Acquisition of Heritage Languages

Heritage speakers are native speakers of a minority language they learn at home, but, due to socio-political pressure from the majority language spoken in their community, their heritage language has become a central focus of study within linguistics and applied linguistics. This work centers on the grammatical development of the heritage language and the language learning trajectory of heritage speakers, synthesizing recent experimental research. The Acquisition of Heritage Languages offers a global perspective, with a wealth of examples from heritage languages around the world. Written in an accessible style, this authoritative and up-to-date text is essential reading for professionals, students, and researchers of all levels, working in the fields of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, education, language policies, and language teaching. Discusses examples and studies from heritage languages all over the world; Provides accessible explanations of linguistic terms; Explores the theories and research methods applied to heritage language acquisition. -- from back cover.