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31 pages, 1716 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Catalan as a Heritage Language in Germany

by Laia Arnaus Gil and Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar

Languages 2022, 7(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7010043 - 22 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3581

Abstract

Germany is currently the third country with more Catalan residents mainly characterized as families with children born in Germany but raised with Catalan as heritage language (HL). Only few studies have investigated Catalan as an HL in Germany. Our study tries to fill [...] Read more.

Germany is currently the third country with more Catalan residents mainly characterized as families with children born in Germany but raised with Catalan as heritage language (HL). Only few studies have investigated Catalan as an HL in Germany. Our study tries to fill this gap with spontaneous recordings of 16 bilingual and trilingual children (mean age 5;7). In terms of language competence (measured via MLU), balanced bilingualism is present in most children (44%), followed by those showing a dominance into German (38%). Interestingly, regarding language use (measured in w/minute), both balanced and Catalan dominants were fluent in both L1s similarly, while the German dominant group mostly prefer German. Moreover, the parents filled in a questionnaire on current and cumulative input from which some factors were examined such as family language policies (FLP), child’s language choice to the Catalan-speaking parent, Catalan skills of the non-native parent, family language and frequency of comprehension and production activities. In a nutshell, the results show that FLP and HL as FL or no FL seem to have an impact in the child’s grammatical development in the very early years, as opposed to family language. Children mostly direct their speech in the HL when talking to the Catalan-speaking parent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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18 pages, 466 KiB

Open AccessArticle

French as a Heritage Language in Germany

by Johanna Stahnke, Laia Arnaus Gil and Natascha Müller

Languages 2021, 6(3), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030122 - 15 Jul 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2867

Abstract

Research on child heritage speakers (HSs) has shown successful language acquisition, comparable to monolinguals, whereas research on adult HSs often claims incomplete acquisition. This seems to be an evident contradiction in the current state of research, which may be explained by a possible [...] Read more.

Research on child heritage speakers (HSs) has shown successful language acquisition, comparable to monolinguals, whereas research on adult HSs often claims incomplete acquisition. This seems to be an evident contradiction in the current state of research, which may be explained by a possible language shift during adolescence or adulthood, but which does not necessarily have to be equated with a lack of competence. In an overview of the existing studies on child and adult HSs of French in Germany, we show that HSs are not incomplete acquirers of French and we suggest theoretical and practical implications following these findings. Our aim is to show, first, that HSs of French in Germany are not unanimously disadvantaged compared with French speakers in countries where French is a majority language, and second, that complete acquisition is independent of language dominance, a notion that has received particular attention in studies on multilingual and HL acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

26 pages, 1393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Word Order in Complex Verb Phrases in Heritage Polish Spoken in Germany

by Bernhard Brehmer and Aldona Sopata

Languages 2021, 6(2), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020070 - 8 Apr 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3101

Abstract

This paper deals with word order in complex verb phrases consisting of auxiliaries and infinitive complements in heritage Polish. In Polish, infinitive complements normally follow auxiliaries, but discontinuous structures occur if required by the information structure. We investigate the occurrence and evaluation of [...] Read more.

This paper deals with word order in complex verb phrases consisting of auxiliaries and infinitive complements in heritage Polish. In Polish, infinitive complements normally follow auxiliaries, but discontinuous structures occur if required by the information structure. We investigate the occurrence and evaluation of adjacent and discontinuous word order patterns in relation to (a) the chronological age at testing and (b) the age of onset of the acquisition of the majority language, German. Therefore, we distinguish between simultaneous bilinguals (2L1, n = 61), early sequential bilinguals (cL2, n = 41) and an age-matched monolingual control group (ML, n = 50). The data consist of elicited oral narratives as well as acceptability judgments. We found that both 2L1 and cL2 bilinguals differ from the ML, but the difference depends on the age at testing and the type of data (oral production or evaluation). While 2L1 bilinguals show a u-curve development, which is shaped by the interplay of delayed acquisition in childhood and attrition in early adulthood, cL2 bilinguals started to prefer discontinuous structures rather early. Only in adulthood do both groups converge and exhibit an overuse and over-acceptance of discontinuous structures compared to the ML, which is due to cross-linguistic influence from German. However, language-internal factors (such as clause structure) also turned out to impact the distribution of adjacent and discontinuous structures in heritage (and monolingual) Polish. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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17 pages, 620 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Timing in Acquisition Modulate Heritage Children’s Language Abilities? Evidence from the Greek LITMUS Sentence Repetition Task

