chapter examines bilingual teacher candidates' experiences with language learning. For four years, students studying for ESL/bilingual licensure were asked to rate their language abilities, finding that 30% rated themselves as bilingual, with 70.43% of bilinguals describing themselves as heritage speakers. The authors report the overall findings as well as the bilingual heritage speaker candidates' own words on their experiences with language learning and maintaining their bilingualism.

scholarly journals What is Difficult about Grammatical Gender? Evidence from Heritage Russian

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Laleko
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Gender Categorization ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Allocation Strategies

The paper examines the role of lexical, morphological, and discourse-referential factors in gender assignment with animate nouns in heritage Russian in order to explore the extent to which these different interfaces are challenging in heritage language acquisition. The analysis of concordant and discordant agreement patterns with nouns representing each type of gender categorization mechanism points to unequal difficulty associated with different types of gender allocation strategies. In particular, heritage speakers converge with baseline speakers in rating possible and impossible agreement combinations in the presence of fixed and transparent lexical and morphological gender categorization cues; however, they display non-target-like judgments of unmarked and underspecified forms characterized by variable agreement behavior (i.e., hybrid nouns and common gender nouns). Problems with forms whose gender reference is disambiguated at the level of discourse point to the syntax-discourse interface as a locus of systematic difficulty for heritage language speakers.

The Role of Lexical Associations and Overgeneralizations in Heritage Spanish Perception

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whitney Chappell
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Group I ◽  
New Information

Heritage speakers exhibit a tendency to overgeneralize morphological paradigms in their production, but little is known about their perception, and the present study seeks to better understand how heritage speakers process new information in their home language. To this end, 119 listeners from different language backgrounds evaluated the number of syllables in 70 nonce words, all four-syllable paroxytone nonce words with an initial obstruent + vowel + flap sequence, with the first vowel presented at 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% of its original duration. Two types of word endings were used: -fono, designed to be reminiscent of the word teléfono, a high frequency four-syllable word, and -pine, which does not clearly prime any existing Spanish words, e.g. teréfono and terépine, respectively. Cumulative link mixed effects models fitted to 119 participants’ evaluations (N = 32,619) show that heritage speakers evaluate nonce words ending in -fono as four syllables significantly more than words ending in -pine (p < 0.001), but no word-ending effect was found for any other language group. I contend that heritage speakers filter new information in their heritage language through existing knowledge more rigidly than other Spanish speakers, and these overgeneralizations in perception parallel heritage speakers’ overgeneralizations in production.

Production of Cantonese classifiers in young heritage speakers and majority language speakers

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1531-1548
Author(s):  
Rachel TY Kan
Keyword(s):  
Large Range ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Aims and Objectives: This study investigated the production of classifiers in two groups of bilingual speakers: young heritage speakers of Cantonese in the USA and peers in Hong Kong, where Cantonese is the majority language. The role of language background factors in the heritage speakers’ performance was also examined. Methodology: The participants included 72 heritage speakers (3;10–11;3) and 61 majority language speakers (5;3–12;4). A picture-naming task was used to elicit the production of noun phrases containing six different target classifiers. A language background questionnaire was administered. Data and Analysis: The participants’ production was scored in terms of whether a classifier was produced in each obligatory context, and whether an appropriate form of classifier was used. The scores were analysed using multiple regression. Findings: Both groups were able to produce a classifier where required, but the heritage speakers were less accurate in selecting the appropriate classifier. There was a large range of abilities among the heritage speakers, and those with more Cantonese experience and a later age of arrival obtained higher scores. Originality: This study found both similarities and differences between heritage speakers and majority language speakers, and identified a potential trend of development in heritage speakers after age 10. Significance/Implications: This study showed that the classifier is acquired in heritage speakers, but its functional scope was narrowed to cover only grammatical function.

scholarly journals Transfer into L3 English

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Lloyd-Smith ◽  
Henrik Gyllstad ◽  
Tanja Kupisch
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
L1 English

Abstract This study is concerned with L3 acquisition in heritage speakers (HSs). The goals are to incorporate HSs into L3 acquisition research and investigate the role of language dominance for predicting L3 transfer. We analyze global accent in German-Turkish early bilinguals, HSs of Turkish, who acquired English as their L3. Twenty native-speaker judges determined accent strength and accent source in the speech of 18 bilinguals as well as 15 controls (L1 English, L1 German, L1 Turkish) when speaking English. Results show, firstly, that bilinguals are perceived as less accented than L1 Turkish speakers and similar to L1 German speakers. Secondly, unlike L1 controls, there is no uniform accent source for HSs when speaking their L3. Our results question the role of age of acquisition, while being generally consistent with the TPM. However, HSs seem to benefit from bilingual experience and structure-based transfer can be overpowered by high proficiency.

