Cover not available
Part of
Teachability and Learnability across Languages
Edited by Ragnar Arntzen, Gisela Håkansson, Arnstein Hjelde and Jörg-U. Keßler
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 6] 2019
► pp. 237–259

Chapter 11
Heritage language development and the promise of Processability Theory

| University of Illinois

Heritage language acquisition is a type of early bilingual acquisition that takes place in a specific sociolinguistic environment. The heritage language is a societal minority language, acquired as a first language, either by itself or simultaneously with the majority language. Very often the heritage language is not supported at school, and it is common for heritage speakers to eventually achieve greater fluency and proficiency in the majority language than in the heritage language. As a result the heritage language shows many of the linguistic characteristics of a second language. The acquisition of heritage languages has been approached from different perspectives within linguistics, bilingualism and language acquisition. This chapter considers the applicability of Processability Theory, primarily conceived to explain second language acquisition and processing, to the acquisition of heritage languages.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Similarities between second language acquisition and heritage language acquisition
    • 2.1Grammatical development
    • 2.2Input and experience
    • 2.3Instruction
  • 3.PT for heritage language acquisition
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.6.11mon
References
Albirini, A.
2014 The role of the colloquial varieties in the acquisition of the Standard Variety: The case of Arabic heritage speakers. Foreign Language Annals 47: 447–463. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Albirini, A. & Benmamoun, E.
2014 Aspects of second language transfer in the oral production of Egyptian and Palestinian heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism 18(3): 244–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Au, T., Knightly, L. Jun, S.-A. & Oh, J.
2002 Overhearing a language during childhood. Psychological Science 13: 238–243. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamyaci, E.
2015 Competing Structures in the Bilingual Mind. A Psycholinguistic Investigation of Optional Verb Number Agreement. Amsterdam: Brill.Google Scholar
Baten, K.
2011 Processability Theory and German case acquisition. Language Learning 61: 455–505. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayram, F.
2013 Acquisition of Turkish by Heritage Speakers: A Processability Approach. PhD dissertation, University of Newcastle, UK.Google Scholar
Belletti, A., Bennati, E. & Sorace, A.
2007 Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects. Evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 657–689. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E.
2001 Bilingualism in Development. Language, Literacy and Cognition. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. & Hakuta, K.
1999 Confounded age. Linguistic and cognitive factors in age differences for second language acquisition. In Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis, D. Birdsong (ed.), 161–181. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. & Ryan, E.
1985 A metacognitive framework for the development of first and second language skills. In Metacognition, Cognition, and Human Performance, D. L. Forrester-Pressley, G. E. MacKinnon & T. G. Waller (eds), 207–252. Orlando FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D.
1989 Metalinguistic Performance and Interlinguistic Competence. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R.
1989 The logical problem of second language learning. In Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, S. Gass & J. Schachter (eds), 41–68. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bonilla, C.
2015 From number agreement to the subjunctive: Evidence for Processability Theory in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research 15: 53–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowles, M.
2011 Measuring implicit and explicit linguistic knowledge: What can heritage language learners contribute? Studies in Second Language Acquisition 33: 247–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowles, M. & Montrul, S.
2009 Instructed L2 acquisition of differential object marking in Spanish. In Little Words. Their History, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and Acquisition, R. Leow, H. Campos & D. Lardiere (eds), 199–210. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Bowles, M., Adams, R. & Toth, P.
2014 A comparison of L2-L2 and L2-heritage learner interactions in Spanish language classrooms. The Modern Language Journal 98(2): 497–517. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, J.
2001 Lexical-functional Syntax. Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J.
2002 Verb raising in Spanish: A comparison of early and late bilinguals. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, B. Skarabela, S. Fish & A. H.-J. Do 84–94. Sommerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Chang, C., Yao, Y., Haynes, E. & Rhodes, R.
2011 Production of phonetic and phonological contrast by heritage speakers of Mandarin. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 129: 3964–3980. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N.
1981 Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R.
2003 Implicit and explicit learning. In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, C. Doughty & M. Long (eds), 313–348. Malden MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Biase, B. & Kawaguchi, S.
2002 Exploring the typological plausibility of Processability Theory: Language development in Italian second language and Japanese second language. Second Language Research 18: 274–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Biase, B. & Hinger, B.
2015 Exploring the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish as a second language. In Grammatical Development in Second Languages: Exploring the Boundaries of Processability Theory [Eurosla Monographs Series 3], C. Bettoni & B. Di Biase (eds), 213–242. Paris: Eurosla.Google Scholar
Ellis, R.
2005 Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27: 141–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farley, A. & McCollam, K.
2004 Learner readiness and L2 production in Spanish: Processability Theory on trial. Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada 40: 47–69.Google Scholar
Gor, K.
2014 Raspberry, not a car: Context predictability and a phonological advantage in early and late learners’ processing of speech in noise. Frontiers in Psychology 5(1449): 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granena, G. & Long, M.
