Article published in:
Advances in Spanish as a Heritage Language
Edited by Diego Pascual y Cabo
[Studies in Bilingualism 49] 2016
► pp. 13–26

Formal linguistic approaches to heritage language acquisition

Bridges for pedagogically oriented research

| University of Reading
| University of Cambridge
| Texas Tech University
The goal of this chapter is to lay out the central themes of heritage language acquisition research adopting a formal/theoretical linguistic perspective. Specifically, we aim to provide a detailed discussion of the nature of heritage language grammars. In doing so, we will address the debates on how to explain heritage speaker competence differences from monolingual baselines and more. This chapter will not be limited to discussions of Spanish as a heritage language, but rather will highlight the important role that Spanish has played and will continue to play in the development of heritage language acquisition studies. Finally, we will offer some comments/insights on how the information covered regarding the formal linguistic properties of heritage speaker knowledge should be considered for and implemented in heritage language pedagogies and thus dealing with heritage speakers in the classroom setting.
Published online: 20 July 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.49.02rot
References

References

Amengual, M.
(2012) Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effect in a continuum of bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(3): 517–530. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Au, T.K., Knightly, L., Jun, S.A. & Oh, J.
(2002) Overhearing a language during childhood. Psychological Science, 13, 238–243. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M.
(2013) Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39, 129–181. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R.
(1983) The comparative fallacy in interlanguage studies: The case of systematicity. Language Learning, 33, 1–17. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dąbrowska, E.
(2012) Different speakers, different grammars: Individual differences in native language attainment. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2(2), 219–253. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dussias, P.E., & Sagarra N.
(2007) The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish–English L2 speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 101–116. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Giancaspro, D.
(2014) Heritage speakers' production of intensional and polarity aubjunctive. Conference presentation delivered at the 2015 Hispanic Linguistic Symposium, West Lafayette, IN.
Leal Méndez, T., Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R.
(2015) Discourse-sensitive clitic-doubled dislocations in heritage Spanish. Lingua, 155, 85–97. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S.
(2008) Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism. Re-examining the Age Factor [Studies in Bilingualism 39]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) Incomplete acquisition of tense-aspect and mood in Spanish heritage speakers. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(3), 239–269. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2010) Current issues in heritage language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 30, 3–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2015) The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Bowles, M.
(2010) Is grammar instruction beneficial for heritage language learners? Dative case marking in Spanish. Heritage Language Journal, 7, 47–73.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., Foote, R. & Perpiñan, S.
(2008) Gender agreement in adult second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers: The effects of age and context of acquisition. Language Learning, 58, 503–553. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., & Perpiñán, S.
(2011) Assessing differences and similarities between instructed L2 learners and heritage language learners in their knowledge of Spanish tense-aspect and mood (TAM) morphology. The Heritage Language Journal, 8(1), 90–133.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Sánchez-Walker, N.
(2013) Differential object marking in child and adult Spanish heritage speakers. Language Acquisition, 20(2), 109–132. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pascual y Cabo, D., & Rothman, J.
(2012) The (il)logical problem of heritage speaker bilingualism and incomplete acquisition. Applied Linguistics 33(4), 1–7. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pascual y Cabo, D., Lingwall, A., & Rothman, J.
(2012) Applying the interface hypothesis to heritage speaker acquisition: Evidence from Spanish mood. In A.K. Biller, E.Y. Chung, & A.E. Kimball (Eds.), BUCLD 36: Proceedings of the 36th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 437–448). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Pascual y Cabo, D.
(2013) Agreement reflexes of emerging optionality in heritage speaker Spanish. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Florida.Google Scholar
(2015) Issues in Spanish heritage morphosyntax. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8(2), 389–401. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pires, A., & Rothman, J.
(2009) Disentangling sources of incomplete acquisition: An explanation for competence divergence across heritage grammar. International Journal of Bilingualism 13(2), 1–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M.
(2011) Reanalysis in adult heritage language: A case for attrition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 305–328. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2015) When L1 becomes an L3: Assessing grammatical knowledge in heritage speakers/learners. Bilingualism Language and Cognition, 18, 163–178. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Potowski, K., Jegerski, J., & Morgan-Short, K.
(2009) The effects of instruction on linguistic development in Spanish heritage language speakers. Language Learning, 59, 537– 579. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., & Sánchez, L.
(2013) What's so incomplete about incomplete acquisition? A prolegomenon to modeling heritage language grammars. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 3(4), 476–506. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rao, R.
(2014) On the status of the phoneme /b/ in heritage speakers of Spanish. Sintagma, 26, 37–54.Google Scholar
Rothman, J.
(2007) Heritage speaker competence differences, language change and input type: Inflected infinitives in heritage Brazilian Portuguese. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(4), 359–389. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) Understanding the nature and outcomes of early bilingualism: Romance languages as heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 155–165. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, J., & Treffers-Daller, J.
(2014) A prolegomenon to the construct of the native speaker: Heritage speaker bilinguals are natives too! Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 93–98. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C.
(1994) Language contact and change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Sorace, A.
(2004) Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7, 143–145. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011) Pinning down the concept of ‘interface’ in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 1–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tsimpi, I.M.
(2014) Early, late or very late? Timing acquisition and bilingualism. Keynote article in Epistemological Issue of Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4(2), 283–313. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Bayram, Fatih, Josh Prada, Diego Pascual y Cabo & Jason Rothman
2016.  In Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Bayram, Fatih, Josh Prada, Diego Pascual y Cabo & Jason Rothman
2018.  In Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Bayram, Fatih, Josh Prada, Diego Pascual y Cabo & Jason Rothman
2018.  In Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 187 ff. Crossref logo
Bayram, Fatih & Clare Wright
2016.  In Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Bayram, Fatih & Clare Wright
2018.  In Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Bayram, Fatih & Clare Wright
2018.  In Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 481 ff. Crossref logo
Bhatia, Archna & Silvina Montrul
2020.  In The Acquisition of Differential Object Marking [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 26], ► pp. 261 ff. Crossref logo
Bhatia, Archna & Silvina Montrul
2020.  In The Acquisition of Differential Object Marking [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 26], ► pp. 261 ff. Crossref logo
Domínguez, Laura, Glyn Hicks & Roumyana Slabakova
2019. TERMINOLOGY CHOICE IN GENERATIVE ACQUISITION RESEARCH. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41:2 ► pp. 241 ff. Crossref logo
Khamis-Dakwar, Reem, May Ahmar & Karen Froud
2019.  In Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXI [Studies in Arabic Linguistics, 8], ► pp. 207 ff. Crossref logo
Kisselev, Olesya, Irina Dubinina & Maria Polinsky
2020. Form-Focused Instruction in the Heritage Language Classroom: Toward Research-Informed Heritage Language Pedagogy. Frontiers in Education 5 Crossref logo
Minuz, Fernanda, Belma Haznedar, Joy Kreeft Peyton & Martha Young-Scholten
2020.  In Handbook of Research on Cultivating Literacy in Diverse and Multilingual Classrooms [Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design, ], ► pp. 422 ff. Crossref logo
Montrul, Silvina A.
2018.  In Meaning and Structure in Second Language Acquisition [Studies in Bilingualism, 55], ► pp. 149 ff. Crossref logo
Sanz, Cristina & Julio Torres
2018.  In The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 179 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.