What is a Heritage Language?

It is a minority language. It is used within a speaker’s household, and is different from the dominant societal language. Heritage speakers do not speak their first language like native speakers of the same language. But they are also distinct from second language learners who learn the same language as adults!

Our lab investigates these differences!

Why Heritage Languages?

Cal State Fullerton is located in Orange County, California, which is home to a rich diversity of immigrant populations.  Wherever immigrant languages are spoken at home and a majority language elsewhere, heritage languages will emerge.

Our Current Investigation

Our lab is currently looking at the morphosyntactic encoding of politeness of heritage Spanish speakers in Southern California!