Home Variation in Spanish heritage speakers’ bilingualism and cognition
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Variation in Spanish heritage speakers’ bilingualism and cognition

  • Catherine A. Stafford EMAIL logo and Clara S. Azevedo
Published/Copyright: August 25, 2015

Abstract

The variation that characterizes bilinguals and bilingualism is perhaps even more prominent when it comes to bilinguals who are heritage speakers of one of their languages. This variation is highly influential over the course of a lifetime in shaping and reshaping bilingual cognition, which we understand to be at once socially and individually embedded and guided. We first summarize some of the qualities that distinguish bilingual cognition from monolingual cognition. We then consider heritage speakers as a particular profile of bilingual, and discuss how variation that is specific to heritage speakers’ bilingual experience influences cognition across the lifespan.

References

Abutalebi, Jubin & David W. Green. 2008. Control mechanisms in bilingual language production: Neural evidence from language switching studies. Journal of Neurolinguistics 20. 242–275.10.1080/01690960801920602Search in Google Scholar

Adesope, Olusola O., Tracy Lavin, Terri Thompson & Charles Ungerleider. 2010. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. Review of Educational Research 80. 207–245.10.3102/0034654310368803Search in Google Scholar

Baum, Shari & Debra Titone. 2014. Moving toward a neuroplasticity view of bilingualism, executive control, and aging. Applied Psycholinguistics 35. 857–894.10.1017/S0142716414000174Search in Google Scholar

Bialystok, Ellen. 2007. Acquisition of literacy in bilingual children: A framework for research. Language Learning 57. 45–77.10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00412.xSearch in Google Scholar

Bialystok, Ellen, Fergus I. M. Craik & Morris Freedman. 2007. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia 45. 459–464.10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.10.009Search in Google Scholar

Carreira, María. 2004. Seeking explanatory adequacy: A dual-approach to understanding the term “Heritage Language Learner”. Heritage Language Journal 2. 1–25.10.46538/hlj.2.1.1Search in Google Scholar

Cummins, James. 1979. Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research 49. 222–251.10.3102/00346543049002222Search in Google Scholar

de Groot, Annette M. B. 2011. Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals: An introduction. New York: Psychology Press.10.4324/9780203841228Search in Google Scholar

Feinauer, Erika, Kendra Hall-Kenyon & Kimberlee C. Davison. 2013. Cross-language transfer of early literacy skills: An examination of young learners in a two-way bilingual immersion elementary school. Reading Psychology 34. 436–460.10.1080/02702711.2012.658142Search in Google Scholar

Gathercole, Virginia C. 2002. Monolingual and bilingual acquisition: Learning different treatments of that-trace phenomena in English and Spanish. In D. Kimbrough Oller & Rebecca E. Eilers (eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children, 220–254. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853595721-011Search in Google Scholar

Grosjean, François. 2001. The bilingual’s language modes. In Janet Nicol (ed.), One mind two languages, 1–22. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Hakuta, Kenji & Daniel D’Andrea. 1992. Some properties of bilingual maintenance and loss in Mexican background high-school students. Applied Linguistics 13. 72–99.10.1093/applin/13.1.72Search in Google Scholar

Luk, Gigi, John A. E. Anderson, Fergus I. M. Craik, Cheryl Grady & Ellen Bialystok. 2010. Distinct neural correlates for two types of inhibition in bilinguals: Response inhibition versus interference suppression. Brain and Cognition 74. 347–357.10.1016/j.bandc.2010.09.004Search in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen M. 2007. The weaker language in early child bilingualism: Acquiring a first language as a second language? Applied Psycholinguistics 28. 495–514.10.1017/S0142716407070270Search in Google Scholar

Montrul, Silvina. 2008. Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sibil.39Search in Google Scholar

Montrul, Silvina. 2013. Bilingualism and the heritage language speaker. In Tej K. Bhatia & William C. Ritchie (eds.), The handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism, 168–189. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.10.1002/9781118332382.ch7Search in Google Scholar

Paris, Scott G. 2005. Reinterpreting the development of reading skills. Reading Research Quarterly 40(2). 184–202.10.1598/RRQ.40.2.3Search in Google Scholar

Poplack, Shana. 1980. ‘Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en Español:’ Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics 18. 518–618.10.4324/9781003060406-24Search in Google Scholar

Poplack, Shana. 1981. The syntactic structure and social function of code-switching. In Richard P. Durán (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Search in Google Scholar

Yip, Virginia & Stephen Matthews. 2007. The bilingual child: Early development and language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511620744Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2015-8-25
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

Downloaded on 16.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/shll-2015-0018/html
Scroll to top button