Third Workshop on Immigrant Languages in America to be held at Penn State in September 2012

The Third Workshop on Immigrant Languages in America will take place September 27-29, 2012, at Penn State University. This year’s workshop will focus on heritage languages. In the aftermath of immigration, new generations often speak “heritage languages”, a notion Rothman (2009) defines this way: “A language qualifies as a heritage language if it is a language spoken at home or otherwise readily available to young children, and crucially this language is not a dominant language of the larger (national) society.” Heritage languages have only recently become a major topic of interest among linguists, explored for their implications for linguistic theory, especially in terms of acquisition, attrition and change. This workshop aims to promote discussion of heritage languages across different languages, subfields and theoretical persuasions.For more information visit the conference website:http://www.psu.edu/dept/heritagelangs/index.htm