Understanding heritage language acquisition. Some contributions from the research on heritage speakers of European Portuguese

Cristina Maria Moreira Flores
2015 Lingua  
2 The present paper aims to contribute to our understanding of heritage language acquisition by 3 focusing on the results of three studies on heritage speakers of European Portuguese living in 4 Germany (Flores and Barbosa, 2014; Santos and Flores, 2013; Rinke and Flores, 2014) , thus 5 highlighting the European perspective on this topic. The participants of these studies are second-6 generation immigrants who use their heritage language productively in their daily interactions. In 7 particular
more » ... it is argued that heritage speakers are highly proficient bilingual speakers who develop a 8 particular linguistic knowledge because they are exposed to particular input conditions. In this sense, 9 the proficiency of heritage speakers cannot be described as the outcome of a deficient, incomplete 10 acquisition process, but rather as an instance of native language development. 11 12 13 14 15 128 lead to divergent competence outcomes. The process of HL acquisition in itself, however, is a process 129 of childhood experience with a home language, spoken in daily contexts. Thus, as Rothman and 130 Treffers-Daller (2014) accurately point out, it cannot be denied that it is, in fact, a process of native 131 language acquisition if we equal native language acquisition to early childhood exposure (Davies, 132 2003). Hence, heritage speakers are early bilinguals with multiple native languages. As such, their 133 linguistic competence carries many features that characterize a native language: high proficiency in 134 comprehension and production; native-like accent; language use in familiar contexts; and an affective 135 and cultural proximity that generally has less weight in non-native acquisition. However, HS 136 competence displays high levels of variation, which is attributed to two types of factors: on the one 137 hand, factors that are in play in bilingual but not in monolingual acquisition, and, on the other hand, 138 factors that influence monolingual language development as well (but generally to a lesser extent).
doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2014.09.008 fatcat:inxkdtplzffcfghkvjfgtg3acm