Search Results (96)

This study investigates how Mexican Spanish/U.S. English heritage bilinguals process scope ambiguities in sentences containing the existential quantifiers a/una and the universal quantifiers every/cada in English and Spanish. Sentences like ‘A person bought every book’ are syntactically ambiguous in both languages, allowing for multiple possible interpretations. Research suggests that one interpretation is often preferred due to lower cognitive demand, though degree of preference varies across languages. Notably, heritage bilinguals may have distinct interpretation preferences in each language, highlighting the complexity of bilingual processing. Sixty Spanish/English heritage bilinguals (Age M = 25.48, SD = 2.65) completed a timed and graded truth-value judgment task in both languages, along with language proficiency tests. We analyzed interpretation ratings, response times, and potential effects of proficiency. Results reveal nearly identical preferred interpretation ratings (Spanish: M = 4.19, SD = 0.56; English: M = 4.14, SD = 0.66) and response times (Spanish: M = 6.97 s, SD = 2.70; English: M = 6.67 s, SD = 1.80) across languages, with one interpretation consistently favored and associated with faster response times. Language proficiency had no significant impact. Our experimental findings offer new insights into heritage bilinguals’ processing of competing linguistic structures and inform models of bilingual syntax and cognitive flexibility. Full article

LexTALE has emerged as a popular measure of language proficiency in research studies. While it has been widely validated for L2 learners across multiple languages, its applicability to heritage language learners (HLLs)—who often show distinct language development from L2ers—has not been established. Here, we evaluate the Spanish version of LexTALE (LexTALE-Esp) as a predictor of writing proficiency among college-aged HLLs in the United States. We show that LexTALE-Esp scores significantly correlate with ACTFL-rated functional writing levels and outperform self-assessment as a predictor of proficiency. Our results suggest that, despite concerns about HLLs’ limited experience with written texts in the heritage language, vocabulary-based tasks capture core aspects of written language ability. These findings indicate that vocabulary-based tests like LexTALE-Esp capture proficiency-relevant lexical knowledge across speaker profiles and may tap into dimensions of both core and extended language competence. Full article

This eye tracking study examined the role of lexical frequency in the processing of non-local verbal number agreement by heritage speakers of Spanish. Few prior studies of heritage bilingualism have investigated the role of word frequency in the comprehension or production of morphosyntax, and none have employed a real-time measure of sentence processing, despite the well-known sensitivity of such methods to word frequency and the proposal of some scholars that such online methodologies could be particularly useful in research on heritage speakers. Fifty heritage speakers of Spanish read stimulus sentences containing non-local verbal number agreement that depended on a verb that was either high or low frequency, based on published corpus data. The results suggest that the online integration of verbal agreement was both more immediate and more robust with high frequency verbs than with low frequency verbs. Moreover, an analysis of individual language background variables indicates that faster reading was associated with greater sensitivity to verbal agreement with low frequency verbs. These findings are consistent with theoretical claims that lexical frequency can play an important role in the morphosyntax of heritage speakers, due to reduced exposure to the home language and, particularly, low frequency words. Full article

This study investigates how Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners, and second language (L2) learners cognitively and socially engage with texts through collaborative digital annotations. Conducted in two advanced online writing courses with forty students, the study employed Perusall, a social annotation platform, to examine reading behaviors and peer interactions. Quantitative analysis revealed both similarities and differences in strategy use: while both groups demonstrated equal levels of interaction, SHL learners favored Evaluating and Connecting strategies, suggesting reflective, experience-based engagement, whereas L2 learners more frequently used Questioning and Translating strategies, indicating a more analytical approach. Survey responses further highlighted perceived gains in vocabulary, motivation, grammar, and academic language awareness. These findings challenge deficit-based assumptions about SHL literacy and underscore the value of integrating culturally relevant, digitally mediated tasks in language instruction. The study affirms that collaborative annotation not only fosters cognitive engagement but also promotes social presence and academic identity development. It offers practical recommendations for grouping, scaffolding, and platform use, and contributes to a broader understanding of how digital tools can support inclusive, meaningful reading experiences for diverse learners in the twenty-first-century classroom. Full article