by Christos Makrodimitris and Petra Schulz

Languages 2021, 6(1), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010049 - 15 Mar 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3437

Abstract

Recent proposals suggest that timing in acquisition, i.e., the age at which a phenomenon is mastered by monolingual children, influences acquisition of the L2, interacting with age of onset of bilingualism and amount of L2 input. Here, we examine whether timing affects acquisition [...] Read more.

Recent proposals suggest that timing in acquisition, i.e., the age at which a phenomenon is mastered by monolingual children, influences acquisition of the L2, interacting with age of onset of bilingualism and amount of L2 input. Here, we examine whether timing affects acquisition of the bilingual child’s heritage language, possibly modulating the effects of environmental and child-internal factors. The performance of 6- to 12-year-old Greek heritage children residing in Germany (age of onset of German: 0–4 years) was assessed across a range of nine syntactic structures via the Greek LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) Sentence Repetition Task. Based on previous studies on monolingual Greek, the structures were classified as “early” (main clauses (SVO), coordination, clitics, complement clauses, sentential negation, non-referential wh-questions) or as “late” (referential wh-questions, relatives, adverbial clauses). Current family use of Greek and formal instruction in Greek (environmental), chronological age, and age of onset of German (child-internal) were assessed via the Questionnaire for Parents of Bilingual Children (PABIQ); short-term memory (child-internal) was measured via forward digit recall. Children’s scores were generally higher for early than for late acquired structures. Performance on the three early structures with the highest scores was predicted by the amount of current family use of Greek. Performance on the three late structures was additionally predicted by forward digit recall, indicating that higher short-term memory capacity is beneficial for correctly reconstructing structurally complex sentences. We suggest that the understanding of heritage language development and the role of child-internal and environmental factors will benefit from a consideration of timing in the acquisition of the different structures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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12 pages, 526 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Four-Year Longitudinal Comparative Study on the Lexicon Development of Russian and Turkish Heritage Speakers in Germany

by Sophia Czapka, Nathalie Topaj and Natalia Gagarina

Languages 2021, 6(1), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010027 - 6 Feb 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3741

Abstract

Russian and Turkish are the most frequently spoken and intensively investigated heritage languages in Germany, but contrastive research on their development in early childhood is still missing. This longitudinal study compares the trajectories of expressive lexicon development in Russian (n = 70) and [...] Read more.

Russian and Turkish are the most frequently spoken and intensively investigated heritage languages in Germany, but contrastive research on their development in early childhood is still missing. This longitudinal study compares the trajectories of expressive lexicon development in Russian (n = 70) and Turkish (n = 79) heritage speakers and identifies predictors for their lexicon size at preschool age. Heritage lexicon size was tested with two comparable tests assessing the expressive lexicon at four test points between the mean ages of 3.3 (range: 25–49 months) and 5.6 (range: 54–78 months) years. The influence of language-related factors, such as input quantity, parents’ heritage language proficiency and age of onset (AoO) of German, and other potential predictors, i.e., intelligence and socio-economic status, is evaluated. Results show that the Turkish group’s abilities grow slower but are similar at the last test point. Common predictors for lexicon size are input quantity from siblings and AoO. Group-specific influences are parental input quantity in the Russian group and siblings’ proficiency in the Turkish group. Our findings emphasize the interplay of input quantity and society language AoO for heritage lexicon development. The relevance of our results for the usage-based theory of language acquisition is discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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16 pages, 922 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Portuguese as Heritage Language in Germany—A Linguistic Perspective

by Esther Rinke and Cristina Flores

Languages 2021, 6(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010010 - 7 Jan 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3671

