Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Heritage Language and Second Language Learning

In a bilingual context, an individual is exposed to and learns two or more languages. Different types of bilingualism are defined by the sociopolitical status of the languages (majority vs. minority language), the order of acquisition of the languages (first vs. second), and the degree of exposure to and use of each language in different contexts throughout the life span. Second and heritage language learning are just two examples.

Second Language Learning

Second language learning typically refers to the acquisition of a second language after the structural foundations of the first or native language are in place. Second language learning can occur in childhood between the ages of 4 and 12 or in adulthood (around and after puberty). Immigrant children who arrive in a host country are considered child second language learners. For example, immigrant children in the United States are second language learners, whereas English-speaking children receiving second language instruction a few hours a week at school are foreign language learners. The amount and quality of input, the reasons for learning the language, as well as the opportunity to use the language on a daily basis differ in a foreign language versus a second language context, when the second language can be the majority language spoken in the wider speech community. Immigrant children must learn the second language to thrive socially and academically in the new society. By contrast, for majority language-speaking children, learning a foreign language is a choice. Adult second language acquisition can also occur in a second language environment, again in the case of immigrants, or in a foreign language context through schooling.

The field of second language acquisition, which has evolved considerably since the 1960s, is generally concerned with understanding the linguistic development of the second language from initial state to ultimate attainment in child and adult learners, the internal and external factors that play a role in the process, and the ways input can be manipulated through instruction. Much research in this field has been guided by drawing comparisons with the field of first language acquisition. It is typically assumed that monolingual children eventually became native speakers of the language and achieve full linguistic competence in both the structural (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) and the communicative functions of their language (contextually appropriate). However, the degree of success in the second language is typically variable: Not every second language learner achieves native-like knowledge and fluency. Age of acquisition (before and after puberty), cognitive development, type/amount of input, and affective factors, among others, affect the eventual outcome of the learning process. While children learning their first language in a monolingual context overcome typical grammatical errors, many second language learners do not, displaying what Michael Long has termed fossilization or stabilization. Some persistent errors in second language acquisition are caused by transfer or interference from the first language at the cognitive level.

Heritage Language Learning

If the language of the host country is the second language in children of immigrant families, their family language is the heritage language. Heritage language learners are bilingual children born in the host country or children of immigrants who speak a minority language at home and learn a second language in the wider community and at school. The emerging field of heritage language acquisition is concerned with language maintenance and loss at the individual level and with how to teach speakers who possess different degrees of proficiency in their heritage language. Like many adult second language learners, adult heritage language speakers do not reach native-like attainment in their heritage language. In fact, the range of variability spans from mere receptive knowledge to fully fluent speakers with advanced literacy skills and all the shades in between. Among the possible reasons for why heritage speakers fail to develop their minority language, Silvina Montrul and Maria Polinsky have proposed that reduced exposure to and use of the language during childhood and beyond leads to incomplete acquisition and to attrition of their native language. Incomplete acquisition refers to the fact that a given feature of the language, which is present in the linguistic repertoire of native speakers of that particular linguistic variety, is not mastered at age-appropriate levels. For example, many adult Spanish heritage speakers make gender and verbal agreement errors typical at age 2 or 3 in Spanish-speaking children but are not common in adult speakers. It is possible that agreement was not fully mastered by age 4, when most children cease to make these errors in Spanish. Attrition, on the other hand, implies that a given structure reached a certain degree of mastery but was subsequently lost. If a child had learned the future tense at age 5, at the same level as monolingual children of the same age, but showed very high error rates 2 years later, then one can establish through a longitudinal research design that attrition took place.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution