Heritage speakers
Guide for mothers, fathers and caregivers of children with a heritage language
In this guide:
Theory, studies and research on heritage languages
Myths and facts about heritage languages and bilingualism
Benefits of promoting the heritage language in our children
Tips for fostering the heritage language in the family
What is a heritage language?
The languages that bilingual people from immigrant communities or ethnic minorities speak can be split into two categories: dominant languages and heritage languages.
A dominant language is the language spoken by the majority in the territory where these speakers live. For example, for a Polish family living in the United States or a Spanish-speaking family living in the UK, English is likely to be the dominant language. For a family of Russian origin living in Japan, Japanese is likely to be the dominant one.
So what about the languages of their original culture? These are called ‘heritage languages’ — a term that has recently been adopted in research papers and publications. It’s also not uncommon for these to be referred to as a “minority language”, “community language” or “home language”. (Kelleher, 2015).
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to be using the term ‘heritage language’.
Who is this guide for?
This is a guide for adults who speak a heritage language, for professionals who work with heritage language speakers (in educational, social or medical settings) and, above all, for mothers, fathers and caregivers of children and young people who have a heritage language.
These children may have been born in the country where the heritage language is spoken and then have moved to the country where the dominant language is spoken. These children, therefore, may have been exposed to the heritage language both in the home or in an educational setting — depending on how old they were when they moved.
These children could also have been born in the country of the dominant language and only be exposed to the heritage language at home not in an educational setting. For example, a friend of mine has a nephew and niece who were both born in Turkey and speak Turkish at school and out of the house but the heritage language English at home with their mother.
In this guide you will find information about heritage language and tips or strategies to promote it.
Who am I to give you advice?
My name is Katerine. The first language variety I learned was Spanish from the Dominican Republic, however my dominant language variety is now European Spanish — because I lived in Spain for 16 years. I also speak European Portuguese and British English. I am the mother of two heritage language speakers and interact with lots of heritage language speakers daily.
Beyond my passion and personal relationship with heritage languages and bilingualism, I have a degree in linguistics from the University of Alcalá de Henares and a master’s degree, also in linguistics, from UNED, in Spain. I have also taken many courses, attended conferences, and read many books and research papers on language acquisition, bilingualism, heritage languages and other areas of linguistics.
At the end of this guide you will find a list of resources that can help you further explore the world of heritage languages and bilingualism and that can help you develop more strategies than the ones I tell you about here.
Theory, studies and research on heritage languages
There are currently almost 8 billion people on the planet. It is estimated that 60% are bilingual or multilingual.
Migratory movements have existed since the beginning of humanity, and in the most recent centuries these movements have grown exponentially. Trading routes, conquests, and war were major contributors throughout history and now information, transportation, and of course — the internet, have made this even more impactful in the modern day.
These movements encourage contact between languages and generate situations of bilingualism to the point that no language can really be thought of as ‘original’ anymore. Languages grow as people move throughout time and history.
In a migrant family where there is a heritage language, the three-generation model can be seen surprisingly often and accurately:
- The first generation is that of people born in the country of origin. They moved to the country or place of destination, but are native and proficient speakers of the heritage language.
- The second generation is that of those born in the country of destination to immigrant parents (those in the first generation). They may speak the heritage language, but their dominant language is the one that is also dominant in the destination country.
- The third generation is that of the grandchildren of the first immigrants in the family. They are to a greater or lesser extent monolingual in the dominant language (Boon et al., 2015).
For example, a Spanish-speaking couple moving to the United Kingdom is first generation: both people are native Spanish speakers. Their children, born or raised in the United Kingdom, are the second generation: they speak Spanish with varying fluency, depending on the exposure they had, but their dominant language is English. Their children (the first generation’s grandchildren) born in the United Kingdom, are the third generation: their names, perhaps, are of Hispanic origin, perhaps they like the music or the food of their grandparents and parents, but generally they only speak English and perhaps they know a few words or isolated expressions in Spanish.
All these people have a heritage language, Spanish in this example, and a dominant language in their environment from the moment the first generation arrives in the new country. But the people who are usually considered to be heritage language speakers are those of the second generation, because in the first generation we find those who speak the heritage language natively and in the third generation we find those who speak the dominant language natively.
Generally, when we talk about language proficiency, linguists have observed that each person falls on a specific point of a continuum of language skills. Those who speak two or more languages (bilingual or multilingual speakers) fall at different points on that continuum in each of the languages they speak. Those who speak a heritage language (typically the second generation), even when they are at the top of the continuum of language skills in the heritage language, show lower proficiency than someone who speaks that language natively. This is because the exposure will always be less when there is another dominant language. Formal education also has a huge influence on language learning, and in the case of these children, formal education happens fully or partially in the dominant language.
