Submission Deadline: June 1, 2026
Álvaro González Alba (Regis University)
Series: Trends in Applied Linguistics (TAL) – De Gruyter Brill
Overview
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming language learning, reshaping how linguistic knowledge, cultural meaning, and identity are constructed in educational spaces. While AI-mediated instruction has been widely discussed in second language learning, its implications for heritage language education remain significantly underexplored.
Heritage learners engage with language through lived cultural histories, intergenerational transmission, and complex identity negotiations. These experiences interact with AI-driven technologies in ways that create new pedagogical possibilities, while also raising ethical, cultural, and sociolinguistic concerns—particularly for heritage languages that are historically marginalized, minoritized, or silenced within dominant educational systems.
The goal is to examine how AI is reshaping language development, cultural connection, and identity formation among heritage speakers, while proposing equitable, culturally grounded, and critically informed pedagogies.