We can get a more revealing view of language use by focusing on the informal domain, the use of language in the family and among friends. Table 2 presents two studies that investigate this, one done with Hispanic high school students in their senior year (Garcia and Diaz, 1992) and a second done with Vietnamese speaking children in elementary and middle school (Nguyen, Shin and Krashen, 2001). Both show that HL use is higher with parents, less with siblings, and even less with peers (see also Wong-Fillmore, 1991, for similar results).

Table 2.
Informal Use of the Heritage Language

Senior yr HS: from Garcia and Diaz, 1992
Elementary, Middle school: Nguyen et .al., 1991

An interesting question is the developmental path of such differences. It is reasonable to hypothesize that use of HL with parents is fairly consistent over time, as is the preference for the use of English with friends. Use with siblings might change over time. (The higher use of the HL with siblings in the Garcia and Diaz study in table 2 is probably a result of the high level of use of the HL in the community (Miami)).

Competence

HL competence declines with age. The clearest evidence for this are studies that test HL speakers at two different points in time and studies that compare HL competence with competence in the majority language.

2