Heritage language

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A heritage language is a minority language (either immigrant or indigenous) learned by its speakers at
home as children, but never fully developed because of insufficient input from the social environment.
The speakers grow up with a different dominant language in which they become more competent.[1]
Polinsky and Kagan label it as a continuum (taken from Valdés definition [2] of heritage language) that
ranges from fluent speakers to barely-speaking individuals of the home language. In some countries or
cultures in which they determine one's mother tongue by the ethnic group, a heritage language would
be linked to the native language.[3]

The term can also refer to the language of a person's family or community that the person does not
speak or understand, but identifies with culturally.[4][5]

Contents

1 Definitions and use

1.1 Controversy in definition

2 Proficiency

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 Further reading

7 External links

Definitions and use

Heritage language is a language which is predominantly spoken by "nonsocietal"[6] groups and linguistic
minorities.[4]

In various fields, such as foreign language education and linguistics, the definitions of heritage language
become more specific and divergent. In foreign language education, heritage language is defined in
terms of a student's upbringing and functional proficiency in the language: a student raised in a home
where a non-majority language is spoken is a heritage speaker of that language if they possess some
proficiency in it.[4] Under this definition, individuals that have some cultural connection with the
language but do not speak it are not considered heritage students. This restricted definition became
popular in the mid 1990s with the publication of Standards for Foreign Language Learning by the
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.[4]

Among linguists, heritage language is an end-state language that is defined based on the temporal order
of acquisition and, often, the language dominance in the individual.[4] A heritage speaker acquires the
heritage language as their first language through natural input in the home environment and acquires
the majority language as a second language,[7] usually when they start school and talk about different
topics with people in school, or by exposure through the media (such as written texts, the Internet, or
popular culture).[8] As exposure to the heritage language decreases and exposure to the majority
language increases, the majority language becomes the individual’s dominant language and acquisition
of the heritage language changes.[4][7] The results of these changes can be seen in divergence of the
heritage language from monolingual norms in the areas of phonology, lexical knowledge (knowledge of
vocabulary or words), morphology, syntax, semantics and code-switching, although mastery of the
heritage language may vary from purely receptive skills in only informal spoken language to native-like
fluency.[8]

Controversy in definition

As stated by Polinsky and Kagan: "The definition of a heritage speaker in general and for specific
languages continues to be debated. The debate is of particular significance in such languages as Chinese,
Arabic, and languages of India and the Philippines, where speakers of multiple languages or dialects are
seen as heritage speakers of a single standard language taught for geographic, cultural or other reasons
(Mandarin Chinese, Modern Standard Arabic, Hindi, or Tagalog, respectively)."[3]

One idea that prevails in the literature is that "[heritage] languages include indigenous languages that
are often endangered. . . as well as world languages that are commonly spoken in many other regions of
the world (Spanish in the United States, Arabic in France)".[4] However, that view is not shared
universally. In Canada, for example, First Nations languages are not classified as heritage languages by
some groups[9] whereas they are so classified by others.[10]

The label heritage is given to a language based principally on the social status of its speakers and not
necessarily on any linguistic property. Thus, while Spanish typically comes in second in terms of native
speakers worldwide and has official status in a number of countries, it is considered a heritage language
in the English-dominant United States[4] and Canada.[11] Outside the United States and Canada,
heritage language definitions and use vary.[12][13]
Speakers of the same heritage language raised in the same community may differ significantly in terms
of their language abilities, yet be considered heritage speakers under this definition. Some heritage
speakers may be highly proficient in the language, possessing several registers, while other heritage
speakers may be able to understand the language but not produce it. Other individuals that simply have
a cultural connection with a minority language but do not speak it may consider it to be their heritage
language.[4][5] It is held by some that ownership does not necessarily depend on usership: “Some
Aboriginal people distinguish between usership and ownership. There are even those who claim that
they own a language although they only know one single word of it: its name.”[14]

Proficiency

Heritage learners have a fluent command of the dominant language and are comfortable using it in
formal setting because of their exposure to the language through formal education.[7][12] Their
command of the heritage language, however, varies widely. Some heritage learners may lose some
fluency in the first language after they begin formal education in the dominant language.[3] Others may
use the heritage language consistently at home and with family but receive little or no formal training in
the heritage language and thus may struggle with literacy skills or with using it in broader settings
outside of the home.[3] An additional factor that affects the acquisition of learners is whether they show
willingness or reluctance towards learning the heritage language.[15]

