The transmission of Spanish as a heritage language in Australia

Abstract

Although the terms ‘heritage speakers’ and ‘heritage languages’ are relatively new, the phenomena themselves date back to the beginning of migration. In many situations heritage languages do not survive these changes, but in others they are maintained successfully. This research explores the individual factors that promote the maintenance of Spanish as a heritage language in Australia. To achieve this, we preselected the most relevant individual factors found in the literature, that were then included in a questionnaire that reflected the research questions of this study and was distributed online. Participants in this study were 27 adult Australian heritage speakers who were either born in Australia or have lived in Australia since childhood. The results suggest / indicate that the preselected individual factors: the feeling of identification with the heritage language, the motivation to speak the heritage language, and the prestige that is given to Spanish by both the parents and the heritage speakers correlate statistically with the maintenance of Spanish as a heritage language.