Introduction to the special issue – Heritage language studies and early child bilingualism research: Understanding the connection

Abstract

This issue is the result of a colloquium with the same title organized at the ISB 10 conference at Rutgers, USA, in May 2015. All the presenters, the discussant and one additional colleague have contributed to this collection of articles, which brings together linguists from the domain of heritage studies with those working on early child bilingualism (ECB). A language qualifies as a heritage language (HL) if ‘it is a language spoken at home or otherwise readily available to young children, and crucially this language is not the dominant language of the larger (national) society’ (Rothman, 2009, p. 156). HLs are learned early in life, either simultaneously with the dominant language or prior to the acquisition of the dominant language of the country; heritage speakers (HSs) are thus early bilinguals. There is, however, a gap between linguists studying ECB and linguists studying HSs. Linguists working on ECB mainly look at the early development of both languages in children growing up bilingually from birth or shortly afterwards and tend to report on similar developmental patterns in monolingual and bilingual children, and on (temporary) delay, acceleration or cross-linguistic influence in this development, mostly in Western Europe and Canada (De Houwer, 1990; Meisel, 1990; Paradis & Genesee, 1996). Linguists studying HSs, on the other hand, mainly look at young adults’ competence in their HL and tend to focus on signs of incomplete acquisition, mostly in the USA (Benmamoun, Montrul, & Polinsky 2013; Montrul, 2008; Polinsky, 2006). This special issue brings together linguists from both fields to find out how to make the connection: to what extent can we observe similarities in the reported results on child bilinguals and HSs and to what extent do we observe differences? What motivates these similarities and differences? The contributions in this special issue all shed light on the comparison and thereby create new questions. We will briefly discuss some general factors that may influence different outcomes of early bilingualism over the lifespan (see also Hulk & Marinis, 2011).