Open Access Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 9 Issue 1 - Special Issue: Heritage languages and socialization: the case of Spanish; Guest Editors: Francisco Moreno-Fernández and Óscar Loureda Lamas

Issue of Journal of World Languages

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available March 24, 2023

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Editorial

Open Access January 18, 2023

Heritage languages and socialization: an introduction

Francisco Moreno-Fernández, Óscar Loureda Lamas

Page range: 1-14

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Research Articles

Open Access December 28, 2022

Some remarks on Spanish in the bilingual world

Maria Polinsky

Page range: 15-26

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Abstract

The core goal of this article consists of raising new questions about the status of Spanish in bilingual contexts. The starting point is that we observe tremendous variance in the repertoire, competence, and use of Spanish by bilinguals across the globe: from very fluent bilinguals to subtractive bilinguals (also known as heritage speakers) to overhearers, who heard Spanish in the background growing up but did not actively speak it. Setting the overhearer type aside, I contend that the other types of bilinguals meet the criteria for native speakerhood, which is nowadays understood in a more flexible and nuanced way than in more traditional variants of sociolinguistics. The discussion centers around the issues of the baseline (the language that serves as input to the bilingual upbringing), minimal exposure required for the acquisition of a language as a native one, and sociolinguistic models that allow for discontinuity in a given language community.

Open Access January 16, 2023

Spanish as a heritage language in Europe: a demolinguistic perspective

Óscar Loureda Lamas, Francisco Moreno-Fernández, Héctor Álvarez Mella

Page range: 27-46

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Abstract

This paper offers an estimation of the number of Spanish speakers in Europe in order to analyze the demographic dynamics according to their migratory backgrounds. This demolinguistic approach allows us to quantify this group of Spanish heritage speakers and outline their demographic and linguistic profiles. Through analyzing specific family, social, educational, and geographic settings, this paper identifies a heterogeneous group of 1.7 million Spanish heritage speakers. Moreover, we discuss the social dynamics involved in the intergenerational transmission of the Spanish language in different contexts: spaces in which Spanish is an official language and in which different geographic varieties coexist, and spaces beyond the national borders of predominantly Spanish-speaking countries. In the latter, the demolinguistic analysis suggests that barely a third have been linguistically socialized in environments favorable to the intergenerational transmission of the Spanish language.

Open Access January 13, 2023

Family expectations towards Spanish language maintenance and heritage language programs in Germany

Héctor Álvarez Mella, Charlotte Blattner, Ana Gómez-Pavón Durán

Page range: 47-67

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Abstract

Family and educational institutions are the main centers of socialization in heritage language. Beyond the communicative and learning dynamics that take place in both environments, linguistic socialization also depends to a large extent on the relationship of families with educational spaces. The aim of this paper is to discuss families’ expectations regarding the intergenerational transmission of Spanish and to explore their attitudes towards heritage language and educational programs in Germany. For this purpose, the results of an exploratory study based on surveys will be presented to compare the main arguments justifying Spanish-speaking families’ decision to include heritage language courses or bilingual education spaces in their family language management in the German context. The analysis of the perception of families and their attitudes shows that the positive valuation of the family and instrumental dimension of heritage language influence families to include bilingual programs or heritage language classes in their family language management.

Open Access February 3, 2023

Migrant language and identity in the Spanish-speaking community in Israel

Marcela Fritzler

Page range: 68-88

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Abstract

Spanish has a considerable presence in the socio-cultural mosaic of Israel, a country made up of ethnolinguistic communities from different parts of the world. However, language policy has not always integrated the study of languages as a source of interculturality. This paper summarizes the results of the first stage of a broader investigation into the linguistic practices and strategies developed by Spanish-speaking families to acquire and preserve the migrant language, as a way of transmitting the heritage, identity and culture of the country of origin in the face of the influence of the majority language, Hebrew. To this end, individual interviews were conducted to record specific data on the Spanish-speaking community and, particularly, the presence of Spanish as a vehicular language through the identification of sociocultural references among families who arrived under the Law of Return and include members who are 15 years of age or younger. The surveys reflect that the interest and affective need to preserve the language are main motivators in these Spanish-speaking families. These conclusions served as a basis for in the afore-mentioned group were considered relevant conclusions within the broad objectives of the larger project, which seeks to create a program of intergenerational activities to develop respectful bilingualism and strengthen the community of practice as a space to build the mutant puzzle between the inherited and acquired identity of children and youth.

