Comparing subjunctive use between monolingual Spanish native-speakers and bilingual Spanish heritage language speakers

The intent of this study was to explore Spanish subjunctive use among Mexican and Colombian bilingual Spanish Heritage Language Speakers (HLLs) in Georgia, U.S. when compared to Mexican and Colombian monolingual speakers of Spanish (MONOs). Participants completed three language related tasks, two were production tasks (oral and written) and one was a grammar recognition task (grammaticality judgment task). Data showed that not only HLLs but also MONOs tend to simplify, omit, avoid, and/or reduce the use of the subjunctive mood in Spanish. This did not seem to be a characteristic unique to HLLs. Colombian HLLs scored higher in oral and written tasks involving the subjunctive than their Mexican HLL counterparts; and so did Colombian MONOs when compared to Mexican MONOs. Overall, Colombians (whether HLLs or MONOs) scored higher in both production tasks; however, Mexicans (both groups) scored higher in the recognition/correction task (GJT).