It is a strong, widespread and sometimes difficult trend to stop, but there is more and more research, initiatives and knowledge that help us, all of us, to challenge and change this trend.
For example, one study has documented and researched three educational programs in various states in the United States (Potowski, 2018):
- Monolingual program: 100% of the student’s education is done in English.
- Pseudo-bilingual program: 75% of the education is done in English and 25% in Spanish.
- Dual or immersive program: between 10% and 50% of education is done in English and between 50% and 90% in Spanish.
In all three programs, the study was carried out in schools with a diverse student body: students who speak Spanish at home and students who are monolingual in English — in all school subjects, such as mathematics, geography and others, not just English or Spanish.
The study sought to measure the level of competence and academic results in the dominant language (in this case, English) in each educational program. What is to be expected, if we are guided by the perception that many people have about bilingualism and minority languages, is that the students would have a better command of English in the monolingual program (100% in English).
Simply, if everything they hear, read and see is in English, their English proficiency should be better than that of students who are only exposed to English for 10–50% of the time they spend at school.
But the results of the study show different data. The immersive program, where between 50% and 90% of education is done in Spanish, is the one that consistently generates the best results in all subjects in the dominant language (reading comprehension in English, writing in English, mathematics in English, etc.) compared to the other two programs.
According to Potowski, the results are confirmed at all educational levels from primary to secondary education. They are also confirmed at all levels of cognitive abilities, such that students with autism, learning difficulties or emotional difficulties also achieve considerably higher results when their education is dual, with a greater presence of the second language.
In the particular case of people with autism, a study from the University of Edinburgh confirms that mastering two or more languages is also associated with a better quality of social life in adulthood, both when they have learned other languages as children or as adults, at school, in the family or self-taught (Digard et al., 2020; Davis et al., 2023).
In studies such as those of these three educational programs and many others, the worst results found show that students who learn in two languages have the same level of proficiency as those who study all subjects in only one language. In other words, the worst that can happen in an immersive educational program is that the academic results are exactly the same as in a monolingual program, with the benefit that the students learn a second language.
But what happens if we are not lucky enough to have an educational centre nearby where our little ones can access such a program? I will tell you about that in the section Tips to promote the heritage language in the family.
Myths and facts about heritage languages and bilingualism
There are many reasons why a family may choose not to teach or foster their children’s heritage language. We are going to explore these reasons and discuss some of the myths around this information.
If my child is learning a heritage language, they won’t pick up the dominant language as fast as the rest of their class.
In the words of Potowski, 2021: “There may be short periods during which the bilingual child appears to be behind their monolingual peers. But it is temporary. The bilingual child goes through the same stages of acquisition and arrives at the same place”
Therefore, a child who grows up learning two languages is building a more complex linguistic structure than someone who grows up learning only one language. It is normal that it takes a little longer to develop visible language skills, although in most cases it does not take longer, but the structure is much more robust and will allow them to advance better and faster in more advanced stages of their education and their life.
If my child learns the heritage language, they will get confused and speak the dominant language wrong or mix up the words.
If your child speaks Spanish at home and English outside of home, they might say things like these:
- I want to climb la escalera.
- I think Papi hizo eso.
- Vamos a hacer una playdate at my house.
And when they say this stuff, you might think “Oh no! I have to teach my child better English!”
This linguistic behaviour, called code switching, has been extensively researched. We know that it follows very specific rules, that it requires a high level of language skills in both languages, and that it is one of the signs of bilingualism. If your little one builds sentences by mixing two or more languages, that’s an excellent sign that they are learning those languages in a healthy and normal way (Gardner-Chloros, 2009).
No need to learn another language, everyone speaks English!
We can exchange English for other dominant languages such as Spanish or Chinese, although this expression is usually said by people who live in places where the dominant language is English and another language is spoken in the family.
Ethnologue, the language research centre, states that around 18% of the world population speak English either as a native language or as a second language. This means that approximately 82% of the world’s population does not speak English.
We tend to hear, see and read more about people who do speak English because it is the language most people choose when they want to learn a second language and because it is one of the most prominent languages in the Western world, which has strong representation in the media, in literature, in music, etc. But there are more people on the planet who don’t speak English than people who do.
English, and other dominant languages such as Chinese, Spanish or French, are useful languages. Learning them brings benefits, but learning, in addition, the family language or any other language increases those benefits. I’ll tell you more in Benefits of promoting the heritage language in our children.
If my little one speaks another language, they might be discriminated against.
Perhaps you have seen news about assaults and discrimination motivated by racist and ethnic prejudices. In some cases, the trigger for these attacks is language. This is what happened in Boston, United States, in 2020, when a mother and her daughter were attacked for speaking Spanish. In the resources at the end of this guide you will find a link with more news like this.
It is even possible that you have lived experiences like this.
