Sociolinguistics and the Acquisition of Chinese as a Second and Heritage Language

This chapter provides an overview of sociolinguistic studies of the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese as a second language (L2) and a heritage language (HL) by both children and adults, and reviews work conducted within variationist and ethnographic traditions. In addition to providing a broad view of studies conducted within different traditions, the chapter reviews exemplary studies of both traditional L2 and heritage learners and provides suggestions for future research.