Language is a powerful expression of culture and identity, shaping how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Within the American educational system and the workforce, individuals who grew up in non-English speaking households are often assumed to have similar language proficiency. However, despite the shared characteristic of growing up listening to family speak in another language, there are several distinctions between heritage speakers and native speakers.
This article will explore the characteristics, experiences, and competencies of heritage vs. native speakers. It will also cover the implications of these differences for language instruction and for employers of diverse, multilingual populations. Ultimately, understanding these differences sheds light on the complexities of language acquisition, cultural identity, and the diverse roles language plays in society.
What is a Heritage Speaker?
A heritage speaker is an individual who grows up in a household where a minority or heritage language is the primary language spoken.
For example, a child born in the United States to parents who immigrated from Mexico is likely to be immersed in Spanish at home, though they might go on to complete the entirety of their formal education in English.
Thus, unlike native speakers who acquire a language from birth in a natural environment, heritage speakers typically acquire the language informally through family interactions, community settings, or cultural immersion. The term “heritage speaker” emphasizes the cultural inheritance aspect of language acquisition, highlighting the transmission of linguistic and cultural traditions across generations within immigrant or diaspora communities.
What is a Native Speaker?
In contrast to a heritage speaker, a native speaker is an individual who acquires a language naturally from birth within the dominant linguistic group of their environment and speaks and understands it fluently.
For example, a person that immigrated to the United States from Japan as a teenager would be considered a native speaker of Japanese. Similarly, a child of Arabic-speaking parents who grows up in the United States would be a native English speaker (because this is the dominant language of the society in which he or she grows up) and a heritage Arabic speaker (because this is the language spoken at home and potentially in other parts of the community).
Native speakers develop their language skills through immersion in everyday interactions with family members, peers, and the broader community, absorbing grammar, vocabulary, and cultural nuances effortlessly as they grow. They are also generally educated in the language of their community, thus developing reading and writing skills and overall higher proficiency than a heritage language learner might.
The term “native speaker” emphasizes the inherent connection between language and cultural identity, as language becomes an integral part of the individual’s personal and cultural identity from an early age.
Similarities Between Heritage Speakers and Native Speakers
While heritage language speakers and native speakers have distinct experiences, both groups generally take pride in their linguistic and cultural heritage, fostering a sense of belonging and identity within their communities. They also both contribute to the dynamic evolution of language through everyday usage, adapting to societal changes and technological advancements. Finally, both groups play pivotal roles in language preservation and revitalization efforts, ensuring the continuity of linguistic traditions across generations.
Challenges Faced by Heritage Speakers
Heritage speakers are individuals who have learned a language from their family but have received most of their educational instruction in a different language. Despite high levels of exposure to the language, they mostly develop speaking and listening skills in a conversational context and may lack exposure to academic dialects of the language. Heritage speakers thus tend to have strong conversational skills but may have limited ability to communicate about subjects that are more niche or technical and may struggle with reading and writing in their heritage language. Additionally, balancing multiple cultural identities and linguistic fluencies can lead to feelings of disconnect from their heritage and dominant cultures. Heritage speakers may have negative self-esteem and self-perception related to their reduced language proficiency.
Despite these challenges, heritage speakers play a vital role in preserving cultural heritage and linguistic diversity, often advocating for greater recognition and support for minority languages within their communities and educational institutions.
Challenges Faced by Native Speakers
Native speakers who grow up in monolingual environments may have limited exposure to other languages, which can impact their ability to communicate effectively in a globalized world. For example, native Spanish speakers who move to the United States may struggle to keep up with classroom instruction or form close bonds within English-speaking communities.
Additionally, maintaining language proficiency over time can be challenging as native speakers may prioritize the dominant language of the new region or country in everyday life.
Native speakers who emigrate to other countries may also struggle to find employment opportunities due to factors such as limited knowledge of the new dominant language and cultural or accent discrimination in the workplace.
Benefits of Being a Heritage Speaker
Heritage speakers gain cognitive advantages from using two languages at an early age, enhancing skills like multitasking, problem-solving, and creative thinking. Additionally, proficiency in both a heritage language and the dominant language opens doors to career opportunities in fields such as international business, translation, interpretation, and diplomacy, where bilingual skills are highly valued.
