Spanish and German as heritage and majority languages in early multilingual acquisition: family language policies and other child-external factors for heritage language competence

Abstract

ABSTRACT The successful acquisition of a heritage language (HL) has been the focus of much of the research on early bi-, tri- and multilingualism in the last years, since it is this language which is generally delimited within the family environment and finds less continuity outside this context once the multilingual child starts socialising in the community (language). Our study contributes to this research by analyzing Spanish and German as HL or majority languages (MaL) and the children’s (receptive) linguistic competence from 86 multilingual children recruited in Germany and Spain (mean age 57.5 months). With the aid of a linguistic background questionnaire, Family Language Policies (FLP), presence/absence of HL in the family, institution and community for 50 of these children were examined. Our study shows that, in early multilingual acquisition, Spanish and German are acquired similarly when enjoying community support, on the one hand, or when being acquired as heritage languages, on the one hand. In these early years, the chosen FLP seems to have an impact on HL-competence, yet up to age 5;0. Other factors, such as the presence of the HL in the institution, act as useful pillars for promoting HL-competence, yet its presence in the family becomes decisive.