In the United States, heritage language is simply the language that is spoken by immigrants and their descendants. In a social-political context, the languages that are vocalized by the larger percentage in the host country are the official languages while the heritage language is associated with the minority. Heritage speakers are the offspring of immigrants born in the host country or the children of immigrants who came to the host country at the time they were born. Simultaneous bilinguals are the heritage speakers who are brought up speaking both the majority and the heritage language (Montrul 4). Contrariwise, sequential bilinguals refer to heritage speakers exposed to one language before they learn the other language. These two types of heritage speakers will always have difficulties in speaking the heritage language in adulthood, it becomes weaker and weaker (Montrul 4). Recently, increasing research has illustrated the existing differences in linguistic abilities between the native speakers and the heritage speakers.
There are three aspects that demonstrate the proper understanding of the linguistic profile of heritage speakers. They include; the order of acquisition of the language (i.e., first vs. second language), the social-political dimension (minority vs. majority language), and the functional dimension of the languages (primary vs. secondary language).
As an example, I will refer to the heritage speakers that are evident in the European context in Hakansson description of five expatriate Swedes (Montrul 5). In their childhood, the Swedes children grew up in the United States and France until they reached their adolescent stage. They returned back to Sweden to pursue higher education. The admission of the emigrants in the University demonstrated the lack of linguistics abilities in Swedish context when compared to the native speakers. The instructors at the University testified that these groups of individuals had a low understanding of Swedish lexicon and grammar. The case study illustrates that heritage speakers are usually unbalanced bilinguals and that unbalanced bilingualism is popular in within the society.
In archetypal monolingual situation, the language learned at home by the child becomes the majority language since he learns another language after joining the school. Obviously, the first language of the child becomes strong and stable than the second language that is frequently used (Montrul 5). But when the heritage speakers come from a minority language, the functional dimension of the language shifts later in life because the primary language is dropped because of the popularity of the secondary language. The functional shift, as a result, upsets the linguistic proficiency and fluency in the heritage language, becomes it develops the features of a second language.
When a native English speaker learns Spanish, English becomes the Heritage Language and the primary language in his lifetime. In such a scenario, the order of acquisition, the sociopolitical status, and the functions of the language are affected by both the native and the heritage language. For this speaker, English becomes the first, primary and majority language where. In addition, Spanish becomes the second, secondary and minority language. Contrariwise, when Spanish is acquired as a heritage language, the linguistic dimensions will change. Spanish becomes the first language though it remains a secondary and minority language. On the other hand, English is considered the second language, although it remains to be the primary and the majority language.
The heritage language does not develop as the majority language because it’s restricted to specific contexts, e.g. at home (Park, Seong, and Mela 225). The heritage language will develop at a slow pace in morphosyntactic and lexical development when compared to the speakers commonly used language. Therefore, it depreciates in terms of monolingual development thus developing into a weaker language than the native language. Soon after, if the heritage language lacks the necessary support in institutions of learning at the time of language development, it will never develop to an advanced status. This problem has remained a thorny issue that has not been solved for a long duration of time. The heritage speakers are affected by the language change progress, incomplete language acquisition, language attrition and lack of parental input. All these factors determine the progress of heritage language acquisition and affect it negatively. The heritage language fluctuates and lacks consistency, and this greatly affects the competency of the heritage speakers in writing and reading the language.
Although the heritage language is associated with numerous disadvantages, there are also benefits associated with its study. The presence of heritage speakers in a country will help the policy makers to come up with effective language programs to help the heritage speakers to fit into the society comfortably. The presence of heritage speakers enables the process of categorizing speakers as either native or non-native. It is also possible to understand the process of language acquisition in human beings (Benmamoun et.al 2). For example, the study of heritage languages has revealed that acquiring a native language on a certain critical period does not guarantee native competence. When an individual is exposed to a bilingual environment at birth, the heritage language acquired remains weakened than in those exposed to a monolingual setting and adds the second language at a later stage in life. Also, heritage speakers excel more in phonology compared to native speakers, and this is advantageous to them although they are affected by the heritage accent. The heritage speakers are at an upper hand to completely develop their syntax though this does not guarantee they will not be exposed to other problematic areas in language.
Heritage speakers are at a bigger disadvantage because they bare affected in various ways. Their lexical knowledge is not perfect and advanced like that of the native speakers.
Their grammar is affected by the inability to distinguish the noun-verb combination (Benmamoun et.al 2). Also, they are affected by morphology because they encounter more difficulties with nominal morphology. Most of the heritage speakers encounter problems with word order, comprehension of relative clauses, and passive constructions.
As illustrated above, heritage speakers have a unique advantage because they have a good understanding of phonology although it is not clear if they are experienced in morphosyntactic competence. The problem with heritage speakers is their inconsistencies in written language and also fails to perform better in functions that need metalinguistic know-how of the language. There are social benefits associated with heritage speakers. The communities that uphold their language maintains the norms and cultures of the society (Lee 119). Since heritage language creates an identity between individuals, people can interact comfortably and learn various languages to ensure a peaceful coexistence within the community. Therefore, it is important to understand the language abilities associated with the heritage speakers and improve new ways that will help them to fit in the society.
Work cited
Benmamoun, Elabbas, Silvina Montrul, and Maria Polinsky. "Prolegomena to heritage linguistics." Unpublished white paper. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Harvard University (2010)
Brown, Steven, Salvatore Attardo, and Cynthia Vigliotti. Understanding language structure, interaction, and variation: an introduction to applied linguistics and sociolinguistics for nonspecialists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014
Lee, Jin Sook. "The Korean language in America: The role of cultural identity in heritage language learning." Language Culture and Curriculum 15.2 (2002): 117-133.
Montrul, Silvina A. "Is the heritage language like a second language?." Eurosla Yearbook 12.1 (2012): 1-29.
Park, Seong Man, and Mela Sarkar. "Parents’ attitudes toward heritage language maintenance for their children and their efforts to help their children maintain the heritage language: A case study of Korean-Canadian immigrants." Language, culture and curriculum 20.3 (2007): 223-235.
