An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Spanish Immersion Education on the Acquisition of Pronominal Subjects in Child Heritage Speakers

Michele Goldin

doi:10.3390/languages5020018

Abstract

Studies have found that aspects of grammar that lie at the syntax–pragmatics interface, such as the use of pronominal subjects in null-subject languages, are likely to undergo cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of Spanish immersion academic instruction on the comprehension of null subjects in English-dominant, Spanish-heritage children living in the United States. Two groups of bilingual children aged 4 to 7 (those attending a Spanish immersion school and those not) completed an acceptability judgment task in both English and Spanish. English monolingual children and monolingually raised Spanish children of the same ages also completed the task in their respective languages. The findings revealed that children in the Spanish immersion school performed on par with their monolingual peers in Spanish, but accepted significantly more ungrammatical null subjects in English than the other groups. These results suggest that immersion schooling plays a role in extending the English null subject stage in bilingual children due to competing input and cross-linguistic influence.

Highlights

Heritage bilingual children have been shown to undergo differential language development patterns and to display divergent outcomes to monolingual children and to dominant bilinguals in non-heritage contexts
This study is concerned with the effect of input in the form of academic instruction on the development of grammar in Spanish heritage children living in the United States
Considering the evidence that points to the differential acquisition of referential subjects in null-subject languages, that fall at the syntax–pragmatics interface in language contact situations, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of input factors, academic instruction, in the bilingual language development of heritage children

Summary

Introduction

Heritage bilingual children have been shown to undergo differential language development patterns and to display divergent outcomes to monolingual children and to dominant bilinguals in non-heritage contexts. Heritage speakers are raised in homes where a non-majority language is spoken (Valdés 2000). As they acquire and use their languages for different purposes, in different contexts and with different people, heritage language children are rarely proficient in both languages because input and domains of use play a significant role in bilingual linguistic development Our aim is to understand the impact of immersion schooling, an environment that provides greater and richer input availability of the heritage language, on the acceptability of null subjects in Spanish for heritage speakers, and to explore any differences between bilingual and monolingual children’s acceptability of null subjects in English

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