In L1 attrition research, it's recognized that a previously acquired language can transform under the influence of a newly acquired one. However, the precise L1-L2 relationship is intricate and warrants further study. Some research suggest that L2 mastery might reduce L1 proficiency, while others show that both languages can be maintained. Age of…

The present paper evaluates the processes of reading acquisition in Latin from the component-skills approach and discusses how advances in reading in modern foreign languages could be adapted to the specific needs of Latin as a historical language. Compared to the holistic and socially embedded approaches to modern foreign language acquisition,…

Paradis' (2023) keynote article is a timely documentation of the ongoing shift in focus within childhood bilingualism research from investigating the factors that modulate majority or second language (ML/L2) attainment (Chondrogianni & Marinis, 2011) to understanding the sources of variation that lead to minority heritage language (HL)…

The study of family language policy has emerged as a significant domain for multilingual development, language maintenance and cultural continuity. Family Language Policy seeks to connect the studies of child language acquisition with the field of language policy research in its approach to understand language maintenance and shift among different…

Siblings play crucial roles in each other's cognitive and language development because they observe, imitate, and receive guidance and support from each other during their interactions. In this research, we examined trilingual siblings (ages 6 and 9) from an immigrant family with a rarely explored cultural background (American-born children of…

This paper reports on an exploratory qualitative investigation of the discourses of plurilingual children's parents, with a view to developing an understanding of their family language policy. Drawing loosely on Spolsky [2004. "Language Policy." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], family language policy was conceptualised as having…

Heritage languages (HLs) are acquired in contexts of unbalanced input, or situations in which children receive primary exposure to the family/HL and experience an abrupt shift after the child begins formal schooling. As a consequence, HL speakers normally become more dominant in the environmental language, while the development of the HL is…

This study addresses the question of how the main factors related to input--including the environment in which children are exposed to both languages, the relative timing of the onset of the exposure to them and the amount of input--affect bilingual language acquisition at primary-school age. We examined the data of 42 German Polish bilinguals who…

Attempts to prevent language endangerment seem to have overlooked how families proceed in surrendering the language whose intergenerational transmission is their main responsibility. The present paper envisages language maintenance or loss from the vantage point that beliefs about language are the main referents of language use in the family in…

The present study examines a family language transmission project in which a child, learning Polish in Australia, created video documentaries with her own voice annotations in Polish. The project generated numerous parent-child interactions at the time of videorecording, a focus of the present study. The data in the study were seven…

This longitudinal study examined the development of narrative micro- and macrostructure in Japanese-English bilingual returnee children. Returnees are children of immigrant families who move to a foreign country, spending a significant portion of their formative developmental years in the foreign majority language context before returning to their…

Mixed-ethnic children in Japan do not usually acquire the language of their non-Japanese parent. This study looks at their lost opportunity to acquire their minority parent's language through a retrospective investigation of their language experiences from childhood to young adulthood. Transcripts of interviews with ten mixed-ethnic children (ages…

By adopting a tripartite FLP framework, this study aims to explore the agentive role of Polish-speaking fathers in heritage language maintenance. At the outset, it should be noted that as the theme of paternal agency has not been given much prominence in research, this paper delves into how Polish fathers of heteronormative families endeavour to…

The paper describes the transformational role technology plays in the management and transmission of heritage (minority) languages (HL) in two UK-based multilingual families. Data were collected in the form of a language background survey, parental interviews, and recordings of interactional events within the home. Findings suggest that parents…

Immersion programs have long been considered the gold standard for school-based language revitalization, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to the quantity and quality of the input that they provide to young language learners. Drawing on new data from three such programs (Kaqchikel, Western Subanon, and Maori), each with its own…