Path and rate of development in child heritage speakers: Evidence from Greek subject/object form and placement
Daskalaki,, E.; Chondrogianni, V.; Blom, Elma
(2023) International Journal of Bilingualism, volume 27, issue 5, pp. 634 - 662
(Article)
Abstract
Aims: We investigated: (1) whether differences in accuracy between heritage speakers (HS) and monolingual speakers (MS) signal differences in the path or merely in the rate of language development, and (2) whether, independently of these differences, HS become more accurate as they grow older. Methods: Using an elicitation task, we
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collected data from three groups of speakers of Greek: HS in the United States and Canada (78–226 months), MS of the same age (77–177 months), and younger MS (42–69 months). In terms of structures, we focused on two phenomena that are encoded differently in Greek and English: subject/object form in reference maintenance contexts and subject placement in embedded wh-dependencies. Data and Analysis: Data were analyzed with mixed-effects logistic regression models. Findings: We found that the heritage group had a lower accuracy and produced different error patterns than both monolingual groups. Specifically, only the heritage group produced non-felicitous lexical subjects/objects in reference maintenance contexts and ungrammatical preverbal subjects in embedded wh-structures. Accuracy, though, increased with age. Furthermore, current amount of heritage language (HL) input and generation, which were included as covariates, emerged as significant predictors in some or all of the conditions. Originality: The inclusion of a younger monolingual group helped us determine whether the different patterns observed in the language of HS are also attested in the language of MS at earlier developmental stages. The inclusion of a wide age range helped us determine whether, independently of differences in the path/rate of development, HS become more accurate as they grow older and accumulate the necessary amount of HL input. Implications: HS may go through developmental stages not attested in L1 acquisition. However, differences in developmental stages do not necessarily entail differences in the outcome of language acquisition. HS’ accuracy may continue to increase, provided that they continue using their HL.
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Keywords: Greek, Heritage language acquisition, monolingual acquisition, path of development, rate of development, subject/object use, Taverne, Education, Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and Language
ISSN: 1367-0069
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Note: Funding Information: The authors also thank St. George’s Hellenic School of Edmonton, the Hellenic Community of Edmonton, St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Community of Regina, the Hellenic Community of Calgary, the Greek Orthodox Community of East Vancouver, the Academy of Hellenic Paideia & Hellenic Education and Language Programme in NYC. Many thanks to Eliana Kavgadoulis, Ermioni Papangeli, Evelina Koutsopoulou, Lito Alexaki, and Katerina Katehis for assisting with the data collection in Western Canada, NYC, and Greece. Finally, they are grateful to all the children and their parents for their participation and enthusiasm. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We thank the Killam Research Operating Fund (University of Alberta) and Advanced Research Collaborative Fellowship (City University of New York) for funding this project. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We thank the Killam Research Operating Fund (University of Alberta) and Advanced Research Collaborative Fellowship (City University of New York) for funding this project. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.
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