The Discourses of Heritage Language Development: Engaging Ideologies in Canadian Hispanic Communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Martin Guardado
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Hispanic Families ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Heritage Language Development

The goal of this article is to investigate the discourses surrounding the development and maintenance of Spanish in Canadian Hispanic families and community groups. Although the research literature already contains abundant insights into a variety of issues and factors, such as the individual, familial and societal benefits of heritage language maintenance, its conceptualization from a theoretical perspective of discourses and ideologies in families is less frequently discussed explicitly. Therefore, via analyses of interviews and daily interactions drawn from a 1.5-year ethnography conducted in Western Canada, the article draws attention to the diversity of meanings present in the families’ discursive constructions of heritage language development and maintenance. The interviews with parents were found to contain discourses that embodied implicit and explicit ideologies about language. Some of the metalinguistic constructions of language maintenance discussed in the article include discourses that can be categorized as utilitarian, affective, aesthetic, cosmopolitan and oppositional. The article concludes with implications for theory, research and families.

Quantifying Language Experience in Heritage Language Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 433-445
Author(s):  
Sharon Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Outcomes ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Input Quantity ◽  
Input Quality ◽  
Parental Questionnaire ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Heritage Language Development

Variation in language experience is a key characteristic of heritage language development. To understand the impact of these varying experiences on children’s heritage language outcomes, researchers typically collate and quantify specific aspects of children’s language input, transforming or reducing them into other more general variables, such as language richness as a measure of input quality and amount of language exposure as a measure of input quantity. This chapter presents an overview of the most frequently used method of operationalizing language experience in bilingual language acquisition research, namely the parental questionnaire. It outlines some conceptual and practical issues surrounding parental questionnaires as a means of quantifying bilingual language experience as well as reviewing a number of questionnaires used in recent studies in more detail.

Early shifts in the heritage language strength: A comparison of lexical access and accuracy in bilingual and monolingual children

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692093633
Author(s):  
Bozena Dubiel ◽  
Eithne Guilfoyle
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Relative Dominance ◽  
Similar Accuracy ◽  
Heritage Language Development

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This study examines the characteristics of the child heritage language during the period of its relative dominance in early sequential bilinguals. Our objectives are twofold: to compare lexical accuracy and access in heritage and monolingual speakers across the primary school years, and to examine whether the results point to any early shifts in the heritage language strength. Design/methodology/approach: The participants are 38 Polish–English early sequential bilinguals and 24 Polish monolinguals aged 4;7–13;2, divided into four age groups. We use a new psycholinguistic tool, the Child HALA, to measure shifts in language strength by comparing lexical accuracy and access between the heritage and monolingual Polish. This picture-naming test is based on the HALA tool. Data and analysis: The data consists of accuracy and response time scores. The results are compared between the age groups and between the heritage and monolingual speakers to document any changes as a function of age and type of acquisition. Findings/conclusions: The heritage speakers achieve similar accuracy scores as the monolinguals; however, their rate of acquisition is slower. Their response time scores are lower across all age spans, which points to a slower language access. The results may suggest that the heritage language displays early shifts in its strength before a switch to a more dominant L2 between the mean age of 8–11;5. Originality: We document early changes in the heritage language strength that occur during a period of its relative dominance in bilingual children. The study employs a new psycholinguistic test applicable in the assessments of language maintenance in children. Significance/implications: The study provides insights into the heritage language maintenance during the early years of exposure to the majority language. The results may offer a greater understanding of the characteristics of the heritage language development in bilingual children.

Heritage language development: Connecting the dots

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 530-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Structural Development ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Adult Immigrants ◽  
Connecting The Dots ◽  
Heritage Language Development

To date, the vast majority of research on the linguistic abilities of heritage speakers has focused on young adults whose heritage language is no longer developing. These adults began their journey as bilingual children acquiring the heritage language with the majority language simultaneously since birth or sequentially, as a second language. If longitudinal studies are not always feasible, linking research on the structural development of bilingual pre-school children with research on young adult heritage speakers adds a much needed perspective to understand the initial state and the end state of heritage language development. The purpose of this study is to connect the beginning of heritage language development with its ultimate attainment by comparing the expression of subjects in Spanish in 15 school-age bilingual children and 29 young adult heritage speakers, all of them simultaneous bilinguals with English as the dominant language and Spanish as the weaker language. The oral production of null and overt subjects by child and adult heritage speakers was compared to that of age-matched monolingual speakers in Mexico (20 children, 20 adults). To provide a wider context the study includes a group of 21 adult immigrants, who could also potentially influence the input to the heritage speakers. The results confirm that discourse pragmatic properties of subject expression in Spanish are vulnerable to incomplete acquisition and permanent optionality in child and adult bilingual grammars.

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