Doctoral Dissertation Research: How flexible are grammars past puberty? Evidence from heritage language returnees

这个博士论文项目解决了理解语言习得的核心问题：青春期后语法的灵活性和可塑性有多大？年龄效应在语言习得文献中早已被讨论过。有些人认为，如果在人生后期(青春期之后)开始习得一门语言，母语人士是不可能获得一门语言的。对遗产语言习得的研究为这场争论提供了一个新的视角。说传统语言的人从出生起就在家中学习少数民族语言，在社区中使用大多数语言的环境中。由于在社会成长过程中广泛使用多数语言，讲遗产的人与他们的少数民族(遗产)语言互动的机会往往较少，在传统语言中获得的语言输入总体上也比本国典型的发展中的单一语言发言者少。因此，在他们的传统语言的几个特性中，非母语的获得是很常见的。这被视为证据表明，早期习得是获得类似土著的成就的一个必要但不充分的因素，因为早年在传统语言中接受的语言输入也起到了作用。这项研究考察了年龄和输入因素在语言习得过程和最终成就中的交互作用。研究人员将两种不同移民背景下的传承人与青春期或成年后返回原籍国的传承人进行了比较。将返回者使用其以前的遗产语言的语言能力与东道国讲遗产的人的语言能力进行比较，可以了解如果说遗产的人在返回本国后完全沉浸在遗产语言中，青春期前被中断的习得是否会导致与当地人一样的获得。我们还调查了情景因素(例如，与前多数民族语言的地位和接触、社会经济地位、教育概况)是否对海归遗产语言的发展程度和速度起到了作用。为此，本研究从受试者那里获得了产出和语言判断数据。该项目的成果有助于编写关于说少数族裔语言的儿童和成人的语言特性和语言自尊以及他们重新融入其母语和文化的有限文献。这些发现还为遗产语言教学和遗产演讲者的教材设计提供了教学干预。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project addresses a fundamental issue at the heart of understanding language acquisition: how flexible and malleable are grammars after puberty? Age effects have long been discussed in the language acquisition literature. Some have argued that native speaker attainment of a language is impossible if acquisition starts later in life (after puberty). Research on heritage language acquisition provides a new perspective on this debate. Heritage speakers acquire a minority language at home from birth in a setting where the majority language is spoken in the community. Due to the extensive use of the majority language in the society growing up, heritage speakers often have fewer opportunities to interact with their minority (heritage) language and receive overall less linguistic input in the heritage language than a typically developing monolingual speaker in the home country. As a result, non-native-like attainment in several properties of their heritage language is common. This has been taken as evidence that early age of acquisition is a necessary but not a sufficient factor for native-like attainment because linguistic input received in the heritage language in early years plays a role as well. This study examines how age and input factors interact in language acquisition processes and in ultimate attainment.The investigators compare heritage speakers across two different immigrant contexts to returnees who have returned to their country of origin in their adolescence or adult years. Comparing the linguistic abilities of returnees in their former heritage language to that of heritage speakers in the host country informs whether interrupted acquisition before puberty can result in nativelike attainment if heritage speakers become fully immersed in the heritage language after returning to the home country. We also investigate whether the situational factors (e.g., status of and contact with the former majority language, socio-economic status, educational profile) play a role in the degree and speed of development of the heritage language in returnees. To this end, the study obtains production and linguistic judgment data from participants. The results of this project contributes to the limited literature on language identity and linguistic self-esteem in child and adult speakers of a minority language and their reinsertion in their native language and culture. The findings also inform pedagogical interventions in heritage language teaching and the design of teaching materials for heritage speakers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.