ABSTRACT
Based on the preceding analysis, the role of crosslinguistic influence is discussed in relation to the central theoretical issues that were introduced in the first part of this book. Each key factor is considered individually with regard to how the theoretical aspects outlined before can be related to the findings of Chapters 7 and 8. The main topics are the role of the two previously acquired languages, typological similarity and linguistic proximity, the dominant status of one of the two languages (the majority language German), and the argument that unbalanced bilingual heritage speakers represent a specific type of bilingual foreign language learner. Furthermore, the additional influence of school type, socio-economic status, number of books per household, participants’ age, specific task, age of onset of acquiring German, as well as attitudes toward English are separately discussed thereafter. Finally, some shortcomings limiting the results of this research are briefly outlined.