Ideally, the people who commit these aggressions would be the focus of any initiative or advice that I might write here, because they are the ones who must do something not to commit these aggressions and to not let their prejudices negatively affect other people.
But since this guide is for you, not for those who attack, the best I can tell you is this. A heritage language connects the young person (and the adult) with their culture and helps to destigmatise bilingualism: proficiency in the dominant language will be better if they also learn the heritage language, and this will allow the child, especially when they grow, to choose which language to speak in each social situation. It also gives them a better idea of the value of speaking two or more languages, and greater cultural awareness, which can also help them identify and deal with discriminatory comments or actions in a better way.
This point is difficult, especially if we imagine our daughters and sons in a situation of violence or discrimination. But the truth is that language is only one of the aspects for which they can suffer discrimination. Not speaking the hereditary language does not guarantee that our little ones will never be discriminated against or attacked, because other things may be picked up on instead. Things like their name, the colour of their skin, their hair, their accent in the dominant language, the type of food that they take to school, the clothes they wear, the music they listen to…
For a racist person consumed by their own prejudices, there will always be something that justifies aggression or discriminatory comments. So what are we to do, change who we are? Absolutely not.
For our part, the best thing we can do is educate, raise awareness and empower our children in the value of having several languages and cultures.
Benefits of promoting the heritage language in our children
I’ve mentioned various benefits of speaking the heritage language at various points in this guide, but I’d like to collect them here and add a few that I haven’t mentioned.
Speaking a heritage language…
1. Encourages the development of better cognitive abilities, a greater capacity for learning and analysis, and better social relationships.
2. Allows fluency in the dominant language (English in the United States or the United Kingdom, Spanish in Spain) to be considerably greater and for the little one to achieve better academic results in the dominant language. So when we teach and encourage the use of the heritage language, the child will speak, read and write in two languages and will also achieve better academic and social results.
3. Helps to maintain emotional, family and cultural ties that, without the heritage language, would be impossible. Imagine the family members who live in the country of origin and who do not speak the dominant language. A very frequent profile is that of the grandparents who live in the country of origin, for example Nigeria, and only speak the heritage language, for example Yoruba; and the grandchild who was born in the United Kingdom, for example, and only speaks English. The grandparents could learn English, but the best thing for everyone would be for the grandchild to learn Yoruba. Not only to communicate with their grandparents, but also with the rest of the family and friends.
4. Is a way of delaying the onset of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia by up to ten years (Alladi et al., 2013).
5. Helps curb intergenerational loss, related to the three-generation model. This rule has both a personal and a global impact: every time we decide not to foster a heritage language in our family, apart from the personal impact of missing out those family links, we are subtracting a potentially large group of speakers to that language. And as generations pass, these languages can become extinct, as it has already happened with many languages throughout history and as it continues to happen every year (Wood, 2022).
6. Allows the little one to access more social contexts such as educational settings, different groups of friends and jobs, and more content such as books, movies, music or theatre. It is a tool that we can give them and that can help them open many doors, in many cases crucial for a fulfilled adult life.
7. Allows the child to live in their parents’ country of origin if the family decides to return. Geographic mobility or migratory movements continue to dominate our society and it is possible that the family that once migrated returns to the country of origin. When this happens, having facilitated the learning of the heritage language will make that transition much easier. Or perhaps the child, as an adult, decides to live in a country where the heritage language is spoken, and having learned it will also ease that transition.
8. Allows the child to learn other languages more easily. When a brain has gone through the process of learning two languages and communicating in both, it creates strategies and spaces that make learning more languages considerably easier than when they are monolingual. Having a solid knowledge and command of the heritage language facilitates the transition from bilingualism to multilingualism.
9. Facilitates social inclusion and integration when applied to people who are native speakers of the dominant language. When a person who speaks the dominant language learns one of the heritage languages of the country in which they live, as a foreign language, it is very likely that this will change their perception and their prejudices towards speakers of other languages and members of other communities in the country. It is not a direct benefit for our little ones, but the more people learn other languages, the more likely they are to see the value of bilingualism and the less likely they are to act violently or unfairly towards our children. It is an indirect but very important benefit.
Tips for fostering the heritage language in the family
So how can we encourage the learning of the heritage language in our children? If you have access to an educational setting where there is a language immersion program, especially if the main language is your family’s heritage language, I recommend that you explore this option. But most likely you won’t have such an option, so here are some ideas and tips for fostering the heritage language within the family:
1. Speak the heritage language with your children as much as possible. In all the family and social contexts that you can. There may be some resistance, especially if the little ones are a little older or if only one of the parents speaks the heritage language, but we are the ones who have the most influence in promoting the heritage language, so it is crucial to be consistent and firm in this point. This piece of advice is the most important, the one that entails the most work and is also the one that could have the most impact.
