It is a language other than the official one(s) in a community, and it is spoken in the family. Children learn it from their parent(s). For example, if a family lives in Toronto, Mom speaks Russian, Dad speaks Hebrew, and most people outside the family speak English, then Russian and Hebrew are the heritage languages for the children in this family. People who hear a heritage language since their childhood vary a lot in how well they know it: from being completely fluent to understanding just a handful of words. We believe that children can and should learn their heritage language(s), and we are here to help.
We offer language classes for bilingual/multilingual children, and various ways of teaching parents to help children in mastering all their languages. Teaching a heritage language is different both from teaching a foreign language and from teaching an only native language, and we base our methods on what science knows about bilingual and multilingual development in childhood. What parents do for their children language learning is vitally important, and this is why we provide workshops, courses and consultations for parents.
Receptive bilinguals again
Spoiler: just asking a receptive bilingual to speak the language is not very helpful Read More ›
