Second language acquisition welcomes the heritage language learner: opportunities of a new field

With increasing recent changes in immigration and demographic patterns, the face of the traditional second language (L2) classroom in Spanish and the less commonly taught languages has changed dramatically in the Western World. In addition to serving typical L2 learners, these classes have recently had to accommodate an increasing number of heritage language learners. But just who are these heritage language learners? What linguistic knowledge do they bring to the classroom? And how do they differ from typical L2 learners? In this review article, I evaluate three recent books that address these questions and introduce issues relevant to the emerging field of heritage language acquisition. I argue that the heritage speaker population is very relevant for second language acquisition research because it allows us to address fundamental theoretical debates in our field from a different perspective, including debates on the role of age, input and environment, language transfer, linguistic mechanisms and the type of linguistic knowledge acquired before and after a critical period. I conclude by identifying promising avenues for research with heritage speakers and learners.