Research Interests

My research interests center around the development and experiences of linguistic minority populations in predominantly monolingual environments such as the U.S. These children and adults come from cultural backgrounds in which a heritage language (a language other than the mainstream or dominant language) is spoken. I am particularly interested in the following aspects of linguistic minority experiences:

Heritage Language Development, Maintenance, and Loss: Linguistic minority children often grow up speaking a heritage language at home while learning the mainstream language at school. One of my research interests is in better understanding linguistic minority children's bilingual language development; in particular, how the two languages develop in relation to one another, especially as children become exposed to the mainstream language in school. It is, in fact, common for linguistic minority children to start out speaking predominantly or exclusively in their heritage language, but lose proficiency in the language as they begin to learn English. In addition to better understanding how language development occurs in linguistic minority children, I am also working to identify the factors that are related to heritage language maintenance and loss in linguistic minority children and adolescents. Moreover, given the nearly inevitable loss of heritage languages in the U.S., I have also been studying the consequences of heritage language loss, especially for cultural identification in college students. I am also currently planning a study of the consequences of heritage language loss for family relationships and psychological well-being in linguistic minority adolescents and college students.

Adult Heritage Language Learners: As a result of the rapid loss of heritage languages, many linguistic minority adults find themselves with limited or no heritage language proficiency. Some decide to take language courses in their heritage language as adults. Because of the prior experiences they bring to the classroom, these heritage language learners have different language learning experiences from first-time adult learners without such prior experience. Another line of research I have been pursuing results from my interest in better understanding how these experiences might help adult heritage language learners. In one such line of research, I have been investigating how early experience with a language, even when limited to the early childhood years, may help the adult language learner. In particular, I have been studying whether, and how, these adults can later access their memory for a childhood language to help them (re)learn the language as adults. In this research, we have consistently found benefits of childhood exposure to a language. We are now extending this line of research to look at how other background variables play a part in the success of adult heritage language learners. I have been studying the role of sociocultural variables such a feeling of belonging to the heritage culture and current use of the language in the success of adult heritage language learners, in order to eventually develop a sociocultural model of heritage language learning.