2. Give a positive view of the heritage language and culture. In the family, it is important to value and offer information about the heritage language and culture in a positive way. Using and talking about expressions you like, words you use, different ways of saying things in different areas where the language is spoken, cooking and eating things from the country of origin, talking about the places you know, where you were born or grew up, etc. These are all highly important to cultivating an interest in your children’s culture.
3. Provide opportunities for exposure to the heritage language. This could be in books, music, playing games with friends or relatives who only speak the heritage language, and letting them participate in conversations to practice their heritage language. Consume digital content in the heritage language. If you watch TV at home, or use digital content platforms (YouTube, Netflix, etc.), try to ensure that the profiles are always in the heritage language. If you watch a movie or a series and it is available in that language, it is best to prioritise this option.
4. Seek supplementary education in the heritage language. A supplementary school or after-school classes in the heritage language are ways of building a community around the child and giving them resources that they are unlikely to get in the family or in formal schooling, such as reading, writing or speaking about science or mathematics in the heritage language. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, there are networks of supplementary schools for various heritage languages such as Spanish, Arabic, French or Portuguese (in the resources section you will find a link to learn more about supplementary Spanish schools in the United Kingdom). But the situation is different in each country. Search the internet for information on supplementary schools, classes for native speakers of your heritage language, play groups for speakers of your heritage language, etc. Or you can even create one yourself. If you know other families that speak your language, you can create your own community where you can do activities together, watch movies or simply meet up to eat, chat and let the little ones play, talk and socialise in the heritage language.
5. Celebrate children’s achievements, however small, and be patient. Speaking and writing in the heritage language is much more difficult than understanding it. The two abilities may progress at slightly different rates. So it’s critical to highlight and celebrate achievements and to gloss over mistakes without dwelling on them. The pressure and the thought that they are not doing it well can make them lose the motivation to use the heritage language.
6. Don’t make fun of their accent, mistakes, or language mix. These are all signs that the child is learning the language well and laughing or teasing them only puts obstacles in the learning process, making it unlikely that the child will want to continue learning.
7. Start promoting heritage language today — it’s never too late. If your child is a little older or is already a teenager and you are thinking that it’s already too late to do all this and that it will be impossible for them to learn the heritage language — this is not true. Research tells us that achieving proficiency in a second language, heritage or not, is possible even when we start learning it later in life, and that it depends on the quantity and quality of language exposure. Also, starting to promote the heritage language when your child is 10, 14 or 18 years old is better than never promoting it at all. If their knowledge of the heritage language ends up limited to reading short sentences, singing a few songs or saying the names of the foods they like, this is better than knowing nothing. So don’t be discouraged: you’ve got this.
Resources
Books and articles
Alladi, S.; Bak, TH; Duggirala, V.; Surampudi, B.; Shailaja, M.; Shukla, AK; Chaudhuri, DM & Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 8, 1938–1944. https://n.neurology.org/content/81/22/1938.short
Boon, Erin & Polinsky, Maria. (2015). From silence to speech: The empowerment of heritage language speakers in the 21st century. Observatory Reports / Observatory Reports. 10.15427/OR007–01/2015SP. https://cervantesobservatory.fas.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/007_silence_mp_reports_0.pdf
Davis, R., Rabagliati, H., Montgomery, L., Sorace, A., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2023). Measuring the relationship between bilingual exposure and social attentional preferences in autistic children. Languages, 8(1), 1–18. [27]. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010027
Digard, B. G., Sorace, A., Stanfield, A., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2020). Bilingualism in autism: Language learning profiles and social experiences. Autism, 24(8), 2166–2177. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320937845
Gardner-Chloros, P. (2009). Code-switching. Cambridge University Press.
Kelleher, A. (2010). What is a heritage language? Heritage Briefs. Heritage languages in America. Center for Applied Linguistics. University of California, Davis Press. https://www.cal.org/heritage/pdfs/briefs/What-is-a-Heritage-Language.pdf
Potowski, K. (ed.) (2018). Handbook of Spanish as a heritage language. Routledge.
Potowski, K. [Instituto Cervantes Manchester] (2021). No child left monolingual [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdtSm9FvcfY
Wood, J. (2022). 1,500 endangered languages could disappear by the end of the century. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/languages-endangered-diversity-loss-spoken/
Websites and other digital resources
Supplementary Spanish schools in the United Kingdom: https://www.facebook.com/nuestraescuelareinounido/
Website with information and resources to understand and promote bilingualism: https://www.bilingualism-matters.org/
Collection of cases of attacks and discrimination for linguistic reasons: https://www.potowski.org/blog/linguistic-repression-in-the-usa
Benefits of learning another language: https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022/04/29/learning-language-changes-your-brain/
Additional resources, collated by Professor Kim Potowski: https://www.potowski.org/resources