2013 Age of onset, length of residence, language aptitude, and ultimate attainment in three linguistic domains. Second Language Research 29: 311–343. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guijarro Fuentes, P.
2012 The acquisition of interpretable features in L2 Spanish: Personal a. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition 15: 701–720. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guijarro Fuentes, P. & Marinis, T.
2007 Acquiring the syntax/semantic interface in L2 Spanish: The personal preposition ‘a’. In Eurosla Yearbook 7, L. Roberts, A. Gürel, S. Tatar & L. Martı (eds), 67–87. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Han, Z. H.
2014 From Julie to Wes to Alberto: Revisiting the construct of fossilization. In Interlanguage: Forty Years Later [Language Learning & Language Teaching 39], Z. H. Han & E. Tarone (eds), 47–74. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Hattori, H.
2006 Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers, a missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22: 269–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
He, A. W.
2006 Toward an identity theory of the development of Chinese as a heritage language. The Heritage Language Journal 4: 1–28.Google Scholar
Håkansson, G.
1995 Syntax and morphology in language attrition. A study of five bilingual expatriate Swedes. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 5: 153–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyltenstam, K. & Abrahamsson, N.
2003 Maturational constraints in SLA. In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, C. Doughty & M. Long (eds), 539–588. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Imada, T., Zhang, Y., Cheour, M., Taulu, S., Ahonen, A. & Kuhl, P.
2006 Infant speech perception activates Broca’s area: A developmental magnetoencephalography study. NeuroReport 17: 957–962. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jackendoff, R.
2002 Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jia, R.
2016 Language Development in Mandarin Heritage Language Children. PhD dissertation, University of Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Jiang, N.
2007 Selective integration of linguistic knowledge in adult second language learning. Language Learning 57: 1–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J. & Newport, E.
1991 Critical period effects on universal principles of language. The status of subjacency in the acquisition of a second language. Cognition 39: 215–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A.
1979 Micro- and macrodevelopmental changes in language acquisition and other representational systems. Cognitive Science 3: 91–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1986 Some fundamental aspects of language development after age 5. In Language Acquisition: Studies in First Language Development, P. Fletcher & M. Garman (eds), 455–474. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. Y.
2016 Perception and Production of Prominence in Spanish by Heritage Speakers and English L2 Learners of Spanish. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.Google Scholar
Kondo-Brown, K.
(ed.) 2006 Heritage Language Development. Focus on East Asian Immigrants [Studies in Bilingualism 32]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Knightly, L., Jun, S., Oh, J. & Au, T.
2003 Production benefits of childhood overhearing. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 114: 465–474. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuhl, P., Conboy, B., Coffey-Corina, S., Padden, D., Rivera-Gaxiola, M. & Nelson, T.
2008 Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: New data and native language magnet theory expanded (NLM-e). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 363: 979–1000. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T.
2012 Generic subjects in the Italian of early German-Italian bilinguals and German learners of Italian as second language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15: 736–756. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T., Lein, T., Barton, D., Schröder, D., Stangen, I., & Stoehr, A.
2014 Acquisition outcomes across domains in adult simultaneous bilinguals with French as weaker and stronger language. Journal of French Language Studies 24: 347–376. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laleko, O. & Polinsky, M.
2016 Between syntax and discourse: Topic and case marking in heritage speakers and L2 learners of Japanese and Korean. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6: 396–439. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levelt, W.
1989 Speaking: From Intention to Articulation. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lukyanchenko, A. & Gor, K.
2011 Perceptual correlates of phonological representations in heritage speakers and L2 learners. In Proceedings of the 35th annual Boston University conference on language development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 414–426.Google Scholar
Mansouri, F.
2005 Agreement morphology in Arabic as a second language: Typological features and their processing implications. In Cross-linguistic aspects of Processability Theory [Studies in Bilingualism 30], M. Pienemann (ed.), 117–54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marinova-Todd, S., Marshall, D. & Snow, C.
2000 Three misconceptions about age and L2 learning. TESOL Quarterly 34: 9–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mikhaylova, A.
2012 Aspectual knowledge of high proficiency L2 and heritage speakers of Russian. The Heritage Language Journal 9: 50–69.Google Scholar
Montrul, S.
2016 The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 How native are heritage speakers? A look at gender agreement in Spanish. The Heritage Language Journal 10: 15–39.Google Scholar
2008 Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the Age Factor [Studies in Bilingualism 39]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5: 39–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S. & Bowles, M.
2010 Is grammar instruction beneficial for heritage language learners? Dative case marking in Spanish. The Heritage Language Journal 7: 47–73.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. & Ionin, T.
2012 Dominant language transfer in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners in the interpretation of definite articles. The Modern Language Journal 96: 70–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S. & Gürel, A.