This eye-tracking study examined how heritage speakers of Spanish process gender agreement morphology at a distance, focusing on the activation of the gender feature during sentence processing. Previous work is conceptually replicated and further extended by assessing (1) whether reduced sensitivity to gender agreement mismatches when another word intervenes between the head noun and its modifying adjective stems from weakened gender feature activation, (2) whether a gender-marked determiner enhances this activation, and (3) whether Age of Onset of Bilingualism (AOB) plays a role in this activation. Fifty-three English-dominant heritage speakers of Spanish and a comparison group of 32 Spanish-dominant monolingually raised speakers read sentences with and without gender agreement mismatches while their eye movements were monitored. Sentences contained mismatches in adjectives modified by the intensifier “muy” under two conditions: a No Cue condition (e.g., árboles muy altos/*altas) and a Cue condition with a gender-marked determiner (e.g., unos árboles muy altos/*altas). Statistical modeling of the eye-tracking data suggests similar effects for both groups in the No Cue condition, but AOB and proficiency modulated sensitivity for heritage speakers with a later AOB (4–6). Gender cues on the determiner (Cue condition) impacted the time course of agreement processing for all groups, the total time spent reading mismatches for all heritage speakers as a function of proficiency, and the rereading time for heritage speakers with a later AOB (4–9). We consider the role of Age of Onset of Bilingualism (AOB) and proficiency in morphosyntactic processing, feature retrieval, and cue facilitation in heritage language processing. Full article

The present study analyzes individual differences in the facilitative processing of grammatical gender by heritage speakers of Spanish, asking whether these differences correlate with lexical proficiency. Results from an eye-tracking study in the Visual World Paradigm replicate prior findings that, as a group, heritage speakers of Spanish show facilitative processing of gender. Importantly, in a follow-up within-group analysis, we test whether three measures of lexical proficiency—oral picture-naming, verbal fluency, and LexTALE—predict individual performance. We find that lexical proficiency, as measured by LexTALE, predicts overall word recognition; however, we observe no effects of the other measures and no evidence that lexical proficiency modulates the strength of the facilitative effect. Our results highlight the importance of carefully selecting tools for proficiency assessment in experimental studies involving heritage speakers, underscoring that the absence of evidence for an effect of proficiency based on a single measure should not be taken as evidence of absence. Full article

This study investigates the effect of code-switching (CS) on the processing and attachment resolution of ambiguous relative clauses (RCs) like ‘Bill saw the friend of the neighbor that was talking about football’ by heritage speakers of Spanish. It checks whether code-switching imposes a prosodic break at the place of language change, and whether this prosodic break affects RC parsing, as predicted by the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis: a high attachment (HA) preference results from a prosodic break at the RC. A prosodic break at the preposition ‘of’ in the complex DP ‘the friend of the neighbor’ entails a low attachment (LA) preference. The design compares RC resolution in unilingual sentences (Spanish, with a default preference for HA in RC, and English, with the default LA) with the RC parsing in sentences with CS. The CS occurs at the places of prosodic breaks considered by the IPH. The results show sensitivity to the place of CS in RC attachment. CS prompting LA causes longer response times. The preference for HA in Spanish unilingual sentences is higher than in English ones. Heritage speakers are sensitive to the prosodic effects of CS. However, there is high variability across speakers. Full article

