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14 - Language Attrition and Heritage Language Reversal in Returnees

from Part I - Heritage Languages around the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2021

By
Cristina Flores  and
Neal Snape
Edited by
Silvina Montrul  and
Maria Polinsky
Silvina Montrul
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Maria Polinsky
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
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Summary

The present chapter provides an overview of the main questions investigated in research on bilingual returnees. Returnees are second/third generation speakers who grow up in a migration setting and move back to their families’ country of origin at a certain moment of their life. On the one hand, research on returnees focuses on dominant language attrition, i.e., on the linguistic changes that affect the previous societal language after moving to the homeland. On the other hand, it targets L1/HL development after immersion in the L1/HL environment and possible outcomes of heritage language reversal. In addition to the focus on language development, we discuss the pedagogical and sociological implications of return to the country of origin, which go hand in hand with changes to the returnee’s language competence.

Keywords

consolidation of linguistic knowledgedominant language attritionheritage language developmentheritage language reversalremigrationreturneetransnationalism

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Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics , pp. 351 - 372
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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