This webinar is the first in a three-part series on heritage speakers of Russian.  The first webinar will be led by Dr. Maria Polinsky and will serve as an introduction to Russian as a heritage language.  Dr. Polinsky will describe characteristic features of heritage Russian and outline the process of divergent linguistic development in early childhood bilinguals that makes them into heritage speakers by early adulthood. 

Dr. Maria “Masha” Polinsky (University of Maryland) has pioneered the field of heritage language study and has played an active role in introducing heritage languages into modern linguistic theory. Her research has focused on how heritage speakers are different from other speakers and learners, and the consequences of these differences for scientific understanding of language learning. Dr. Polinsky has numerous publications on the subject of heritage language linguistics, and specifically on heritage speakers of Russian.