What Impact Does Heritage Language Instruction Have on Spanish Heritage Learners’ Writing?

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-239
Author(s):  
Melissa A. Bowles ◽  
Adrian Bello-Uriarte
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Heritage Learners

Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language Instruction: A Critical Applied Linguistic Approach

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
College Level ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Dialect Awareness ◽  
Linguistic Approach

The present paper argues that while the Spanish for Heritage Learners (SHL) profession has given ample attention to sociolinguistic issues such as linguistic standards and language variation in teacher training, it has not yet given sufficient attention to the promotion of dialect awareness among heritage learners themselves. After discussing the role of dialect in heritage language pedagogy, I review some of the ways in which dialect awareness has been fostered in existing SHL textbooks and ancillary materials. I argue that these approaches can be sharpened by attending to the social functions of language variation. I present a critical applied linguistic approach to dialect awareness that focuses on the indexical aspects of language variation in society. I discuss three strands of this approach to dialect awareness: functions of dialects, distributions of dialects, and evaluation of dialects. Finally, I suggest some activities to present these strands in a first year college level Spanish for heritage learners class.

Language Variation in Mandarin as a Heritage Language: Subject Personal Pronouns

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Xinye Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Usage Pattern ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
First Languages ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Because of limited language input, different dominant languages, and learners’ differing backgrounds, the acquisition of heritage languages is distinguished from the acquisition of L1 and L2. Few studies of Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) have explored whether students can acquire native-like sociolinguistic competence and language-specific variables with educational input. Based on a sociolinguistic variationist perspective, this study investigates the acquisition of variation between null and overt subject personal pronouns (SPP s) by heritage learners in an undergraduate-level Mandarin program. A total of 11,970 tokens were collected through classroom observation, sociolinguistic interviews, and narratives. Measuring mixed-effects logistic regression with Rbrul (Johnson, 2009), results show that the overall usage pattern of SPP s by CHL students largely resembled that in the input provided by the language program. Results also demonstrate that linguistic constraints including coreference, person and number, and verb type, and social factors such as discourse context, first languages, course level, and age of arrival had a significant effect on SPP expression by CHL learners. Implications for CHL development and variationist studies in heritage languages are discussed.

Assessing Differences and Similarities between Instructed Heritage Language Learners and L2 Learners in Their Knowledge of Spanish Tense-Aspect and Mood (TAM) Morphology

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul ◽  
Silvia Perpiñán
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Classic Problem ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Advanced Proficiency ◽  
L1 Acquisition

The acquisition of the aspectual difference between the preterit and imperfect in the past tense and the acquisition of the contrast between subjunctive and indicative mood are classic problem areas in second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish by English-speaking learners (Collentine, 1995, 1998, 2003; Salaberry, 1999; Slabakova & Montrul, 2002; Terrell, Baycroft & Perrone, 1987). Similarly, Spanish heritage speakers in the U.S exhibit simplification of the preterit/imperfect contrast and incomplete acquisition/attrition of subjunctive morphology (Merino, 1983; Montrul, 2002, 2007; Potowski, Jegerski & Morgan-Short, 2009; Silva-Corvalán, 1994). This raises the question of whether the linguistic knowledge of a developing L2 learner is similar to incomplete L1 acquisition in heritage language (HL) learners. Because heritage speakers are exposed to the heritage language from infancy whereas L2 learners begin exposure much later, Au et al. (2002, 2008) have claimed that heritage speakers are linguistically superior to L2 learners only in phonology but not in morphosyntax. The present study reexamines this claim by focusing on the interpretation of tense, aspect and mood (TAM) morphology in 60 instructed HL learners and 60 L2 learners ranging from low to advanced proficiency in Spanish. Results of four written tasks showed differences between the groups both in tense and aspect and in mood morphology, depending on proficiency levels. Implications of these findings for heritage language instruction are discussed.

Heritage Language Instruction for Post-secondary Students from Immigrant Backgrounds

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Kimi Kondo-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Students ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Post Secondary

The “intergenerational transmission” of heritage languages (HLs) is crucial to the vitality of heritage language communities (especially for indigenous communities, where immigration is not a source of new speakers). We know, however, that HLs in the United States often do NOT survive well from one generation to the next as the shift to English takes place. In conjunction with the Second National Conference on Heritage Languages in America, a small group of researchers met to discuss priorities for research on intergenerational transmission of languages. Each of the ten researchers who participated prepared a short paper, posing research questions with some commentary to guide future research. Those papers form the major part of this article, covering topics related to language ecological patterns (in communities, families, and institutions), language ideology, measurement issues, and literacy.

scholarly journals The Sound Pattern of Heritage Spanish: An Exploratory Study on the Effects of a Classroom Experience

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Rajiv Rao ◽  
Zuzanna Fuchs ◽  
Maria Polinsky ◽  
María Luisa Parra
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Classroom Experience ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

While heritage Spanish phonetics and phonology and classroom experiences have received increased attention in recent years, these areas have yet to converge. Furthermore, most research in these realms is cross-sectional, ignoring individual or group changes across time. We aim to connect research strands and fill gaps associated with the aforementioned areas by conducting an individual-level empirical analysis of narrative data produced by five female heritage speakers of Spanish at the beginning and end of a semester-long heritage language instruction class. We focus on voiced and voiceless stop consonants, vowel quality, mean pitch, pitch range, and speech rate. Our acoustic and statistical outputs of beginning versus end data reveal that each informant exhibits a change in between three and five of the six dependent variables, showing that exposure to a more formal register through a classroom experience over the course of a semester constitutes enough input to influence the heritage language sound system, even if the sound system is not an object of explicit instruction. We interpret the significant changes through the lenses of the development of formal speech and discursive strategies, phonological retuning, and speech style and pragmatic effects, while also acknowledging limitations to address in future related work.

Raciolinguistic ideology in first-year university (non)heritage Chinese classes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-509
Author(s):  
Sharon Chang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Learning Centers ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Chinese Language Learners

Abstract This qualitative case study explores how raciolinguistic ideology of Chinese heritage is collectively shaped in first-year non-heritage Mandarin classes in one US university, but individually told by two minoritized (ethnolinguistically marginalized) heritage learners and two non-heritage learners. Their experiences in learning Mandarin Chinese as a non-heritage language elucidate how Chinese language learners negotiate their ethnolinguistic identities in the transnational world. The stories of four Chinese language learners demonstrate how their raciolinguistic ideology is collectively shaped by a complex racialization process while negotiating their race, ethnicity, culture, language, and transnationality. The present study challenges the raciolinguistic ideologies of the institutionalized norms of defining heritage and non-heritage learners as learner-trait terms. Implications for researchers and practitioners of Language Learning Centers beyond US higher education are drawn.

“Turkish is a Stepchild.” A Case Study of Language Policies in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-178
Author(s):  
Asli Can Ayten ◽  
Tatjana Atanasoska
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

Research on the language attitudes and ideologies of teachers engaged in Heritage Language Instruction (HLI) in Germany is scarce even though HLI has been implemented in German schools since the early 1970s. Our goal is to fill in a gap in this field of HL pedagogy and focus on teachers’ perspectives related to language policies. We examine the ways that HL teachers’ work is shaped by specific ideological discourses that lead to bias against using HLs in school and prejudices against their speakers. We focus only on Turkish as a HL spoken in Germany, but we present findings from our case study that could theoretically apply to other HLs in Germany. We find that both explicit and more covert discrimination affect teachers’ actions and professional identity as HL teachers and persistently disrupt HLI and communication of teachers and students.

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