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the contribution of linguistic research on Portuguese as a heritage language in Germany to the general understanding of heritage language development. From 1955 to 1973, nearly 166,000 Portuguese migrants found work in Germany as so-called ‘guest [...] Read more.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the contribution of linguistic research on Portuguese as a heritage language in Germany to the general understanding of heritage language development. From 1955 to 1973, nearly 166,000 Portuguese migrants found work in Germany as so-called ‘guest workers’ (Gastarbeiter). Because the aim of many Portuguese migrant families was to return to Portugal, their children met relatively good conditions for the acquisition of their heritage language. Nonetheless, second-generation heritage speakers (HSs) show some linguistic particularities in comparison to monolingual Portuguese speakers in Portugal. Based on the results of previous research, we show that the following factors shape the linguistic knowledge of this group of bilinguals: (1) Restricted exposure to the heritage language may cause a delay in the development of certain linguistic structures, (2) deviations from the standard norm may be related to the lack of formal education and the primacy of the colloquial register and (3) heritage bilinguals may accelerate ongoing diachronic development. We argue that apparent effects of influence from the environmental language can often have alternative explanations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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Review

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13 pages, 301 KiB

Open AccessReview

Greek as a Heritage Language in Germany

by Angelika Golegos and Theodoros Marinis

Languages 2024, 9(12), 370; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9120370 - 3 Dec 2024

Viewed by 355

Abstract

Research on heritage languages (HLs) has expanded considerably within the last 10 years worldwide. Despite the large waves of migration from Greece to other countries in Europe, the Americas, and Australia within the 20th century, research on Greek as an HL is still [...] Read more.

Research on heritage languages (HLs) has expanded considerably within the last 10 years worldwide. Despite the large waves of migration from Greece to other countries in Europe, the Americas, and Australia within the 20th century, research on Greek as an HL is still in its infancy. The present paper focuses on Greek as an HL in Germany. It starts with demographic information on the basis of official census data about the number of Greeks with a migration background who currently live in Germany. Then, it thematically presents 18 published studies to date that report on how Greek develops as an HL in children and adults in Germany and the acquisition of phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, syntactic complexity, and narrative production. Several studies address the role of internal and external factors, the role of literacy, and the role of language proficiency and language dominance, as well as the effects of cross-linguistic influence between German and Greek. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the literature and a reflection about open questions and directions for future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

20 pages, 978 KiB

Open AccessReview

Home and School Language Practices and Their Effects on Heritage Language Acquisition: A View from Heritage Italians in Germany

by Irene Caloi and Jacopo Torregrossa

Languages 2021, 6(1), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010050 - 17 Mar 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4432

Abstract

This paper intends to provide some speculative remarks on how consistency and continuity in language use practices within and across contexts inform heritage language acquisition outcomes. We intend “consistency” as maintenance of similar patterns of home language use over the years. “Continuity” refers [...] Read more.

This paper intends to provide some speculative remarks on how consistency and continuity in language use practices within and across contexts inform heritage language acquisition outcomes. We intend “consistency” as maintenance of similar patterns of home language use over the years. “Continuity” refers to the possibility for heritage language speakers to be exposed to formal education in the heritage language. By means of a questionnaire study, we analyze to what extent Italian heritage families in Germany are consistent in their use of the heritage language with their children. Furthermore, by analyzing the educational offer related to Italian as a heritage language across different areas in Germany, we reflect on children’s opportunities to experience continuity between home and school language practices. Finally, we interpret the results of previous studies on Italian heritage language acquisition through the lens of consistency and continuity of language experience. In particular, we show that under the appropriate language experience conditions (involving consistency and continuity), heritage speakers may be successful even in the acquisition of linguistic phenomena that have been shown to be acquired late in first language acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Germany)

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