Bilingual culture enriches the perspective of heritage speakers, allowing them to effectively navigate multicultural environments with cross-cultural understanding. By embracing their heritage language, these speakers not only preserve their cultural identity but also contribute to fostering cultural diversity in society, making them valuable assets in globalized and multicultural workplaces.
Implications for Language Instruction
School systems rarely have explicit systems dedicated to differentiating where along the language learning continuum their native speakers, heritage speakers, and L2 learners (e.g., a second-language learner, such as an English-speaking student in Oklahoma who studies German throughout middle and high school) fall.
Understanding that there are some general patterns in terms of proficiency in the areas of speaking, listening, reading, and writing across these three types of language learners can lead to a more nuanced approach to placing students in classes that are at the right difficulty level for them and adapting language curriculum and instruction to better serve students with a variety of needs and abilities.
Instructional Strategies for Heritage Speakers
Heritage language learners may present as conversationally fluent but are likely to vary widely in their literacy skills. Offering a wide range of books in the classroom can help to differentiate instruction and provide opportunities for growth.
Heritage speakers are also likely to vary in their ability to engage in more complex speaking tasks, such as giving a presentation on a scientific topic. Thus, non-conversational vocabulary and more formal grammatical forms should be explicitly taught.
Instructional Strategies for Native Speakers
Native speakers with literacy skills at grade level may find heritage speaker classes too easy, while those with lower literacy skills may benefit from working on literacy skills in their native language. Additionally, a native speaker with a lower English level (e.g., a new arrival from a Spanish-speaking country) may benefit from being in a Spanish language class to help them adjust and make friends in the United States.
Embracing the Complexity of Language Identity
It’s important to note that the distinction between native and heritage speakers is not always clear-cut, as individuals may have varied life experiences that don’t easily slot them into one category or another. For example, a student who immigrated to the United States at age eight will have received some literacy instruction in their native language but, after a few years, may demonstrate superior literacy skills in English.
Understanding the complexity of language identity and not extrapolating about skill sets (e.g., not assuming that a student who is conversationally fluent will also have strong literacy skills or be able to discuss more complex topics) will ensure a more tailored and holistic approach to language instruction.
Fostering Inclusive Language Instruction
Educating students on the distinction between native and heritage speakers can help to reduce language shyness and encourage language learning. Addressing the elephant in the room by acknowledging the diversity of linguistic backgrounds in the class and providing explicit information to normalize discrepancies that often occur in language ability across skills (e.g., reading, writing, speaking, and listening) and in accordance with life experiences can help to create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.
Implications for Employers
It’s important for employers of multicultural organizations to recognize that language proficiency occurs along a spectrum.
Where the unique skill sets of bilingual employees are being utilized within the workplace, language proficiency testing is highly encouraged. It’s important to differentiate between conversational proficiency and the more technical proficiency that may be necessary for a wide range of tasks, from providing medical or legal information to leading a meeting or presentation utilizing industry-specific jargon to providing safety information on a flight. Alta provides industry-specific language proficiency testing in more than 100+ languages, which you can learn more about here.
Where the talents of bilingual employees are utilized in the workplace, it’s also important to recognize their unique skill sets and the benefits they provide to organizations. Across industries, bilingual pay differentials are being implemented to recognize and compensate individuals for their valuable language skills, which can help enhance customer satisfaction, improve market reach, and much more. You can read more about the benefits of bilingual pay differentials here and begin creating a plan for implementing your own bilingual pay differential here.
Conclusion
Heritage speakers and native speakers embody distinct yet complementary facets of language diversity and cultural richness. Their experiences underscore the profound impact of language on identity formation, community cohesion, and global interconnectedness.
By acknowledging and celebrating these diverse linguistic identities, societies can foster inclusive environments where language skills and cultural heritage thrive harmoniously. Embracing the differences between heritage and native speakers enriches our understanding of language as a dynamic and integral aspect of human experience, transcending geographical boundaries and connecting individuals across cultures.
Janet Barrow holds a B.A. in Written Arts from Bard College and a Master of Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Sydney. She works as a pediatric speech pathologist and freelance writer and is currently finishing her first novel.