scholarly journals Intuiciones de los hablantes patrimoniales, de segunda lengua y nativos acerca de los verbos deícticos en español: más allá de las intuiciones del lingüista

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Daniel Chui
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
To Come ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

<p class="AbstractHead">Previous analyses of the Spanish deictic verbs <em>venir </em>‘to come’, <em>ir</em> ‘to go’, <em>traer</em> ‘to bring’ and <em>llevar</em> ‘to take’ have drawn upon Fillmore’s (1975) series of lectures on deixis in noting that speakers of Spanish forbid the use of the verbs <em>venir </em>and <em>traer</em> to express movement towards the hearer. Under this egocentric view (Beinhauer, 1940; Ibañez, 1983), the Spanish verbs <em>venir</em> and <em>traer</em> can only be used to describe movement towards the speaker’s location. Little experimental research has been done, however, to confirm the extent to which heritage and second language (L2) speakers of the language conform to this pattern. The present study gathered data on the deictic preferences of bilingual, heritage speakers of Spanish and English (HS) and compared this data with that of L2 and monolingual native speakers of Spanish (NS). 74 participants, consisting of 12 NS, 34 HS, and 29 L2 speakers, assessed the grammaticality of 20 stimulus items that contained prescriptively correct and incorrect usages of the deictic verbs <em>venir, traer, llevar</em> and <em>ir</em>. Both HS and L2 speakers made significantly more errors than NS when the direction expressed in the stimulus was oriented towards the hearer, suggesting both groups may benefit from instruction on this topic.</p>

scholarly journals ‘transformative’ potential of translanguaging and other heteroglossic educational practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-289
Author(s):  
M. Rafael Salaberry
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
The Us ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Over the last few decades, there has been an increased awareness about imprecise, inaccurate and, thus, unfair conceptualisations of language based on monoglossic views of language that delegitimise the linguistic repertoire of multilingual minorities as is the case of heritage speakers of Spanish in the US or speakers of Lingua Franca English worldwide. At the same time, there are theoretical and educational proposals that offer new conceptualisations of multilingualism focused on the concept of heteroglossia, which, in contrast with monoglossic views, focuses our attention on the fluid and full use of all linguistic resources available to language learners/users as they engage in the process of interacting with their interlocutors. In the present paper, I describe an important challenge that compromises the valuable agenda of heteroglossic approaches to develop multilingualism: the effect of listeners’ biases and reverse linguistic stereotyping. That is, educational programmes designed to counteract the negative effect of monoglossic approaches to second language learning in general cannot adopt a segregationist approach (neither in their theoretical design nor in their practical implementation). To place this challenge in context, I describe in detail the specific example of Spanish heritage second language learners at the tertiary level of education in the US setting and I also provide a broad outline of potential improvements in the curricular design of such programmes.

Selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in the acquisition of the Chinese cleft construction by heritage speakers

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-227
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Xiangjun Deng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Selective Vulnerability ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Different Types

Abstract This study investigates effects of selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in heritage grammar. Mandarin Chinese has a shì…de cleft construction, which, despite its superficial similarities with the it-cleft in English, is subject to additional conditions. Four experimental tasks elicited eighteen adult heritage speakers’ implicit knowledge of the word order and the temporal, telicity and discourse conditions associated with the Chinese cleft. The heritage speakers demonstrated target-like representation of the conditions. Meanwhile, their sensitivity to the telicity and discourse conditions is weaker than that of native speakers in Beijing, suggesting selective vulnerability in the heritage grammar. By comparing the heritage speakers with adult second language learners of Chinese, we concluded that the vulnerability of the heritage grammar in the discourse domain did not result from cross-linguistic influence from English. In different types of Chinese-English bilinguals, the dominant language affects the weaker language in different ways.

