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Workshop: Heritage Language Acquisition

Heritage Language Acquisition: Breaking New Ground in Methodology and Domains of Inquiry

When: September 19th-20th, 2016
Where: Tromsø, Norway

NEW: Final program (with links to slides!)
NEW: Practical information

The LAVA research group (Language Acquisition, Variation and Attrition) at UiT the Arctic University of Norway is pleased to announce the workshop Heritage Language Acquisition: Breaking New Ground in Methodology and Domains of Inquiry, to be held in Tromsø September 19-20, 2016. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers from around the world who work on heritage language (HL) acquisition and processing from any theoretical linguistic perspective. All work pertaining to HL development in childhood, the documentation and explanation of HL ultimate attainment in adulthood and HL processing at any age is welcome. Given that the leitmotifs of the workshop are innovations in (i) methodology and (ii) domains of inquiry, we are especially interested in submissions that employ or discuss:

  • cross-sectional and/or longitudinal methodology seeking to chart HL deve­lop­mental trajectories over time.
  • behavioral and/or neurolinguistic studies of heritage language processing.
  • methodological issues in heritage language research; e.g. what is and is not appropriate for empirical methodologies with (subgroups of) heritage speakers and why.
  • the role that L1 attrition plays in heritage language outcomes—whether this be grammatical changes in individual heritage speaker grammars over time or links to changes to input heritage speakers hear as a result of L1 attrition in the generation of speakers who provide their input.
  • the understudied domains of HL phonological development and ultimate attainment.
  • the role that variation in input—quantity, quality, variety—plays and how this can be modelled and documented.
  • foreign language acquisition by heritage speakers.
  • the role that literacy and formal instruction plays—whether in(re)-learning of the standard variety of the heritage language via formal instruction in adulthood or early access to HL literacy/formal education in childhood.

Keynote speakers
Professor Janne Bondi Johannessen (MultiLing, University of Oslo)
Professor Maria Polinsky (University of Maryland)
Associate professor Mike Putnam (Penn State University)
Professor Monika Schmid (University of Essex)
Dr. Álvaro Villegas (University of Central Florida)

The deadline for submissions is June 1st, 2016. You may submit an abstract for consideration as a paper, poster or both. Please indicate in your submission if you would like to be considered as a paper or poster only; all others will be automatically considered for both. Abstract submissions must fit on one A4 page, written in Times New Roman script, 12 point font. A second, optional page can be used for references, charts/tables of data and for examples of experimental methodology only. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed. We endeavour to inform authors of the outcome of peer review by June 17th. A limited number of travel grants will be provided to the highest rated PhD and Masters student abstracts. Please indicate in your submission if you are eligible and would like to be considered for a graduate student travel bursary. NEW: Information about travel grants.

Registration (deadline September 1): https://egencia.qondor.com/workshop2016

Abstract submisson (deadline June 1): http://linguistlist.org/easyabs/heritage2016

Organizers
Kristin M. Eide (NTNU),
Jorge González Alonso (UiT),
Tanja Kupisch (Konstanz, UiT)
Terje Lohndal (NTNU, UiT)
Jason Rothman (Reading, UiT)
Bror-Magnus Sviland Strand (UiT)
Marit Westergaard (UiT, NTNU)

Contact e-mail: heritage2016@list.uit.no

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