Find in Library

After critically discussing the concept of Heritage Language and considering the relationship between that concept and others designating the relationship individuals maintain with their languages, we will present the research project "Images of Portuguese (language, teaching and learning)". This project aims at detecting and analysing images of Portuguese and the practices used in its teaching and learning worldwide (whether it is a Mother Tongue, a Foreign Language or a Heritage Language), in different contexts. In this study, we will present and discuss the social representations “luso-descendent speaker” children living in Germany possess. These social representations were collected through drawings in the Portuguese Heritage Language classroom, under the instruction “draw yourself while speaking the languages you know”. The results allow us to determine and to discuss the linguistic and socio-affective profiles of these children as well as to present some implications in terms of Heritage Language Education when related to multilingual approaches to languages and cultures.