Assessing the Oral Proficiency of Heritage Speakers According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Speaking

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Martin ◽  
Elvira Swender ◽  
Mildred Rivera-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
American Council ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Resource Center ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

The article discusses the preliminary findings of a joint National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC)/American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) project conducted in 2010-11, Exploring Linguistic Profiles of Heritage Speakers of Spanish and Russian, that used the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 –Speaking (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2012b) to assess and analyze the oral proficiency of heritage speakers. The discussion of these findings follows a general discussion of what a rating based on an official ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) actually does and does not tell us about speakers, including heritage or native speakers, who fall into various ACTFL rating ranges. The joint NHLRC/ACTFL research project analyzed which features typically characteristic of heritage speakers of Spanish and Russian prevent them from receiving higher ratings on an official ACTFL OPI, and these findings are the focus of this article. Finally, some general recommendations related to instructional implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals The Nativeness of Breton Speakers and Their Erasure

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Mélanie Jouitteau
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Linguistic Stress ◽  
Cultural Treatment

AbstractI discuss the nativeness of heritage speakers of Breton in the twentieth century. I present a syntactic test designed for Breton that sets apart its native speakers from its late learners, for whom Breton is a second language. Nativeness is revealed by a better tolerance to syntactic overload when sufficient linguistic stress is applied. Both heritage speakers of inherited Breton and early bilinguals whose linguistic input comes exclusively from school answer this test alike, which I take as a sign they are cognitively natives. The syntactic nativeness of children deprived of familial Breton input suggests there is many more young Breton natives among contemporary speakers than previously assumed. Taking stock of these results, I discuss the cultural erasure of Breton native speakers. I compare their cultural treatment with the figure of the ghost. I end by a discussion of the term new speaker.

scholarly journals El género gramatical en español entre los hablantes de herencia y los hablantes nativos

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M Gill
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Los hablantes de herencia, es decir, las personas que hablan una lengua desde el nacimiento que acaba convirtiéndose en una lengua no dominante con el tiempo, constituyen un grupo tradicionalmente poco estudiado; sin embargo, últimamente está recibiendo mayor atención. Un área que ha emergido en los últimos años es la realización del género gramatical en las lenguas de herencia. Las investigaciones previas indican que existe una diferencia significativa entre los hispanohablantes nativos y los de herencia (Montrul, 2014; Valenzuela et al., 2012); por tanto, el propósito de este estudio es contribuir a la literatura de los hablantes de herencia. En el presente estudio, se dividió a 43 participantes hispanohablantes en grupos dependiendo de si eran nativos o de herencia. Cada participante llevó a cabo una Elicited Oral Production Task. Los resultados demuestran que los hablantes de herencia tienden a cometer un número de fallos de género significativamente mayor que los hablantes nativos y que usan ciertas estrategias, como la autocorrección, significativamente más que los nativos para evitar cometer dichos fallos. Los resultados del estudio respaldan las conclusiones de investigaciones previas, que indican que los hablantes de herencia no realizan el género gramatical de manera nativa. Heritage speakers, that is, speakers of a language that is spoken since birth but becomes a non-dominant language over time, are classically an understudied group. However, in the field of linguistics, the subfield of heritage speakers is rapidly expanding. Specifically, the realization of grammatical gender in heritage languages has not been studied extensively until just recently. Previous research indicates that a significant difference exists between native and heritage speakers of Spanish (Montrul, 2014; Valenzuela et al., 2012); thus, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature of this growing subfield. In the present study, 43 Spanish-speaking participants were divided into groups depending on whether they were native or heritage speakers. Each of the participants carried out an Elicited Oral Production Task. Results demonstrate that heritage speakers tend to make significantly more gender errors than native speakers and that heritage speakers also utilize certain strategies, like self-correction, significantly more than native speakers in order to avoid committing these errors. Results from this study support the findings in previous research, which indicate that heritage speakers are not native-like in their realization of grammatical gender.

