Heritage language

A heritage language is a minority language (either immigrant or indigenous) learned by its speakers at home as children, and difficult to be fully developed because of insufficient input from the social environment. The speakers grow up with a different dominant language in which they become more competent.^[1] Polinsky and Kagan label it as a continuum (taken from Valdés definition^[2] of heritage language) that ranges from fluent speakers to barely speaking individuals of the home language. In some countries or cultures which determine a person's mother tongue by the ethnic group they belong to, a heritage language would be linked to the native language.^[3]

The term can also refer to the language of a person's family or community that the person does not speak or understand, but identifies with culturally.^[4]^[5]

^ Valdés, G. 2000. The teaching of heritage languages: an introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals. The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures, Olga Kagan and Benjamin Rifkin (eds.), 375–403.
^ Valdés, G. 2000
^ Polinsky & Kagan (2007)
^ Valdés (2005)
^ Kelleher (2010)

[1] Valdés, G. 2000. The teaching of heritage languages: an introduction for Slavic-teaching professionals. The learning and teaching of Slavic languages and cultures, Olga Kagan and Benjamin Rifkin (eds.), 375–403.

[2] Valdés, G. 2000

[Polinsky_2007-3] Polinsky & Kagan (2007)

[Valdés_2005-4] Valdés (2005)

[Kelleher_2010-5] Kelleher (2010)

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