Supporting Heritage Language Acquisition When it Matters Most

The Instituto Cervantes, the official Spanish Government Centre, is a public institution founded in 1991 to promote Spanish language teaching and knowledge of the cultures of Spanish speaking countries throughout the world.

Instituto Cervantes Manchester

Online talk to explore the advantages of bilingualism

Bilingualism series

The Bilingualism series is a forum on bilingualism and multilingualism targeting a broad audience.

Bilingual speakers of heritage languages are often dominant in the majority language. Their heritage language exhibits systematic grammatical differences compared to baseline speakers. Many of the apparent grammatical differences found in young adult heritage speakers can be traced back to protracted development in childhood. Two important factors that can be observed with school-age heritage language children are the roles of parental input in heritage language development and of academic support of the heritage language. The emerging conclusions from recent studies are that 1) there is little relationship between the language of the parents and the patterns that emerge in the heritage language children, and 2) academic support of the heritage language during the entire school-age period is critical to maintain and develop the language to achieve fluent bilingualism. <a href="https://linguistics.illinois.edu/directory/profile/montrul" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Silvina Montrul</a> is a Professor in the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese and of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and directs the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab. She is co-editor of the journal Second Language Research and has authored several books, including The Acquisition of Spanish (John Benjamins, 2004), Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism (John Benjamins, 2008), El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante (Wiley, 2013), The Acquisition of Heritage Languages (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Native Speakers Interrupted, (in press, Cambridge University Press). Her most recent co-edited volume (with Maria Polinsky) is the Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics (Cambridge University press, 2021). Her research has been funded by the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Online EventIn EnglishMore information: cultman@cervantes.es

Los hablantes bilingües de lenguas de herencia suelen dominar la lengua mayoritaria. Su lengua de herencia presenta diferencias gramaticales sistemáticas en comparación con los hablantes de base. Muchas de las aparentes diferencias gramaticales encontradas en los jóvenes adultos hablantes de lenguas de herencia pueden remontarse a un desarrollo prolongado en la infancia. Dos factores importantes que se observan en los niños en edad escolar que hablan la lengua de herencia son el papel de los padres en el desarrollo de la lengua de herencia y el apoyo académico de la lengua de herencia. Las conclusiones que se desprenden de estudios recientes son que 1) hay poca relación entre la lengua de los padres y los patrones que surgen en los niños de lengua patrimonial, y 2) el apoyo académico de la lengua patrimonial durante todo el período de edad escolar es fundamental para mantener y desarrollar la lengua y lograr un bilingüismo fluido.Silvina Montrul es profesora de los Departamentos de Español y Portugués y de Lingüística de la Universidad de Illinois en Urbana-Champaign, y dirige el Laboratorio de Adquisición de Segundas Lenguas y Bilingüismo. Es coeditora de la revista Second Language Research y es autora de varios libros, como The Acquisition of Spanish (John Benjamins, 2004), Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism (John Benjamins, 2008), El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante (Wiley, 2013), The Acquisition of Heritage Languages (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Native Speakers Interrupted, (en prensa, Cambridge University Press). Su más reciente volumen coeditado (con Maria Polinsky) es el Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics (Cambridge University press, 2021). Sus investigaciones han sido financiadas por la Universidad de Illinois, la National Science Foundation y los National Institutes of Health.

Actividad en línea y en inglés.Más información: cultman@cervantes.es

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