Abstrakt

Language competence of second generation heritage speakers of Czech

The paper deals with the language competences and needs of second generation heritage speakers of Czech in Germany. The data are from 2006–2023, originating from observations, written work, oral production and interviews of about 40 university students who participated in special classes of Czech for heritage speakers. First, selected aspects of the language biographies and some language ideologies of these speakers are outlined. Second, a prototypical profile of their Czech is presented, in which listening and speaking competences prevail over reading and writing skills. Examples are used to illustrate some instability in certain grammatical as well as lexical and other phenomena.