Current Approaches to the Acquisition of Heritage Spanish
A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2023) | Viewed by 26503
Special Issue Editor
Interests: heritage language acquisition; child bilingual development; crosslinguistic influence; linguistic dominance; grammatical restructuring; protracted development; bilingual alignments; lexical activation; language attitudes and prestige
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to announce the launch of this Special Issue on Current Approaches to the Acquisition of Heritage Spanish. The goal of the present issue is to showcase recent, cutting-edge work on the acquisition of heritage Spanish in contact with a majority language. We aim to bring together studies using state-of-the-art methodologies investigating heritage language development across various linguistics domains, including syntax, morphology, phonetics, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. The issue aims to supplement existing research on formal (Cuza & Perez-Tattam, 2013; Montrul 2008, 2016; Polinsky & Scontras, 2009; Putnam & Sánchez, 2013; Sánchez, 2019; Shin, Cuza & Sánchez, 2022) and sociolinguistic approaches to heritage language acquisition (Ducar, 2012; Hakuta & Andrea, 1992; Lynch & Avineri, 2021; Pérez-Leroux, Cuza & Thomas, 2011; Pieras-Guasp, 2002; Valdés, 2011). Cross-sectional studies examining school-age bilingual children (child heritage speakers) are especially welcomed. Topics can include but not restricted to:
- Crosslinguistic influence, language exposure and usage, lexical development
- Protracted development, child L1 attrition, grammatical restructuring, bilingual alignments
- Linguistic attitudes, motivations, and degree of familism
- Language prestige, ethnolinguistic vitality, community characteristics
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor ([email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.
Tentative completion schedule:
- Abstract submission deadline: March 10th, 2023
- Notification of abstract acceptance: April 10th, 2023
- Full manuscript deadline: July 1st, 2023
References
Cuza, A. & Pérez-Tattam, R. (2016). Grammatical gender selection and phrasal word order in child heritage Spanish: A feature reassembly approach. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19, 50-68.
Ducar, C. M. (2012). SHL learners’ attitudes and motivations: In S. M. Beaudrie & M. Fairclough (Eds.), Spanish as a heritage language in the United States (pp. 161–178). Georgetown. Georgetown University Press.
Hakuta, K., & D’Andrea, D. (1992). Some Properties of Bilingual Maintenance and Loss in Mexican Background High-School Students. Applied Linguistics 3, 72-99.
Leeman, J. (2015). Heritage language education and identity in the United States. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000245.
Leeman, J. (2015). Heritage language education and identity in the United States. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000245.
Lynch, A. & Avineri, N (2021). Sociolinguistic Approaches to Heritage Languages. In S. Montrul & M Polinsky (eds), The Cambridge Approaches to Heritage Languages (pp. 423-448). Cambridge. CUP.
Montrul, S. (2016). The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Montrul, S. (2008). Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism. Re-examining the Age Factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pérez-Leroux, A.T., Cuza, A. & Thomas, D. (2011). From parental attitudes to input condition Spanish-English bilingual development in Toronto. In Kim Potowski & Jason Rothman (eds.), Bilingual Youth: Spanish in English-speaking Societies (pp. 49-176). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pieras-Guasp, Felipe. (2002). Direct vs. indirect attitude measurement and the planning of Catalan in Mallorca. Language Problems & Language Planning 26. 51-68.
Polinsky, M., & Scontras, G. (2020). Understanding heritage languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23, 4–20.
Putnam. M., & Sánchez L (2013) What’s so incomplete about incomplete acquisition? A prolegomenon to modeling heritage language grammars. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3, 478–508.
Sánchez, L. (2019). Bilingual alignments. Languages 4(82).
Silva-Corvalán, C. (2014). Bilingual Language Acquisition: Spanish and English in the first six years. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Shin, N., Cuza, A., & Sánchez, L. (2022). Structured variation, language experience, and crosslinguistic influence shape child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000694.
Valdés, G. (2011). The challenge of maintaining Spanish-English bilingualism in American school. In Kim Potowski & Jason Rothman (eds) Bilingual Youth: Spanish in English-speaking societies (pp.113-146).
Prof. Dr. Alejandro Cuza
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.