CFP: CHINESE AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE: A RESEARCH MONOGRAPH

[Scott G. McGINNIS]

Call for Contributions to
A Research Monograph on Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL)

Chinese is now the third most common spoken language at home 
in the US (after English and Spanish).  The learning of 
Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) at all levels and sites 
is on the increase, and the trend will continue.  In the 
meantime, while research on Heritage Language is coming of 
age (e.g., Brecht & Ingold 1998; Brinton & Kagan, in press; 
Colombi & Roca, 2003; Lee & Shin, in press; Kondo-Brown, in 
press; Krashen, Tse, & McQuillian, 1998; Lynch, 2003; 
Peyton, Ranard, & McGinnis, 2001; Valdés, 2005; Wiley & 
Valdes, 2000), substantive publications on CHL are 
conspicuously lacking.  The proposed monograph aims to put 
together a collection of exploratory, pioneering research on 
CHL to (1) lay a foundation for ideas, theories, models, 
master scripts to be discussed, critiqued, debated, and 
developed for CHL and (2) stimulate research and dialog both 
within and beyond Chinese language education.

We cordially invite colleagues to join us in addressing the 
following broad areas:

I. Research on CHL as a set of language skills – the 
development of reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, 
accent, interactional strategies, character recognition, 
technology-assisted literacy, etc.
II. Research on CHL as a resource for developing specific, 
multiple and fluid discourse patterns, cultural values, 
identities and communities -- the linguistic, interactional, 
socio-cultural, cognitive characteristics of the CHL 
learner, the multiple communicative worlds which s/he 
inhabits, code-mixing/switching, discourse processes in 
class and at home, motivation, attitudes, etc.
III. Research that theorizes or models CHL development – 
what are the routes and rates of CHL learning?  What are the 
variables?  What is the optimal path for CHL acquisition/ 
maintenance? Whether and how is CHL learning different from 
CFL learning or mother tongue learning?

Submitted work should be informed by bodies of disciplinary 
knowledge (e.g., developmental psychology, formal and 
functional linguistics, linguistic and cultural 
anthropology, discourse analysis, (second) language 
acquisition, bilingualism).  Ideally, it should also address 
the ways in which the work may contribute to the very 
disciplines which have served as theoretical or 
methodological guidance for CHL research in terms of 
fundamental theoretical constructs, research methods, units 
of analysis, etc.

We welcome research from a variety of methodological 
backgrounds, both qualitative and quantitative, including 
correlational approaches, survey research, case studies, 
enthographic research, interactional studies, experimental 
research, and multi-site multi-method research.

Interested colleagues please send the following to 
Agnes.He at sunysb.edu and yun at asianlan.umass.edu :

Name
Institutional affiliation
Contact information
A descriptive title of the proposed chapter A 150-word 
synopsis of the proposed chapter

Kindly reply by:  March 31, 2006

Cordially,

Agnes Weiyun He, SUNY-Stony Brook, Primary Editor 
Yun Xiao, U MASS, Secondary Editor

Consulting Team
Duanduan Li, University of British Columbia 
Scott McGinnis, Defense Language Institute 
Hongyin Tao, UCLA 
Shuhan Wang, Delaware Department of Education