Project 1:
Charting bilingual language acquisition
in child Heritage speakers of SPANISH
In this project, I examine the linguistic development of 40+ Spanish/English bilingual children (ages 4;0-11;0) enrolled in two types of programs: 1) dual language immersion and 2) English-only classrooms. Their development and acquisition of grammatical notions such as gender, number, aspect, and mood is analyzed cross-sectionally (grades Pre-K-2nd grade) as well as longitudinally (2 year period) in both their heritage language (Spanish) and English.
A. Mood selection in child heritage bilinguals.
This study includes two different investigations that analyze the cross-sectional as well as longitudinal development of obligatory and variable subjunctive mood selection in a group of 28 child HSs of Spanish (6 four-year-olds (4;3-4;11), 8 five-year-olds (5;0-5;10), 6 six-year-olds (6;2-6;11) and 8 seven-year-olds (7;1-7;10). |
B. Exploring the use of present progressive by child HS of Spanish.
In this sub-project, I explore the patterns of development observed in child HS in their use of Spanish and English present progressive tense. Cross-linguistic comparisons and patterns of language use are analyzed across a sample of more than 40 children (4;0-8;0). |