Despite the increase in studies on Spanish as a heritage language (SHL), few focus on spelling, with research limited to the U.S. According to the adaptive control hypothesis, language production is governed by control processes, which adapt to the demands of real-world interactional contexts. In this article, these control processes are inferred from the interlingual spelling errors observed in Gibraltarian SHL speakers. The hypothesis is that the Gibraltar dense code-switching context will be manifested in a high number of interlingual misspellings in Spanish due to English interference. Misspellings were identified in the written productions of a sample of 80 Gibraltarian pre-college SHL students (N = 40 in Spanish; N = 40 in English), collected via availability tests and stored in the Dispolex dataset by the members of the project “Lenguas en contacto y disponibilidad léxica: la situación lingüística e intercultural de Ceuta y Gibraltar”. Gibraltarians’ Spanish misspellings were then compared with those found in the U.S. The high percentage of spelling errors in SHL students in Gibraltar might be explained in light of lower inhibitory control of interferences in dense code-switching interactional contexts. Full article

Despite its demographic relevance, Spanish as an Immigrant Minority Language (IML) remains understudied in Europe. In Brussels, approximately 46,500 residents have Hispanic heritage, but their linguistic practices have largely remained unexplored in sociolinguistic research. This paper presents a pilot study on the language practices of the Hispanic communities in the city in order to assess language maintenance and vitality. Through an online survey among 125 adults with Hispanic heritage in Brussels, primarily first-generation immigrants, a highly multilingual sample was revealed, with most participants competent in at least four languages. While Spanish usage declines across generations, language competence remains high, with 60% of third-generation speakers still considering it one of their dominant languages. Findings challenge traditional minority–majority language maintenance perspectives, advocating for a multilingual approach to linguistic vitality. Patterns of language transmission, home language use, and integration highlight the communities’ adaptability while maintaining a connection to Spanish. Results point to unexplored sociolinguistic phenomena within the language minority, underscoring the need for further research on the Hispanic communities in Brussels. Full article

It is well known that a listener’s native phonological background has an impact on how speech sounds are perceived. Native speakers can distinguish sounds that serve a contrastive function in their language better than sounds that are not contrastive. However, the role of allophony in speech perception is understudied, especially among heritage speakers. This paper highlights a study that directly tests the influence of the allophonic/phonemic distinction on perception by Spanish heritage speakers, comparing their results to those of late bilingual and monolingual speakers of Spanish and English in the US. Building on an earlier study, the unique contribution of this paper is a study of the perceptual pattern shown by heritage speakers of Spanish and a comparison of bilingual and monolingual speakers of English and Spanish. The participants completed a similarity rating task with stimuli containing VCV sequences with the intervocalic consonants [d], [ð], and [ɾ]. The heritage speakers, who are early sequential bilinguals of Spanish and English, showed a perceptual pattern that is more like monolingual Spanish listeners than monolingual English listeners, but still intermediate between the two monolingual groups. Specifically, they perceived [d]/[ɾ] like the L1 Spanish participants, treating them as very different sounds. They perceived the pair [d]/[ð], which is contrastive in English but allophonic in Spanish, like the L1 Spanish participants, as fairly similar sounds. Finally, heritage speakers perceived [ɾ]/[ð], contrastive in both languages, as very different sounds, identical to all other participant groups. The results underscore both the importance of surface oppositions, suggesting the need to reconsider the traditional definition of contrast, as well as the importance of considering level and age of exposure to the second language when studying the perception of sounds by bilingual speakers. Full article

The work of the Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún is widely recognized in the field of anthropology, primarily due to his methodological contributions. The research techniques he employed—such as learning the native language, placing emphasis on linguistic aspects to understand the culture and worldview of “the others”, carefully selecting informants from all social strata, and designing open-ended questionnaires—seem more akin to those of modern British social anthropology than to practices from 500 years ago. In 2015, his work was designated as part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World program, an acknowledgment aimed at highlighting his cultural contributions and preserving the world’s documentary heritage as a symbol of humanity’s collective memory. This designation has renewed Sahagún’s prominence as a precursor of this discipline. This study explores the impact of such recognition and the enduring value of his work. In a time like the present, where interethnic tensions and rejection of difference are on the rise, Sahagún’s work stands as an unquestionable legacy against intolerance and ethnocentrism. Full article