2015 The acquisition of Differential Object Marking in Spanish by Turkish speakers. In The Acquisition of Spanish in Understudied Language Pairings [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 3], T. Judy & S. Perpiñán (eds), 281–308. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. & Sánchez-Walker, N.
2013 Differential object marking in child and adult Spanish heritage speakers. Language Acquisition 20: 109–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., Foote, R. & Perpiñán, S.
2008a Gender agreement in adult second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers: The effects of age and context of acquisition. Language Learning 58: 503–553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008b Knowledge of wh-movement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakers. In Selected Papers from the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, J. Bruhn de Garavito & E. Valenzuela (eds), 93–106. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., de la Fuente, I., Davidson, J., & Foote, R.
2013 The role of experience in the acquisition and production of diminutives and gender in Spanish: Evidence from L2 learners and heritage speakers. Second Language Research 29: 87–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norris, J. & Ortega, L.
2000 Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning 50: 417–528. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Grady, W., Song, M., Cho, S. & Lee, M.
1997 The learning and teaching of Korean in community schools. In Korean Language in America 2, Y.-H. Kim (ed.), 111–127. Albany NY: American Association of Teachers of Korean.Google Scholar
O’Grady, W., Lee, M. & Choo, M.
2001 The acquisition of relative clauses by heritage and non-heritage learners of Korean as a second language. A comparative study. Journal of Korean Language Education 12: 283–294.Google Scholar
O’Grady, W., Kwak, H. Y., Lee, O.-S. & Lee, M.
2011 An emergentist perspective on heritage language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 33: 223–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oh, J., Jun, S., Knightly, L. & Au, T.
2003 Holding on to childhood language memory. Cognition 86: B53–B64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Otheguy, R. & Zentella, A. C.
2012 Spanish in New York. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Otheguy, R., Zentella, A. C. & Livert, D.
2007 Language and dialect contact in Spanish in New York: Towards the formation of a speech community. Language 83: 770–802. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paradis, M.
2004 A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism [Studies in Bilingualism 18]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pienemann, M.
1998 Language Processing and Language Development: Processability Theory [Studies in Bilingualism 15]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Discussing PT. In Cross-linguistic Aspects of Processability Theory [Studies in Bilingualism 30], M. Pienemann (ed.), 61–84. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pienemann, M. & Håkansson, G.
1999 A unified approach toward the development of Swedish as L2: A processability account. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21: 383–420. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M.
2006 Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 14: 191–262.Google Scholar
Potowski, K.
2002 Experiences of Spanish heritage speakers in university foreign language courses and implications for teacher training. ADFL Bulletin 33: 35–42. DOI logoGoogle 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. DOI logoGoogle 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: 93–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Russell, J. & Spada, N.
2006 The effectiveness of corrective feedback for the acquisition of L2 grammar: A meta-analysis of the research. In Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching [Language Learning & Language Teaching 13], J. Norris & L. Ortega (eds), 133–164. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Saadah, E.
2011 The production of Arabic Vowels by English L2 Learners and Heritage speakers of Arabic. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Selinker, L.
1972 Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10: 209–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sharwood Smith, M. & Truscott, J.
2014 The Multilingual Mind: A Modular Processing Perspective. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C.
1994 Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
2014 Bilingual Language Acquisition: Spanish and English in the First Six Years. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R.
2008 Meaning in the Second Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A.
2011 Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism’. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 1: 1–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. & Filiaci, F.
2006 Anaphora resolution in near native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research 22: 339–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ticio, E.
2015 The acquisition of Differential Object Marking in Spanish-English early bilinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 5: 62–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsimpli, I. & Dimitrakopoulou, M.
2007 The interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 23: 215–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Valdés, G.
2001 Heritage language students: profiles and possibilities. In Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource, J. Peyton, D. Renard & S. McGinnis (eds), 37–77. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Westergaard, M. & Bentzen, K.
2007 The (non-)effect of input frequency on the acquisition of word order in Norwegian embedded clauses. In Frequency Effects in Language Acquisition. Defining the Limits of Frequency as an Explanatory Concept, I. Gülzow & N. Gagarina (eds), 271–306. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yeni-Komshian, G., Flege, J. & Liu, S.
2000 Pronunciation proficiency in the first and second languages of Korean-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3: 131–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Y.
2005 Processing and formal instruction in the L2 acquisition of five Chinese grammatical morphemes. In Cross-linguistic Aspects of Processability Theory [Studies in Bilingualism 30], M. Pienemann (ed.), 155–178. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Arntzen, Ragnar & Bjørn H. Kvifte
2023. Ordforråd og ordforrådsutvikling hos norskfødte tospråklige barn. Nordand 18:1 ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Bilinguality. In Understanding Bilingualism, Bilinguality, and Bilingual Education in an Era of Globalization [Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies, ], ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Bilingualism at the Individual Level. In Understanding Bilingualism, Bilinguality, and Bilingual Education in an Era of Globalization [Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies, ], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. 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.