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.

scholarly journals Silence is difficult: On missing elements in bilingual grammars

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Laleko ◽  
Maria Polinsky
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Experience Difficulty

AbstractNear-native speakers (heritage speakers and adult second language learners alike) experience difficulty in interpreting and producing linguistic constructions that contain morphologically null elements. We dub this phenomenon the

scholarly journals Um teste de verificação lexical de português brasileiro (TVLPB) como língua adicional: criação e validação / A Vocabulary Level Eest for Brazilian Portuguese as a Second Language: Design and Validation

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Thaís Maíra Machado de Sá ◽  
Alexandre Alves Santos ◽  
Ricardo Augusto de Souza ◽  
Luiz Amaral ◽  
Victor Nascimento Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Language Proficiency Test ◽  
Accuracy Rates

Resumo: Dado o aumento de falantes de português como língua adicional, de acolhimento e de herança, é de grande importância ter uma ferramenta padronizada de medida de proficiência que seja de fácil e rápida administração. Neste trabalho, mostramos a criação e validação interna de um Teste de Verificação Lexical do Português Brasileiro (TVLPB). O teste foi criado com cinco bandas de frequência que correspondem à distribuição de frequência lexical encontrada em diferentes corpora. Os resultados com falantes nativos mostram convergência de respostas em relação às rubricas selecionadas e às bandas de frequência utilizadas, indicando uma validade interna. O teste foi aplicado também com falantes de herança, em que também percebemos um aumento da dificuldade em relação às bandas do teste.Palavras-chave: VLT; português como língua adicional; teste de proficiência; avaliação.Abstract: Given the growing number of speakers of Portuguese as a host, second, and heritage language, a proficiency level test that can be easily and reliably administered is necessary. In this work, we show the design and validation of the Brazilian Portuguese Vocabulary Level Test (TVLPB). The test comprises five different frequency bands that correspond to the lexical distribution found in different corpora. The results show that native speakers’ responses tend to follow the same pattern across the different bands of the test which indicates internal validity. The test was also administered with heritage speakers of Portuguese, and the results show that accuracy rates decline as the frequency of words is decreased.Keywords: VLT; Portuguese as a second language; proficiency test; evaluation.

scholarly journals Perspective-Taking With Deictic Motion Verbs in Spanish: What We Learn About Semantics and the Lexicon From Heritage Child Speakers and Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Goldin ◽  
Kristen Syrett ◽  
Liliana Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Bilingual Learner ◽  
To Come ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
English Monolingual

In English, deictic verbs of motion, such as come can encode the perspective of the speaker, or another individual, such as the addressee or a narrative protagonist, at a salient reference time and location, in the form of an indexical presupposition. By contrast, Spanish has been claimed to have stricter requirements on licensing conditions for venir (“to come”), only allowing speaker perspective. An open question is how a bilingual learner acquiring both English and Spanish reconciles these diverging language-specific restrictions. We face this question head on by investigating narrative productions of young Spanish-English bilingual heritage speakers of Spanish, in comparison to English monolingual and Spanish dominant adults and children. We find that the young heritage speakers produce venir in linguistic contexts where most Spanish adult speakers do not, but where English monolingual speakers do, and also resemble those of young monolingual Spanish speakers of at least one other Spanish dialect, leading us to generate two mutually-exclusive hypotheses: (a) the encoding of speaker perspective in the young heritage children is cross-linguistically influenced by the more flexible and dominant language (English), resulting in a wider range of productions by these malleable young speakers than the Spanish grammar actually allows, or (b) the young Spanish speakers are exhibiting productions that are in fact licensed in the grammar, but which are pruned away in the adult productions, being supplanted by other forms as the lexicon is enriched. Given independent evidence of the heritage speakers' robust Spanish linguistic competence, we turn to systematically-collected acceptability judgments of three dialectal varieties of monolingual adult Spanish speakers of the distribution of perspective-taking verbs, to assess their competence and adjudicate between (a) and (b). We find that adults accept venir in contexts in which they do not produce it, leading us to argue that (a) venir is not obligatorily speaker-oriented in Spanish, as has been claimed, (b) adults may not produce venir in these contexts because they instead select more specific motion verbs, and (c) for heritage bilingual children, the more dominant language (English) may support the grammatically licensed but lexically-constrained productions in Spanish.

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