The Requests in the Spanish Language Class: a Comparative Study between Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners.

Abstract

This study analyzes the influence of English in the requests of heritage learners of Spanish and learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Differences between the two groups were not significant, however, the results show that heritage learners tend to distinguish the level of directness of the head and the frequency of downgraders in formal and informal scenarios. On the other hand, their production, as their L2 counterparts, is more in line with the tendency in English to employ indirect strategies. One of the reasons that heritage learners experience differences between recognition and production activities could be their limited formal instruction in Spanish language. This fact prevents us from seeing the differences between both participants´ interlanguages and poses the question about the different pedagogical implications for both types of students.