Written Narrative by Spanish Heritage Language Speakers

2017 ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Verónica Sánchez Abchi ◽  
Audrey Bonvin ◽  
Amelia Lambelet ◽  
Carlos Pestana
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This article aims to study narrative complexity in written texts produced by Spanish heritage speakers growing up in two linguistic regions of Switzerland. Texts produced in their heritage language by children living either in French- or German-speaking parts of Switzerland were analyzed and compared to texts written by Spanish speaking children growing up in a mostly monolingual context in Argentina. According to the literature, it was expected that children’s heritage language command and literacy abilities would mask their narrative competence in Spanish (i.e., that heritage speakers would show lower narrative complexity than their monolingual peers). The participants were 138 pupils aged between 9 and 12;5 (twelve years and five months), distributed in three groups: Spanish heritage language speakers living in German-speaking Switzerland (n=66), Spanish heritage language speakers living in French-speaking Switzerland (n=25), and a comparison Group made up of Spanish speakers growing up in a monolingual context (n=47). Heritage speakers’ parents also completed a questionnaire describing the children’s linguistic background. We did not find significant differences between groups in terms of story grammar components, suggesting that command of language and writing constraints do not affect narrative complexity development in heritage language speakers.

Preposition Stranding in Spanish as a Heritage Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-209 ◽  
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).

Causative verbs in the grammar of Spanish heritage speakers

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve Zyzik
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Acceptance Rates ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This study examines argument structure overgeneralizations among heritage speakers of Spanish who exhibit varying degrees of proficiency in the heritage language. Two questions motivated the design of the study: (1) Do heritage speakers differ from native speakers in their acceptance of causative errors? And if so, (2) which classes of verbs are most susceptible to this overgeneralization? A sentence acceptability task targeting two verb classes (unaccusatives and unergatives) was administered to 58 heritage speakers and a comparison group (n = 22) of monolingually-raised native speakers of Spanish. The results confirm that heritage speakers, in contrast to native speakers, accept causative errors with a variety of intransitive verbs. Unaccusative verbs are more readily accepted in transitive frames than unergatives for all groups. Acceptance rates for individual verbs are a function of the particular verb’s compatibility with external causation as well as the possibility of being transitive in English.

Spanish heritage speakers in the Southwest

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
María-Isabel Martínez-Mira
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

Several studies have looked into the different uses of indicative and subjunctive in the Spanish of heritage speakers. Generally speaking, research seems to show that mood simplification is taking place in heritage speakers’ Spanish. Mood and modal alternation is of particular interest to research on language change and contact due to the wide variation in the ability of heritage speakers to produce and apply it. (This is, in part, no doubt, due to their embodiment of a complex relationship between syntactic form, semantics and pragmatic meaning.) The present study examines the use of the indicative/subjunctive in the written and oral Spanish production of one group of heritage language speakers to find out which similarities/differences can be found when compared to monolingual speakers and what this says about how their linguistic systems are configurated.

scholarly journals The Socio-linguistic Profiles, Identities, and Educational Needs of Greek Heritage Language Speakers in Chicago

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Zoe Gavriilidou ◽  
Lydia Mitits
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Academic Needs ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Culturally Responsive Education ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Language Corpus

The present study aims to further the research on heritage language speakers (HLSs) by providing the socio-linguistic profiles and identities of an uninvestigated community of heritage speakers, namely the Greeks of Chicago, thus offering data for a less-studied HL, Greek. The participants were fifty-four (N=54) first, second, and third-generation Greek HLSs. The socio-linguistic data were collected through an online survey, while identification with Greek culture as well as ethnic attachment and practice of Greek traditions were investigated through the content analysis of data from the Greek Heritage Language Corpus. The results of the study are discussed with respect to how they can improve our knowledge of the educational needs of Greek HL learners. This research-based knowledge can be employed for addressing the academic needs of HL learners through educational programs. The authors propose an agenda for a more linguistically and culturally responsive education program for HL learners, in general, and Greek HL learners in diasporic communities, in particular.

Correlations between linguistic change and linguistic performance among heritage speakers of Danish in Argentina

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 690-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Heegård Petersen ◽  
Gert Foget Hansen ◽  
Jacob Thøgersen
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers

Abstract The article addresses the issue of an assumed correlation between heritage language speakers’ linguistic system and their fluency. Previous research has shown that heritage language speakers who have grammatical patterns that are divergent from the language spoken in the homeland also have lexical retrieval problems and speak with a slower speech rate. We approach the issue by examining two linguistic features and 11 different fluency features (‘structural’ and ‘performance features’) of 10 speakers of Argentine Heritage Danish. A factor analysis shows that the 11 performance features can be reduced to 2 factors that characterize the speakers ‘lexical retrieval’ and ‘fluency’. A correlation analysis with the two structural features, weakening of a phonological contrast between /oː/ and /ɔː/ and simplification of the gender system, shows that there are no correlations at all between these two measures of the speakers’ language production, in contrast to what previous research has found.

