scholarly journals Metaphor in Spanish L2 and Heritage Language Learners’ Speech: How Does it Compare?

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-194
Author(s):  
Cecilia Tocaimaza-Hatch
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Language Community ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Conversation Class

Summary One way in which language practitioners and researchers have furthered our understanding of heritage language learners’ linguistic abilities has been to compare them to L2 learners. The current study implemented this modality and examined metaphoric competence. This is one area in learners’ overall linguistic competence that provides them with access to the concepts and models of the language community and facilitates mediation during communitive tasks (Lantolf, 1999). Participants (n=16) in this study were heritage language learners and L2 learners enrolled in an advanced conversation class in Spanish. They completed an oral portfolio assignment which consisted of regularly engaging in conversation with a Spanish native speaker and recording their interactions. The analysis of their unscripted conversations included the identification of metaphoric samples and the calculation of metaphoric density. Findings revealed that learners produced what were termed true metaphors (original constructions), light metaphors (metaphoric constructions that are already established in the language), and transfer metaphors (constructions resulting from contact with the English language). Comparisons between L2 learners and heritage language learners did not reveal significant differences, which suggests that in the area of metaphoric competence these learners are more similar than not.

scholarly journals Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Review of Literature Analyzing Their Preference of the English Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. p56
Author(s):  
Hilda Guillen-Ramos ◽  
Tonya Huber
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Transitional Bilingual ◽  
Transitional Bilingual Education ◽  
American Schools ◽  
New Research

The increased number of Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) speakers in American schools has called for the need of new research focused on SHL students, their parents, their teachers, and a profound analysis of best instructional practices for this individualized group of students. The purpose of this thorough analysis of peer-reviewed literature is to evaluate language programs for the growing SHL student population in elementary schools. A careful look into this growing population will help evaluate the educational programs provided to SHL students such as the Dual Language (DL) immersion program and the Transitional Bilingual Education program (TBE). This review addresses why students walk into an elementary classroom as an SHL and English language bilingual and subsequently become monolinguals as they progress in their elementary school years. Recognizing the factors that lead to a student’s language preference can assist parents, teachers, and the education system in developing an academic structure that will promote bilingualism and biliteracy for SHL learners.

scholarly journals Arabic Should Not Be Cast As Heritage: Arabic Lives

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Nadia Selim
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Heritage Language Learner ◽  
Linguistic Proficiency

Language acquisition research often conceives of language learners in terms of linguistic proficiency and perhaps assigns them a position on a continuum with the native speaker at one end and the foreign language learner on the other. The heritage language learner falls somewhere between these two extremes and often shares a deep affiliation with the language that can be ethnically, historically, culturally or religiously driven or they may share a multifaceted affiliation with the language. Arabic heritage language learners typically include Arabs of any religious or non-religious affiliation and non-Arab Muslims. Research has considered various matters associated with Arabic heritage language learners that range from differences in their motivations to language maintenance within communities. However, research on Arabic has not really considered the implications of the term heritage itself. This paper will critically examine the term heritage language learner and argue that it is problematic due to the inherent implications of the word “heritage” which can contribute to the perpetuation of linguistic hegemony and result in language loss. Consequently, the paper recommends the use of alternative terms.

scholarly journals Variable Future-Time Expression in Spanish: A Comparison between Heritage and Second Language Learners

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Ana de Prada Pérez ◽  
Inmaculada Gómez Soler ◽  
Nick Feroce
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Future Time ◽  
L2 Learners

This paper examines the expression of futurity in Spanish, specifically the periphrastic future (PF), the morphological future (MF), and the present indicative (PI) in heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language learners (L2 learners), a comparison that allowed us to explore whether linguistic experience provides HLLs an advantage over L2 learners in the domain of morphosyntax. These forms (PF, MF, and PI) are regulated by certainty, temporal distance, and the presence of temporal adverbials. Previous research showed that L2 learners acquire some of these linguistic constraints and that HLLs tend to reduce the MF to modal uses. Data from a contextualized acceptability judgment task completed by 46 HLLs and 42 L2ers manipulated for verb form, certainty, temporal distance, and adverb and revealed that (i) the PF and the MF were generally rated higher than the PI, (ii) HLLs were sensitive to the three linguistic factors examined, while the L2ers’ sensitivity was modulated by proficiency, and, relatedly, (iii) the two groups differed in the effect of proficiency. For the L2 learners, an increase in proficiency led to a closer pattern to that of monolingual native speakers (only for temporal distance). Differences in exposure to and instruction in Spanish are discussed as possible sources of these differences.

"There is no space for being German": Portraits of Willing and Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roswita Dressler
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
German Speaking Country

Some heritage language learners (HLLs) are comfortable identifying themselves as such, while others are decidedly reluctant to adopt this term (Piño & Piño, 2000). HLLs in this paper are defined as those students having a parent or grandparent who speaks German or those who have spent a significant part of their childhood in a German-speaking country (as suggested in Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005, p. 13). This paper highlights case studies of six HLLs of German at the post-secondary level who are participants in a motivation study (Dressler, 2008). Three students are ‘willing’ HLLs. The additional three case studies are of students that I will call ‘reluctant’ HLLs of German, and this paper explores the reasons behind their reluctance and the components of self-identification, which include language identity (Block, 2007; Pierce, 1995); language expertise; affiliation and inheritance (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997); cultural artifacts (Bartlett, 2007) and positioning (Block, 2007).

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