Open Access January 17, 2023

The home–school connection, the development of Spanish repertoires, and the school adaptation process in Latino children: a dynamic ecological understanding

María Luisa Parra Velasco

Page range: 89-110

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Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to research and policy that supports Latino children in early education regarding their transition into the school system and their bilingual development. It presents the results of a one-year longitudinal ethnographic study of four Latino children starting school at a transitional bilingual kindergarten in the Boston area. The analysis identifies dynamics and trends at the micro and meso levels that show that Spanish use and development in Latino children cannot be fully understood and supported if we consider it an individual ability instead of an organic and intrinsic component of broader dynamic socialization, emotional, and academic processes (such as the transition to school) of which English is also a part and in which parents and teachers participate. Recommendations for designing and implementing comprehensive programs to engage Latino families and educators to support transitions, bilingual development, and academic performance in young Latino children are presented.

Open Access January 11, 2023

Heritage language socialization at work: Spanish in Miami

Andrew Lynch

Page range: 111-132

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Abstract

In recent decades, the increasingly blurred boundaries between work, home, and various other spheres of social life have brought greater complexity to the notion of the workplace. In many contemporary workplace environments in the U.S., the demand for Spanish is unequivocal and uncontested; in some areas, Spanish is a de facto requirement. Because U.S. Latinx bilinguals show a broad social preference for English and lack formal education in Spanish, they may feel challenged to meet workplace language demands in Spanish, particularly where specialized vocabulary or formal registers are concerned. Carried out in the highly dynamic bilingual context of Miami, this study posed the following questions: Do adult heritage speakers of Spanish in Miami – where a broad majority of the population speaks Spanish – appear to draw linguistic benefits from participation in the local labor market? Does this participation have the potential to curtail language loss? To answer these questions, semi-structured interviews were carried out with heritage speakers of Spanish in Miami. Their personal accounts of adult heritage language socialization suggest that Spanish use in the U.S. workplace is a highly situated, localized discourse practice that depends largely on the individuals involved. Despite the uncontested value of Spanish in Miami and the demand to speak it in most workplace settings, conscious choice to do so remains with the individual. The participants’ related experiences reveal the importance of speaker agency and manifest the potential of workplace environments to engender more positive orientations toward Spanish as well as active use of the language during adulthood.

Open Access January 18, 2023

Identity, language socialization, and family language policies in dialect contact: the case of Argentinean immigrants in Malaga, Spain

María Clara von Essen

Page range: 133-160

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Abstract

This paper explores from a qualitative and quantitative approach, the complex interactions between second dialect accommodation or acquisition, language socialization, ideologies, family language policies, and identity, among Argentinean immigrants living in Malaga, Spain ( n = 72). We found that family language policies – and more specifically mothers’ language policies and their stances towards both varieties in contact – shape their children’s development, connect with their formal school success, determine D1 maintenance, and even affect identity projection. We also found discrepancies between conservative family language policies and linguistic production: what families try to do with language does not always match their own linguistic performance. Through the analysis of different language components – phonological, morpho-syntactic, and lexical – we conclude that linguistic accommodation or second dialect acquisition does not always follow a linear path to assimilation, but it is related to early stages of exposure and formal education in the D2 community (optimal age acquisition period), takes place to improve mutual intelligibility, derives from both unconscious and conscious decisions to change D1, and allows speakers to showcase different identities through accommodation or divergence.

Book Review

Open Access February 24, 2023

Silvina Montrul & Maria Polinsky (eds.). The Cambridge handbook of heritage languages and linguistics; Kim Potowski (ed.). The Routledge handbook of Spanish as a heritage language

Charlotte Blattner, Ana Gómez-Pavón Durán

Page range: 161-164

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About this journal

Objective

Journal of World Languages is an international, peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal that explores the roles, functions and structures of languages in the world. Special attention is given to studies of languages in the fields of ecolinguistics (including the Haugenian Tradition and the Hallidayan Tradition), systemic functional linguistics, critical/positive/multimodal/ecological discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, pragmatics, linguistic typology, linguistic anthropology and philosophy of language.

Topics

functions of language
functional semantics
functional syntax
language and context
language and culture
critical/positive/multimodal/ecological discourse analysis
dialects
language contact
language and environment
language policy and planning
language and technology
language and society
communication
systemic functional studies
cognitive studies
corpus linguistic studies
linguistics and translation studies
linguistic typological studies
linguistic anthropological studies
linguistic philosophical studies

Article Formats

Research Articles
Book Reviews

Journal of World Languages continues the tradition of special issues focused on topics of current interest. Prospective editors of special issues are very welcome to inquire the Editor-in-Chief Wei He (francesweihe@bfsu.edu.cn) concerning their proposals.

Recently published Special Issues

New directions of systemic functional linguistics; Guest Editors: Yanmei Gao and Jonathan J. Webster
Practical applications of ecolinguistics; Guest Editors: Meng Huat Chau and George M. Jacobs
Ecostylistics: Texts, methodologies and approaches; Guest Editor: Daniela Francesca Virdis
Heritage languages and socialization: the case of Spanish; Guest Editors: Francisco Moreno-Fernández and Óscar Loureda Lamas