One factor that has been shown to influence the loss of fluency in the heritage language is age. Studies
have shown that younger bilingual children are more susceptible to fluency loss than older bilingual
children.[7] The older the child is when the dominant language is introduced, the less likely he/she is
going to lose ability in using his/her first language (the heritage language).[7] This is because the older
the child is, the more exposure and knowledge of use the child will have had with the heritage language,
and thus the heritage language will remain as their primary language.[3]

Researchers found that this phenomenon primarily deals with the memory network of an individual.
Once a memory network is organized, it is difficult for the brain to reorganize information contrary to
the initial information, because the previous information was processed first.[16] This phenomenon
becomes a struggle for adults who are trying to learn a different language. Once an individual has
learned a language fluently, they will be heavily influenced by the grammatical rules and pronunciations
of their first language they learned, while learning a new language.[7]

An emerging effective way of measuring the proficiency of a heritage speaker is by speech rate. A study
of gender restructuring in heritage Russian showed that heritage speakers fell into two groups: those
who maintained the three-gender system and those who radically reanalyzed the system as a two-
gender system. The heritage speakers who reanalyzed the three-gender system as a two-gender system
had a strong correlation with a slower speech rate. The correlation is straightforward—lower proficiency
speakers have more difficulty accessing lexical items; therefore, their speech is slowed down.[17]
Although speech rate has been shown to be an effective way of measuring proficiency of heritage
speakers, some heritage speakers are reluctant to produce any heritage language whatsoever. Lexical
proficiency is an alternative method that is also effective in measuring proficiency.[18] In a study with
heritage Russian speakers, there was a strong correlation between the speaker's knowledge of lexical
items (measured using a basic word list of about 200) and the speaker's control over grammatical
knowledge such as agreement, temporal marking, and embedding.[18]

Some heritage speakers explicitly study the language to gain additional proficiency. The learning
trajectories of heritage speakers are markedly different from the trajectories of second language
learners with little or no previous exposure to a target language. For instance, heritage learners typically
show a phonological advantage over second language learners in both perception and production of the
heritage language, even when their exposure to the heritage language was interrupted very early in life.
[19][20] Heritage speakers also tend to distinguish, rather than conflate, easily confusable sounds in the
heritage language and the dominant language more reliably than second language learners.[21] In
morphosyntax as well, heritage speakers have been found to be more native-like than second language
learners,[16][22] although they are typically significantly different from native speakers.[17][23] Many
linguists frame this change in heritage language acquisition as “incomplete acquisition” or
"attrition."[23] "Incomplete acquisition," loosely defined by Montrul, is "the outcome of language
acquisition that is not complete in childhood."[7] In this incomplete acquisition, there are particular
properties of the language that were not able to reach age-appropriate levels of proficiency after the
dominant language has been introduced. Attrition, as defined by Montrul, is the loss of a certain
property of a language after one has already mastered it with native-speaker level accuracy.[7] These
two cases of language loss have been used by Montrul and many other linguists to describe the change
in heritage language acquisition. However, this is not the only viewpoint of linguists to describe heritage
language acquisition.

One argument against incomplete acquisition is that the input that heritage speakers receive is different
from monolinguals (the input may be affected by cross-generational attrition, among other factors), thus
the comparison of heritage speakers against monolinguals is weak.[24] This argument by Pascual and
Rothman claims that the acquisition of the heritage language is therefore not incomplete, but complete
and simply different from monolingual acquisition of a language.[24] Another argument argues for a
shift in focus on the result of incomplete acquisition of a heritage language to the process of heritage
language acquisition. In this argument, the crucial factor in changes to heritage language acquisition is
the extent to which the heritage speaker activates and processes the heritage language.[25] This new
model thus moves away from language acquisition that is dependent on the exposure to input of the
language and moves towards dependence on the frequency of processing for production and
comprehension of the heritage language.
Some colleges and universities offer courses prepared for speakers of heritage languages. For example,
students who grow up learning some Spanish in the home may enroll in a course that will build on their
Spanish abilities.[26]

See also

Bilingualism

Children of deaf adults

Diaspora language

Diglossia

Dominant language

First language

Heritage language learning

Heritage Languages in Toronto

Immigrant language

Indigenous language

Intangible cultural heritage

Minority language

Prestige language

Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages

Notes

Valdés, G. 2000. The teaching of heritage languages: an introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals.
The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures, Olga Kagan and Benjamin Rifkin (eds.), 375–
403.

