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Heritage Language Instruction (HLI) is a resource used in many immigration-receiving countries that allows students with an immigrant background to continue to be in contact with their Heritage Language (HL). However, many of the psycholinguistic effects of this instruction are still unknown. This study aims to provide an in-depth view of the effects of HLI on the development of the HL and the languages of the host country. For this purpose, the sample consisted of 108 students (20 HL learners, 88 controls) of Romanian origin who had emigrated to Catalonia. Their language skills in the phonetic, orthographic, morphosyntactic, lexical, and semantic domains were analysed using linear regression statistics and covariance analysis. The results showed that HLI exerted a mitigating effect on HL attrition, as well as a significant improvement of the linguistic competencies in the autochthonous languages. These results indicate that HLI is an effective tool in the psycholinguistic development of immigrant students, capable of facilitating their academic and social performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and born to hearing parents have delays in their social-cognitive development and in particular in their theory of mind (ToM). These delays are often attributed to the difficulties they encounter in acquiring age-appropriate linguistic and communicative skills. The present study asks whether this developmental delay extends to problems with understanding pretend emotions and if linguistic difficulties are related to this area. A total of 173 children (82 DHH and 91 hearing) between 3 and 8 years of age received a set of emotion and language measures. Results showed that children who are DHH were delayed in understanding pretend emotions, and this was strongly related to their difficulties with expressive vocabulary and pragmatics. In summary, children who are DHH and have experienced reduced access to language and communicative interaction have a restricted understanding of the communicative intentions of emotional expressions. These delays may have implications for their social relationships with surrounding family and other children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Understanding of Pretend Emotions in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing" that was published in an online issue of the journal is presented.