Acoustic Correlates of the Spanish Tap-Trill Contrast: Heritage and L2 Spanish Speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Amengual
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Apical Constriction ◽  
Acoustic Correlates ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
L2 Spanish ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

The present study investigates the acoustic correlates of the Spanish tap-trill phonological contrast (/ɾ/-/r/) in the production of 40 Spanish heritage speakers and 20 L2 Spanish learners in Northern California. The acoustic analyses examined the number of occlusions and overall duration in the production of phonemic trills, while the phonetic variants of the phonemic tap were based on the degree of apical constriction: true tap, approximant tap, and perceptual tap. The results from a reading-aloud task indicate that most speakers produced non-canonical phonemic trills with one or zero occlusions and maintain the Spanish tap-trill phonological contrast largely by means of segmental duration, and that this is especially true for L2 learners and English-dominant heritage speakers. In contrast, Spanish-dominant heritage speakers produced the majority of their trills with two or three brief occlusions between the tongue apex and the alveolar ridge. These data confirm that heritage speakers are a heterogeneous group and that variance in their rhotic production is a result of language dominance: English-dominant heritage speakers and L2 learners are most likely to exhibit a modified system to maintain the rhotic phonological contrast in comparison to Spanish-dominant heritage speakers. The findings of this study add to our understanding of the sources of variation in heritage and L2 pronunciation by investigating a largely understudied bilingual population that has traditionally been ignored in bilingual phonetic research.

scholarly journals Heritage language speakers in university education in Japan: Perspectives for an inclusive society.

Elia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 86-125
Author(s):  
Veri Farina
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
University Education ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
University Level ◽  
The One ◽  
The University ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers

The educational system in Japan has traditionally been focused on the “one nation, one language” ideology. This has led to the marginalization of indigenous and immigrant languages. As a consequence, heritage speakers are dealing with the loss of their heritage languages. However, there are isolated movements addressing the maintenance of the heritage languages, though they haven’t had a long-lasting effect on the educational system. In an attempt to contribute to reversing this language and identity loss, we based our research on two main points: 1) the belief that creating an informed partnership will help heritage language speakers (HLS) to integrate in the mainstream education space (Cummins, 2014) and 2) confidence in the importance of interconnecting the isolated movements for language maintenance. Would it be possible to achieve it in the Japanese educational context? Can we start scaffolding this new structure of informed partnership from the university level? In order to try to prove this point of view successfully, this article describes the creation at the university level of a class about Heritage languages and speakers in Japan, inspired by the Content and Language Integrated Learning model (CLIL). This class was meant to support and interact with another class called “Spanish for heritage students” that was developed at the same university. The student population is 14, almost half of them with a heritage language or culture. The course duration was one semester. The contents that were selected to reach the class goals are mentioned, as well as some points of view regarding what should be done to shift the Japanese educational system from a homogeneous stance to a multicultural inclusive posture. And in such a short time we could evidence an evolution in students’ critical awareness of the current immigrants’ heritage language and cultural situation in Japan. Working with specific vocabulary, reading from authentic sources, discussing contemporary articles among them, they could give shape to their thoughts in Spanish in order to express their opinions and possible solutions to this important matter.

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.

scholarly journals Interdental Fricative Production in Dutch Heritage Language Speakers Living in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-116
Author(s):  
Sarah Cornwell ◽  
Yasaman Rafat
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
L1 English

This study investigates the production of / θ / and / ð / by three groups of English speakers in the community of Norwich, Ontario, Canada. English monolinguals, Heritage Dutch speakers, and late-learning Dutch L1 English speakers / θ / and / ð / production was measured in both naturalistic and reading tasks. Heritage Dutch speakers produce [θ] and [ð] at similar levels to Monolingual English speakers, the two groups use different allophone inventories especially in the initial position of / ð / and the medial-position of / θ /. This study suggests that despite having native English accents, Dutch Heritage speakers may manipulate the inherently variable English / θ / and / ð / production to communicate their Dutch cultural identity.

El diptongo/hiato como rasgo contrastivo: un estudio perceptual con hablantes de herencia de español

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-496
Author(s):  
Allison Milner
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Boston University ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Heritage Spanish Speakers ◽  
Vocalic Sequences

Abstract This study examines the perception of diphthongs and hiatuses in 11 heritage Spanish speakers and 6 Spanish-dominant bilingual speakers with an AXB discrimination task (Lukyanchenko, Anna & Kira Gor. 2011. Perceptual correlates of phonological representations in heritage speakers and L2 learners. In Nick Danis, Kate Mesh & Hyunsuk Sung (eds.), Proceedings of the 35th annual Boston University conference on language development, 414–426. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Press). In Spanish, diphthongs and hiatuses represent distinct vocalic sequences (Schwegler, Armin, Juergen Kempff & Ana Ameal-Guerra. 2010. Fonética y fonología españolas, 4th edn. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley). However, there are words in which the pronunciation of the vocalic sequence as either a diphthong or hiatus serves as a contrastive feature, as in the example of ley / leí (Face, Timothy L. & Scott M. Alvord. 2004. Lexical and acoustic factors in the perception of the Spanish diphthong vs. Hiatus contrast. Hispania 87(3). 553–564; Hualde, José I. & Mónica Prieto. 2002. On the diphthong/hiatus contrast in Spanish: Some experimental results. Linguistics 40(2). 217–234). Given that these features also exist in English, albeit in different forms, does L2 influence of English impact heritage Spanish listeners' perception of diphthongs and hiatuses in Spanish? Specifically, this study examines discrimination between the diphthong / hiatus as a contrasting feature with /a e o/ as the nucleic vowel in the diphthongs. Results indicate that there is not a significant difference in discrimination between heritage speakers and Spanish-dominant bilinguals. Additionally, the nucleic vowel in the diphthong tokens is a significant factor for the ability to discriminate diphthongs vs. hiatuses in heritage Spanish speakers. The findings of this study contribute to the corpus of phonetic studies focusing on heritage Spanish speakers and perception in their heritage language.

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