Expressing displacement in heritage Cantonese: Cross-linguistic influence and structural vulnerability

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 603-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Chung-yin Kwan ◽  
Virginia Yip
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Structural Vulnerability ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

Aims and objectives: Heritage languages spoken by speakers in overseas communities can diverge significantly from the language spoken in the home country. Recent investigations have suggested that some grammatical structures or features are more vulnerable than others. This paper investigates the role of cross-linguistic influence, incomplete acquisition and attrition in heritage Cantonese in contact with English, focusing on the grammar of the pretransitive zoeng-construction in displacement contexts. Methodology: An elicited oral production task modelled on the fruit cart experiment was used to elicit displacement instructions in Cantonese. Fourteen heritage speakers and thirteen émigré speakers participated. All had acquired Cantonese as their first language but experienced a shift of language dominance to English due to immigration and education. Seventeen native speakers of Cantonese in Hong Kong served as the baseline. Data and analysis: The utterances were manually transcribed and coded. Production and error rates were calculated. Statistical results revealed quantitative differences among the three groups of Cantonese speakers. The baseline speakers preferred the zoeng-construction in displacement contexts, whereas the heritage and émigré speakers made greater use of canonical and topicalization structures. Nevertheless, the zoeng-sentences produced by the heritage and émigré speakers were all grammatical and felicitous. Findings: The basic structure of the zoeng-construction is kept intact in less than half of the heritage and émigré speakers’ Cantonese grammar. The zoeng-construction is thus vulnerable to intergenerational language change induced by language contact and individual differences, which is partially attributable to cross-linguistic influence from English. Originality: This is the first experimental study to investigate the grammar of heritage Cantonese. Significance: The study provides new empirical evidence of structural vulnerability and variability of heritage grammar and sheds light on the role of incomplete acquisition, cross-linguistic influence and attrition in such vulnerability.

On the role of experience and age-related effects: Evidence from the Spanish CP

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Joshua Frank
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Age Related ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task indicate significant differences between the two experimental groups and the monolingual controls. However, the heritage speakers outperformed the L2 learners in their target use and interpretation, which suggests a linguistic benefit for earlier exposure and use of Spanish during childhood. We propose that the differences observed among the L2 learners and the heritage speakers can be accounted for in terms of cross-linguistic influence from the dominant language as well as language experience and age of onset of bilingualism as an interrelated dimension in L2 and heritage language development.

scholarly journals Keeping a Critical Eye on Majority Language Influence: The Case of Uptalk in Heritage Spanish

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Ji Young Kim ◽  
Gemma Repiso-Puigdelliura
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Dyadic Interaction ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Interaction Task ◽  
Dynamic Contours ◽  
Language Influence

The goal of this study is to highlight the importance of taking into account variations in monolingual grammars before discussing majority language influence as a possible source of heritage speakers’ divergent grammars. In this study, we examine the production of uptalk in Spanish by heritage speakers of Mexican Spanish in Southern California. Uptalk (i.e., rising intonation contour at the end of a non-question utterance) is frequently associated with California English. Thus, heritage speakers’ use of uptalk is often considered to be influenced from English intonation (i.e., the majority language). Although uptalk in Spanish is not well understood, it has been observed in Mexican Spanish, which calls attention to the importance of investigating uptalk in monolingual Spanish. Using a dyadic interaction task, we obtained spontaneous speech data of 16 heritage speakers and 16 monolingual speakers of Mexican Spanish and compared the phonological and phonetic properties of uptalks produced by the two groups. Our results demonstrated that the heritage speakers and the monolingual speakers produced uptalks with similar frequencies and mainly used L+H* HH% and L* HH% contours. However, the two groups had more differences than similarities. Specifically, heritage speakers’ uptalks presented less dynamic contours and were produced with flatter rises than monolinguals’ uptalks. Heritage speakers’ divergent patterns showed close resemblance with patterns in English, suggesting majority language influence as a valid source of divergence. We discuss possible avenues for future research for a better understanding of the role of majority language influence on heritage Spanish uptalk.

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