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Research facilities

Heritage Linguistics Lab

Application
Platform for research about heritage languages spoken in the Netherlands
Contact
Janet Grijzenhout

The Research Lab for the Study of Heritage Languages of the Netherlands (HERLING) is a platform for research about heritage languages spoken in the Netherlands. With a focus on Turkish, Bahasa Indonesia, Spanish, Papiamento, Berber, Arabic and German, HERLING aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and language communities.

Europe is becoming increasingly diverse and the amount of languages used within national boundaries is also increasing. In the Netherlands there are about four million people who have a different language background and speak a heritage language at home. More children than before are now growing up acquiring another language in addition to Dutch.

Linguists Janet Grijzenhout, Maria del Carmen Parafita Couto and Deniz Tat founded HERLING to bring together linguists and speakers of different heritage languages in the Netherlands.

Research Traineeship

French heritage language speakers in the Netherlands: Insights from multilingual classrooms

Members of HERLING are currently working in cooperation with the French Institute in the Netherlands on an innovative educational project with heritage language learners of French (more information below). 

As part of the Internship Linguistics or the Individual Project, we are looking for Ba, Ma or ResMa students with a background in Linguistics with interest in doing fieldwork on French as a heritage language in the Dutch context. This involves collecting, transcribing, and analyzing linguistic data from multilingual classrooms and interviews with parents and teachers. Candidates should be highly proficient in English. Knowledge of either Dutch, French, or Arabic is necessary.

Please submit your application, consisting of a CV and cover letter of maximum 2 pages in a single PDF file, to j.grijzenhout@hum.leidenuniv.nl. The application materials should be in English. If you have written a paper relevant to the project in English, French, or Dutch, please send it together with your application with a short explanation of the context (i.e. in which course you wrote it, as part of which assignment, etc.). There is no deadline; the applications are considered as they are submitted.

More information about the project:

“Je parle aussi français ! Ik spreek ook Frans !” is a project initiated by the French Institute in the Netherlands. It revolves around a series of workshops aimed at children aged 9 to 12 from North African immigrant backgrounds — possibly French-speaking, or with a French-speaking family heritage — with the aim of developing their knowledge of French through the valorization of their cultural and linguistic heritage.

HERLING is associated to the project as a scientific partner. We are particularly interested in three aspects at the intersection of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and language teaching:

  1. How does storytelling influence foreign/heritage language acquisition?
  2. What strategies can be employed to create inclusive environments that value diverse language varieties in multilingual classrooms?
  3. What factors, such as connection, exposure, and proficiency level, contribute to the identity construction of heritage language speakers?
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