Valdés, G. 2000

Polinsky & Kagan (2007)

Valdés (2005)

Kelleher (2010)

"Societal | Define Societal at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved October 26, 2015.

Montrul (2008)

Benmamoun, Montrul & Polinsky (2010)

"Indigenous Languages in Canada". Historica Canada.

"Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages".

Guardado, Martin (2013). "The Metapragmatic Regimentation of Heritage Language Use in Hispanic
Canadian Caregiver–Child Interactions". International Multilingual Research Journal. 7 (3): 230–247.
doi:10.1080/19313152.2013.770339. ISSN 1931-3152. S2CID 143553601.

Babaee, Naghmeh. "Heritage Language Learning in Canadian Public Schools: Language Rights
Challenges" (PDF). University of Manitoba.

Danesi, M., McLeod, K., & Morris, S. (Eds.). (1993). Heritage language and education: The Canadian
experience. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press.

See p. 113 of [1]Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2011). "Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the
Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages
and Cultures]". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31: 111–127. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532859.
S2CID 145627187.

Dressler, R. (2010). "There Is No Space for Being German": Portraits of Willing and Reluctant Heritage
Language Learners of German. Heritage Language Journal, 7(2), 1-2

Au et al. (2008)

Polinsky (2008)

Polinsky (2000)

Au et al. (2002)

Oh et al. (2003)

Chang et al. (2011)

Au & Romo (1997)

Montrul (2002)

Pascual Y. Cabo & Rothman (2012)

Putnam & Sánchez (2013)

Heritage Spanish courses at a university

References

Au, Terry K.; Knightly, Leah M.; Jun, Sun-Ah; Oh, Janet S. (2002). "Overhearing a language during
childhood". Psychological Science. 13 (3): 238–243. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00444. PMID 12009044.
S2CID 12161240.

Au, Terry K.; Oh, Janet S.; Knightly, Leah M.; Jun, Sun-Ah; Romo, Laura F. (2008). "Salvaging a childhood
language". Journal of Memory and Language. 58 (4): 998–1011. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2007.11.001. PMC
2390909. PMID 18496606.
Au, Terry K.; Romo, Laura F. (1997). "Does childhood language experience help adult learners?". In Chen,
H.-C. (ed.). The Cognitive Processing of Chinese and Related Asian Languages. Hong Kong: Chinese
University Press. pp. 417–443.

Benmamoun, Elabbas; Montrul, Silvina; Polinsky, Maria (2010). "White paper: Prolegomena to heritage
linguistics" (PDF). Harvard University: 12, 26–43.

Chang, Charles B.; Yao, Yao; Haynes, Erin F.; Rhodes, Russell (2011). "Production of phonetic and
phonological contrast by heritage speakers of Mandarin". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
129 (6): 3964–3980. Bibcode:2011ASAJ..129.3964C. doi:10.1121/1.3569736. hdl:10397/4708. PMID
21682418.

Guardado, Martin (2010). "Heritage language development: Preserving a mythic past or envisioning the
future of Canadian identity?". Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. 9 (5): 329–346.
doi:10.1080/15348458.2010.517699. S2CID 143347264.

Kelleher, Ann (2010). "What is a heritage language?" (PDF). CAL: Center for Applied Linguistics. Center
for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved February 23, 2016. Many people who live in the United States have
cultural connections to and know languages other than English. These languages are not “foreign” to
particular individuals or communities; instead, they are familiar in a variety of ways. Some people may
be able to speak, read, and write the language; others may only speak or understand when spoken to.
Some may not understand the language but are part of a family or community where the language is
spoken. The term “heritage” language can be used to describe any of these connections between a non-
dominant language and a person, a family, or a community.

Montrul, Silvina (2002). "Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in
adult bilinguals". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 5 (1): 39–68. doi:10.1017/s1366728902000135.
S2CID 143786198.

Oh, Janet; Jun, Sun-Ah; Knightly, Leah; Au, Terry (2003). "Holding on to childhood language memory".
Cognition. 86 (3): B53–B64. doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(02)00175-0. PMID 12485742. S2CID 30605179.

Pascual Y. Cabo, Diego; Rothman, Jason (2012). "The (il)logical problem of heritage speaker bilingualism
and incomplete acquisition". Applied Linguistics. 33 (4): 450–455. doi:10.1093/applin/ams037.

