Foreign Accent in Pre- and Primary School Heritage Bilinguals

Previous research has shown that the two languages of early bilingual children can influence each other, depending on linguistic property, while adult bilinguals predominantly show from majority language to minority (heritage) language. While this observed shift in patterns is probably related a dominance between childhood and adulthood, there little data documenting it. Our study investigates perceived global accent German-Russian Germany, comparing 4–6-year-old (preschool) 7–9-year-old (primary school) children. The results indicate German older sound less accented than younger children, opposite true for Russian. This suggests primary school years are critical period heritage maintenance.