ABSTRACT
In this chapter three important themes establishing the theoretical framework for the monograph will be thoroughly discussed. It opens with a brief overview of the characteristics of bilingual speakers. A short description of the process of bilingual acquisition follows with articulating the time and sequence of language acquisition. Factors that operate within households of immigrant families, which are within the research focus, influencing patterns of dual language use and, therefore, children’s bilingual development are also brought to the fore. Since the monograph centres on a diaspora community, language socialisation as a long-lasting process whereby people are socialised both to use the language of their community and to become their members, is presented. Another crucial aspect of research into bi-/multilingual families socialised in the immigrant contexts pertains to the ways heritage language development influences them, their activities and applied strategies as well as factors shaping heritage language development, maintenance and loss. The role of heritage language education, discussed on the succeeding pages, in the context of Polish ethnic groups situated in a diaspora where especially young heritage language speakers need to counteract the distortion of their minority language or its degradation seems to be of paramount importance.
