The Next Phase in Heritage Language Studies: Methodological Considerations and Advancements

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Background

Over the past three decades studies investigating heritage speaker (HS) linguistic competencies have shown, time and again that, despite being L1 or 2L1 native speakers of their home language(s), HS outcomes display variation across a wide spectrum of differences as compared to each other, other types of bilinguals as well as their monolingual peers. Studies have traditionally used—mostly behavioral—methodologies rooted in adjacent established fields (e.g., L1 acquisition, adult L2 acquisition) offering, in addition to documenting and describing HS performance, important insights for linguistic theory and challenges related to (home/minority) language maintenance, contact, policy and more. A birds-eye view makes it clear that the methodologies one uses to tap into HSs’ linguistic knowledge areas, if not more, are important than the phenomena under investigation, especially in light of how their unique experiences with their heritage and other languages are present across a continuum.

The linguistic realities of HSs—which can dynamically shift across the lifespan—naturally require experimental designs that are carefully appropriated to capture the granularity with the greatest precision while neutralizing and/or circumventing the challenges these realities pose on competencies outcome (measurement). More recent studies have started doing exactly that at three main and interrelated fronts: (i) shifting away from the traditional HS vs non-HS (monolingual, L2) comparisons (e.g., comparing different HS groups to each other) to understand HL grammars in their own right; (ii) unpacking the multidimensional relationship between HSs’ sociolinguistic networks and their linguistic competence (i.e. regressing experience-based variables within the same HS group to capture and understand individual differences); and (iii) employing online processing methods (e.g., eye-tracking and EEG/ERP), which, in not relying on judgment or accuracy measures, might be in a better position to sidestep confounding variables in assessing linguistic competence in these bilinguals. It is with those in mind that this special issue aims to bring together methodological innovations and advancements— online methods with the capacity to capture automatic language reflexes/indices of processing. The working idea is that doing so can be particularly useful in uncovering and modeling the underlying mental system of HL grammatical development and outcomes as well as the role and potential weighting of individual HL experiential differences in shaping and maintaining HL grammars. The studies in this volume, both individually and collectively, will play a key contributory role in determining the future of how we study heritage language bilingualism.

We welcome original research articles reporting on relevant primary and unpublished data, Methods articles that present a new or established method, protocol, or technique that is of significant interest for application in HS bilingualism studies, and/or perspective papers.

The scope of the Research Topic focuses on heritage language bilingualism related to the acquisition and processing of all domains of language (e.g. syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, the lexicon, discourse/pragmatics, and their interfaces). We particularly welcome the following topics (but are not limited to):

- Neuro/psycholinguistic studies of heritage language processing using online methods (e.g., self-paced reading or listening, eye tracking, EGG, or other neuroimaging techniques).
- Individual differences studies of heritage language grammar by examining the multidimensional relationship between linguistic knowledge/processing and language experience.
- Longitudinal or (large-scale) cross-sectional studies that go beyond monolingual vs. bilingual comparison and attempt to capture the development of the heritage language and/or what variables underlie individual differences in any given HS group.

Keywords: Bilingualism, heritage speaker, online methods, individual variation, language experience

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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