Bilingual but not biliterate: the literacy of heritage language learners
Date
2022
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Heritage language learners are individuals who grew up in homes where a nondominant societal language is spoken but received formal educational instruction in the dominant societal language. In the United States, any familial language spoken at home that is not English is considered a heritage language. Schools struggle to accommodate the needs of this growing heritage language population, resulting in a persistent disparity between heritage language learners and monolingual speakers. However, little research attention has been dedicated to understanding heritage language learners' literacy development and how their heritage language impacts acquisition of first and second languages and literacy skills. This dissertation investigated the behavioral and neurobiological impact of heritage language learner status on reading, writing, and the reading-writing relation. In the first study, I examined the influence of speaking a heritage language on adult heritage language learners' second language (English) reading, writing, and the reading-writing relation. Structural equation models indicated that heritage language learner status did not affect English reading, writing, and reading-writing relations. In addition, heritage language proficiency and use also had limited influences on adult heritage language learners' reading and writing in their dominant language. However, reading and spelling were found to be related regardless of heritage language learner status. In the second study, I investigated the reading-writing relations within and across heritage language learners' heritage and second languages during childhood. Linear regressions revealed that reading and writing were positively predictive of each other in children's heritage and second languages. This suggested that reading and writing mutually influence each other in both languages. However, the only cross-language relation observed was that of second language writing predicted heritage language reading. As such, child heritage language learners' literacy in their heritage language may have a limited influence on their dominant language literacy, likely due to the lower performance in heritage language literacy. In the third study, I examined the influence of children's heritage language on the intrinsic functional connectivity of their neurobiological reading network and the association between the network and children's second language (English) literacy. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis indicated that speaking a heritage language altered the intrinsic functional connectivity of the reading network and its relation with children's English reading. Heritage language learners were found to rely upon a more distributed reading network than monolingual children. Together, these dissertation studies contribute to our understanding of how speaking a heritage language is linked to individuals' literacy development in first and second languages. The results of the studies have potentially important implications for educational and parental practices, as well as bilingual theories.
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Keywords
Heritage languages, Heritage language learners, Behavior, Neurobiological impacts, Second language, Monolingual speakers