Diego Pascual y Cabo

This study examines the status of discourse-dependent syntactic properties in Spanish heritage grammars. In particular, we focus on pragmatically-driven word order patterns with Spanish psychological predicates (e.g., gustar 'to like'). The responses from 26 Spanish heritage speakers (as well as 8 native controls) to an aural pragmatic felicity task indicate that heritage speakers are sensitive to the nuanced discursive factors that regulate word order in Spanish psych-predicate constructions. These findings contribute to current debates over the status of interfaces in heritage grammars. Specifically, these results shed light on the factors that make certain syntax-discourse properties particularly prone to change while not others. This takes us to propose a finer-grained division of syntax-discourse constructions and their relation to learnability.

This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners’ attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish heritage language program afforded students transformative experiences that enhanced the work done within the classroom walls.

Spanish captures the difference between eventive and stative passives via an obligatory choice between two copula; verbal passives take the copula ser and adjectival passives take the copula estar. In this study, we compare and contrast US and Canadian heritage speakers of Spanish on their knowledge of this difference in relation to copula choice in Spanish. The backgrounds of the target groups differ significantly from each other in that only one of them, the Canadian group, has grown up in a societal multilingual environment. We discuss the results as being supportive of two non-mutually exclusive explanation factors: (a) French facilitates (bootstraps) the acquisition of eventive and stative passives and/or (b) the US/Canadian HS differences (e.g. status of bilingual-ism and the languages at stake) is a reflection of the uniqueness of the language contact situations and the effects this has on the input HSs receive.

Spanish captures the difference between eventive and stative passives via an obligatory choice between two copula; verbal passives take the copula ser and adjectival passives take the copula estar. In this study, we compare and contrast US and Canadian heritage speakers of Spanish on their knowledge of this difference in relation to copula choice in Spanish. The backgrounds of the target groups differ significantly from each other in that only one of them, the Canadian group, has grown up in a societal multilingual environment. We discuss the results as being supportive of two non-mutually exclusive explanation factors: (a) French facilitates (bootstraps) the acquisition of eventive and stative passives and/or (b) the US/Canadian HS differences (e.g. status of bilingual-ism and the languages at stake) is a reflection of the uniqueness of the language contact situations and the effects this has on the input HSs receive.

EN While the linguistic traits and specific needs of heritage speakers have been recognized for several decades, academic interest in the different dimensions of this type of bilingualism has increased exponentially in the last ten years. Because of this, significant progress has been made in all areas of inquiry. From formal/theoretical investigations into the mental architecture of the heritage language to explorations of social factors, as well as other pedagogical concerns, numerous research strands are currently shaping our understanding of the field. With this in mind, the goal of this introduction is twofold. First, we aim to provide an overview of the themes and discussions that are currently taking place in the field of Spanish heritage-speaker bilingualism. To this end, we will consider key issues pertaining to a wide variety of areas including, but not limited to, sociolinguistic attitudes, identity, language competency, and language instruction. Secondly, in so doing, the critical presentation and discussion of each of these areas will also serve to contextualize the articles included in this special issue. ES Mientras que los rasgos lingüísticos y las necesidades específicas de los hablantes de herencia se reconocieron ya hace décadas, el interés académico en las diferentes dimensiones de este tipo de bilingüismo ha aumentado exponencialmente en los últimos diez años. Por eso, se ha avanzado de manera considerable en todos los ámbitos de investigación. Desde investigaciones formales y teóricas acerca de la arquitectura mental de una lengua de herencia, hasta la exploración de factores sociales y otras cuestiones pedagógicas, el actual estado de la cuestión está definido por múltiples ámbitos de investigación. Con respecto a esto, el objetivo de esta introducción es doble. Por una parte, queremos ofrecer una panorámica de los temas y debates actuales en el campo del bilingüismo de los hablantes de español como lengua de herencia. Así, se considerarán cuestiones centrales en el estudio de actitudes lingüísticas, identidad, competencia lingüística y enseñanza de la lengua. Por otra parte, la presentación crítica y la discusión de cada una de estas áreas servirá para contextualizar los artículos incluidos en este número especial. Palabras clave: HABLANTES DE LENGUAS DE HERENCIA, APRENDIENTES DE LENGUAS DE HERENCIA, ESPAÑOL EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, BILINGÜISMO. IT Mentre le caratteristiche linguistiche e le necessità specifiche dei parlanti di una lingua ereditaria sono state riconosciute da decenni, l'interesse accademico per le diverse dimensioni di questo tipo di bilinguismo è aumentato in modo esponenziale negli ultimi dieci anni. Per questo, c'è stato un progresso significativo in tutti gli ambiti di ricerca. Dalle ricerche formali e teoriche sull'architettura mentale di una lingua ereditaria, all'esplorazione dei fattori sociali e altre questioni pedagogiche, questo campo è attualmente influenzato da molteplici linee di ricerca. Con questo presente, questa introduzione ha un doppio scopo. In primo luego, si vuole offrire una visione panoramica dei temi e dibattiti attuali nel campo del bilinguismo dei parlanti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. Si considereranno, con questo obiettivo, questioni centrali nello studio delle attitudini linguistiche, identità, competenza linguistica e insegnamento della lingua. In secondo luogo, la presentazione critica di ognuna di queste aree servirà per contestualizzare gli articoli inclusi in questo numero speciale.

Previous research examining heritage speaker bilingualism has suggested that interface-conditioned properties are likely to be affected by crosslinguistic influence (e.g., Montrul & Polinsky 2011; White 2011).  It is not clear, however, whether the core syntax can also be affected to the same degree (e.g., Cuza 2013; Depiante & Thompson 2013). Departing from Cuza’s (2013) and Depiante & Thompson’s (2013) research, the present study seeks to determine the extent to which this is possible in the case of Spanish as a heritage language. With this goal in mind, a total of thirty-three Spanish heritage speakers (divided into sequential and simultaneous bilinguals) and a comparison group of eleven late Spanish-English bilinguals completed a battery of off-line tasks that examined knowledge and use of preposition stranding (i.e., a syntactic construction whereby the object of the preposition is fronted while the preposition itself is left stranded), an understudied core syntactic phenomenon that is licit in English but precluded in Spanish. Overall findings reveal that the sequential heritage speakers pattern with participants from the control group. The simultaneous heritage speakers, on the other hand, seem to have a grammar that is not so restricting as they accept and produce ungrammatical cases of preposition stranding. Herein, we argue that these results do not obtain the way they do due to incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition but crucially because of the timing of exposure to the societal language. We propose that this property was completely acquired, although differently acquired due to the structural overlap observed between the two languages involved (e.g., Müller & Hulk 2001), and most importantly, to the timing of acquisition of English (e.g., Putnam and Sánchez 2013).

The main goal of this chapter is to provide a link between formal heritage language studies and heritage language pedagogy, two areas of research that, despite being highly relevant to each other, have traditionally been approached from very different perspectives. To this end, we review the major issues and most significant findings in each subfield. Then, we offer some insights as to how to implement advances in formal linguistic studies into the development of evidence-based pedagogical approaches to heritage speakers in a classroom setting and beyond.