Abstract

TICONA MAMANI, Elías  and  MARKOVITS ROJAS, Jennifer. Influence of Aymara as a Heritage Language on Spanish Acquired as a Second Language: An Exploratory Analysis of Languages in Contact for the Enrichment of an Intercultural Curriculum. Rev. latinoam. estud. educ. [online]. 2023, vol.53, n.3, pp.49-70.  Epub Oct 06, 2023. ISSN 2448-878X.  https://doi.org/10.48102/rlee.2023.53.3.583.

The current work aims to identify the heritage language’s influence on the dominant language or second language (L2) in Aymara heritage speakers in the north of Chile. The definition of heritage speakers (HH) refers to a linguistic profile that acquires the first or heritage language (LH) in a community where the LH is a minority language. Then, after an initial exposure to the LH language, the speaker acquires the L2 language, generally when accessing the educational system. 22 bilingual heritage Aymara-Spanish students from the 7-13 age range participated in a 4-session didactic proposal based on the biliteracy model, which had as a final task a written bilingual production. The analysis of the final task showed the presence of the Aymara lexicon in the narrations, as well as the presence of Spanish syntax and morphology influenced by Aymara syntax and morphology, concluding that there is a constant interaction between two linguistic systems, relevant knowledge for planning and development of a bilingual-intercultural curriculum.

Keywords : heritage speakers; Aymara language; Spanish as a second language; bilingualism; biliteracy.