Polinsky, Maria (2008). "Gender under incomplete acquisition: Heritage speakers' knowledge of noun
categorization". Heritage Language Journal. 6 (1): 40–71. doi:10.46538/hlj.6.1.3.

Polinsky, Maria; Kagan, Olga (2007). "Heritage languages: In the 'wild' and in the classroom". Language
and Linguistics Compass. 1 (5): 368–395. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00022.x.

Putnam, Michael T.; Sánchez, Liliana (2013). "What's so incomplete about incomplete acquisition? A
prolegomenon to modeling heritage language grammars". Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. 3 (4):
478–508. doi:10.1075/lab.3.4.04put.

Valdés, Guadalupe (2005). "Bilingualism, heritage language learners, and SLA research: Opportunities
lost or seized?". The Modern Language Journal. 89 (3): 410–426. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.476.2942.
doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00314.x.
Montrul, Silvina (2008). Incomplete Acquisition: Re-examining the Age Factor. Philadelphia: John
Benjamin North America. pp. 249–275.

Polinsky, Maria (2000). "The composite linguistic profile of speakers of Russian in the US.". In Kagan, O.
(ed.). The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures. Bloomington, IN: Slavica. pp. 437–465.

Further reading

Fishman, Joshua A. (2001). "300-plus years of heritage language education in the United States". In
Peyton, J. K.; Ranard, D. A.; McGinnis, S. (eds.). Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National
Resource. McHenry, IL & Washington, DC: Delta Systems Co. & Center for Applied Linguistics. pp. 81–98.

Guardado, Martin (2018). Discourse, ideology and heritage language socialization: Micro and macro
perspectives. New York & Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-1-61451-384-1.

Valdés, Guadalupe (2000). "The teaching of heritage languages: An introduction for Slavic-teaching
professionals". In Kagan, Olga; Rifkin, Benjamin (eds.). The Learning and Teaching of Slavic Languages
and Cultures. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers. pp. 375–403.

Van Deusen-Scholl, Nelleke (2003). "Toward a definition of heritage language: Sociopolitical and
pedagogical considerations". Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 2 (3): 211–230.
doi:10.1207/s15327701jlie0203_4.

External links

Heritage Language Journal

International Journal of Heritage Studies

National Heritage Language Resource Center (US)

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Second-language acquisition

General

OutlineCommon misconceptions

Subfields

AttritionClassroom researchEducationPhonologyWriting

Learners

MultilingualismHeritage languageMulti-competence

Learner language

Contrastive analysisContrastive rhetoricError (linguistics)Error analysisError

treatmentInterlanguageSilent period

Linguistic factors
Language transferLinguistic universalWord lists by frequency

Individual variation

Language-learning aptitudeCritical period hypothesisMotivationWillingness to communicateForeign

language anxietyMetalinguistic awareness

Strategies

Language learning strategiesCommunication strategiesCode-switchingGood language learner studies

SLA hypotheses

Competition modelComprehensible outputConnectionismDynamic Systems TheoryGenerative second-

language acquisitionInput hypothesisInteraction hypothesisInterface hypothesisInterface
positionNoticing hypothesisProcessability theoryOrder of acquisitionSkill-based theories

In the classroom

Focus on formInput enhancement

Aptitude tests

MLATDLABPLABCANAL-F

Notable researchers

AldersonArguellesBialystokCarrollCrossleyCsizérCummingde BotBrownBygateCorderCummingvan
DijkDörnyeiEllisEllisErvin-TrippGassvan
GeertGreenGrosjeanGuardadoHardingJarvisJohnsonKormosKrashenKrollLarsen-
FreemanLiLongLowieMackeyMacWhinneyManchónMarianMatsudaMatthewsMeiselMyers-
ScottonNationOrtegaPicaPolioPimsleurRiversSchmidtSchmittSilva-
CorvalanSlobinStorchSwainTerrellUllmanVaidVanPattenVerspoorWhiteWrayYip

Associations

European Association for the Teaching of Academic WritingEUROSLA

Computational tools

Coh-MetrixL2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer

Journals

Applied LinguisticsBilingualism: Language and CognitionLanguage LearningLanguage TestingJournal of

Second Language WritingSystemTESOL JournalTESOL QuarterlyThe Modern Language Journal

Categories: Language acquisitionCultural heritageCollective identityDiglossiaLinguistic minorities

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