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Article published In:
Heritage learners studying abroad
Edited by Angela George
[Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 8:2] 2023
► pp. 230–258

“Being myself in Spanish”

A heritage speaker’s evolving pragmatic choices and awareness during study abroad

ORCID logo | California State University, Monterey Bay,
| University of Wyoming,
| University of ColoradoBoulder,
This case study examines the pragmatic development of address forms of a US-based Spanish heritage speaker of Mexican descent, Juan, during an 11-week abroad program in Argentina. Instruments included a background questionnaire, a pre/post-written elicitation task, four interviews, and 16 naturalistic recordings during host family dinners and service encounters. Findings indicate that Juan decreased his use of vos on elicitation tasks and did not use vos at all in naturalistic recordings. There was an increase, however, in his metapragmatic awareness, or his understanding of the ways variable forms index social meaning, specifically regarding address forms. These results were related to Juan’s bicultural identity construction, investment, and evolving withdrawal from or participation in the host community. This study highlights the importance of triangulating elicited and naturalistic data with qualitative information and moving away from appropriate-based models that compare heritage speakers’ pragmatic choices to those of monolingual native speakers.
Keywords: study abroad, heritage speakers, pragmatics, identity, investment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Heritage speaker identity and SA
    • 2.2Investment and SA
    • 2.3Problematizing pragmatic research on heritage speakers of Spanish
    • 2.4Forms of address and voseo
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participant
    • 3.2Context
    • 3.3Explicit instruction of vos
    • 3.4Materials and procedures
    • 3.5Analysis
  • 4.Case study
    • 4.1“Being myself in Spanish”
    • 4.2DCT analysis
    • 4.3Naturalistic data analysis
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Juan’s address form choices and metapragmatic awareness
    • 5.2Implications and contributions
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.22001.poz
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