This study investigates clitic use in adult heritage speakers (HL speakers) of Spanish, with French as their dominant language. We conducted an exploratory case study using spontaneous production data from HL speakers of Spanish and first-generation Spanish immigrants living in Montreal, Canada. Data were collected through two guided production tasks, one oral and one written, to account for task-induced performance variations. Our analysis focused on clitic production, omission, function, optionality, and grammaticality. The findings reveal both similarities and differences compared to monolingual native Spanish speakers, highlighting a broad range of clitic structures produced by all participants and a potential tendency among HL speakers to favour fixed choices in optional structures. This study provides valuable insights into the production patterns of clitics in adult HL speakers of Spanish with French as their dominant language, contributing to our understanding of bilingual grammar. Full article

This study explores the motivation and attitudes of heritage speakers (HSs) of Spanish, focusing on the influence of their social networks. Previous research highlighted variations in HS motivation, attributed to social, cultural, and contextual factors. The study investigates how HS communities shape motivation and attitudes towards learning the heritage language (HL). Employing personal network analysis, the research surveyed 26 Spanish HSs in a Spanish heritage language program. Results revealed that HS networks primarily consisted of emotionally close family members. Positive and negative factors within these networks, such as language support, confidence, shame, and expectations, significantly influenced HS motivation and attitudes. Language attitudes within the network positively impacted individual attitudes, indicating a process of internalizing shared values. The study emphasizes the importance of considering the context surrounding HSs and suggests that addressing language expectations and fostering language support in communities may positively transform perceptions of Spanish in the United States. The findings underscore the effectiveness of a personal network approach in recreating the external environment beyond the language classroom. Full article

This case study examines overheard speech in a third-generation heritage Spanish Mexican family. It presents Spanish use longitudinally and describes overheard Spanish word use in interaction. Transcribed on CLAN to create a plurilingual corpus, ethnographic video data consisted of 24 h across three sampling periods, yielding nearly 30,000 Spanish, English, and language mixed utterances. Quantitative analyses indicate strong Spanish use in the first sample, before dropping. Qualitative descriptions show the third-generation target-child’s attunement to overheard Spanish, and her agency to use Spanish. Overheard input helps her use Spanish words, influencing her social encounters. This paper examines what we coded as overheard input in heritage language acquisition and socialization research. The language practices of one multigenerational Mexican family in California are explored, accounting for how their language practices in multiparty interaction co-create meaning, and how they help a third-generation child use Spanish words grounded in daily experiences. The findings contribute to the discussion of bilingualism in general and definitions of heritage bilingualism in particular. The results underscore the understudied role of overhead speech produced by a diversity of multigenerational family members and word learning. Participation frameworks are dynamically constructed by all participants as permeable, inclusive, and engage the children’s use of inherited bilingual and bicultural practices, suggesting that heritage bilingualism is not just about abstract grammar. Full article

Why is learning the gender of nouns so difficult for some bilinguals? We test the hypothesis that different language learning backgrounds or life experience with Spanish determine how learners follow different morphosyntactic cues for gender assignment in Spanish by testing learners with early and late language experience in an experiment with invented nouns. A total of 44 monolingually raised native speakers, 44 heritage speakers, and 44 L2 learners of Spanish were trained to learn 24 nonce words in Spanish presented in four input conditions that manipulated the number and type of cues to gender marking (determiner, word marker, adjective). After the learning sessions, the participants completed a word naming task, an elicited production task, and a debriefing questionnaire. The L2 learners were different than native speakers and heritage speakers in learning nonce nouns. They used morphosyntactic cues differently, relying on adjectives as their most-used strategy to assign gender, unlike native speakers and heritage speakers who used all cues. Our findings confirm processing differences between L2 learners and heritage speakers and suggest language learning background determines how learners discover reliable morphosyntactic cues to the gender of nouns in the input. Full article