Panel 2.1. Assessment: Measuring Success

Moderator: Claire Hitchins Chik (University of California, Los Angeles)

Assessing Variability in Heritage Bilingual Outcomes: The Role of Subjective/Objective Proficiency Measures and Language-Experience Factors

• Alicia Luque (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
• Bernard Issa (University of Tennessee at Knoxville)
• Mandy Faretta-Stutenberg (Northern Illinois University)
• Harriet Bowden (University of Tennessee at Knoxville)

The current study aims to examine the ecological validity and reliability of different proficiency measures and language-experience factors to assess variability in heritage bilingual outcomes.

Learning and Teaching: Assessments for Chinese Heritage Language Learners

• Min-Min Liang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

In this presentation, the speaker will showcase three different formats of assessments that focus on speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in a Chinese heritage language classroom.These formats will help students to recognize their untapped potential, to utilize their funds of knowledge and motivate them to be active learners.

Assessing Skills in Brazilian Portuguese: An Exploration of Practices in Community-based Schools

• Gláucia Silva (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)

This exploratory study discusses assessment practices in several Brazilian community-based schools in the United States. The practices explored include placement and learner progress during and at the end of the academic year. Results reveal that there is much variation regarding assessment practices. The paper closes with suggestions of assessment tools.

Panel 2.2. Teaching and Learning Russian Grammar

Moderator: Sanja Lacan (University of California, Los Angeles)

What Can Spelling Errors Tell Us about Heritage Language Learners’ Linguistic Knowledge? A Focus on Russian

• Olesya Kisselev (University of Texas at San Antonio)
• Irina Dubinina (Brandeis University)
• Veronika Egorova (Harvard University)
• Galina Paquette (Wellesley College)

The presentation reports on the results of an exploratory study investigating spelling proficiency in Russian HL learners (with English as the dominant language). We present the orthographic error taxonomy based on the probable causes of deviation (phonological, morphological, and conventional) and discuss how the types of orthographic deviations correlate with overall language proficiency.

The Acquisition of the Left Branch Extraction by Bilingual Russian Children

• Pasha Koval (University of Connecticut; New York University Abu Dhabi)
• Alex Lu'u (Brandeis University)
• Ruth Rosenblum (Brandeis University)
• Sophia Malamud (Brandeis University)

This paper discusses the acquisition trajectory of the Left Branch Extraction (LBE) in bilingual and monolingual Russian children. We analyzed a corpus of longitudinal recordings of spontaneous child and child-directed speech. Using the growth curve analysis we argue that bilinguals and monolinguals acquire the LBE in the same way.

Effects of Cross-Linguistic Influence and Input in Heritage Russian Speakers with Typologically Distinct Societal Languages

• Clara Fridman (Bar Ilan University)
• Maria Polinsky (University of Maryland)
• Natalia Meir (Bar Ilan University)

This presentation considers the effects of Cross-linguistic Influence (CLI) and Input on the Heritage Language (HL) development of two groups of early bilingual adults with typologically distinct Societal Languages (SLs). In a study of morphosyntactic phenomena in HL Russian in contact with Hebrew and English, we only find effects of CLI, not input. These effects are only prevalent in low-proficiency HL speakers.

Panel 2.3. Family and Heritage Language Maintenance

Moderator: Thuba Nguyen (University of California, Los Angeles)

“It Just Comes Out Natural”: Heritage Bilinguals’ Testimonies on their Family Language Policies in Southern California

• Melanie Santamaria (University of California, Irvine)
• Julio Torres (University of California, Irvine)
• Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo (University of Puerto Rico)

This qualitative study examined the effects of family language policies on college-aged Spanish-English heritage bilinguals’ family language practices as well as their attitudes and ideologies towards their multi-/bilingual experience living in Southern California. Findings are based on three data sources: an open-ended questionnaire, focus group discussions, and family interaction recordings.

[CANCELLED] Waves of Migration and Language Maintenance: The Case of Russian in Greater Los Angeles

• Susan Kresin (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Dante Matero (Columbia University)
• Susan Bauckus (University of California, Los Angeles)

This paper will present the result of interviews and surveys of Generation 1, 1.5 and 2 speakers of Russian in the Greater Los Angeles area, conducted in 2019-2020, and compare trends of language. transmission and maintenance across the three most recent waves of Russian speakers migrating to the Greater Los Angeles area.

Emotion, Heritage Language Maintenance, and Family Language Policy: An Ethnographic Case Study of a Trilingual Family

• Rosiane Barcelos de Oliveira (University of Massachusetts, Boston)

The study takes an ethnographic approach to investigate the interplay of emotions, identities, and relationships and heritage language maintenance practices in one trilingual family (Portuguese, Spanish, and English), by focusing on the language and literacy socialization practices they engage in their community, and when they visit extended family in Brazil.