Persian as a Heritage Language

This paper discusses the phenomenon of “Heritage Language” as a whole with a specific focus on Persian as a heritage language. Studying heritage languages is a relatively new and emerging field, which has flourished within the past several decades and as migration and globalization grows, heritage languages are becoming more and more important. The first part of this study provides an original contribution by unifying the existing research on Persian as a heritage language. This is a crucial and timely task because while Persian as a heritage language is relatively a new field, various researchers have already explored this topic from the linguistic, sociological, anthropological, and language policy perspectives. However, many scholars are not aware of the existing research, which causes them to start the work from the ground up. This paper offers a solid foundation by providing a comprehensive overview of the literature on Persian as a heritage language and can be used as a resource for future scholars. The second part of this study builds on the previous work and examines various characteristics of heritage Persian speakers in terms of their linguistic and metalinguistic abilities, compares their profiles with that of a native speaker and a second language learner, and sheds light on the current challenges within this field. Findings of this study have important implications for educators, curriculum developers, and policy makers.