Rethinking pronunciation in Spanish heritage speakers

Phonetic and prosodic variability is a defining characteristic of Spanish heritage speakers. This paper presents a synthesis of research on segmental, vocalic, and suprasegmental features in heritage Spanish and argues that such variability reflects systematic bilingual adaptation shaped by task demands, literacy experience, and patterns of language use. Heritage speakers typically preserve core phonological contrasts and demonstrate high perceptual sensitivity, even when phonetic realization varies across contexts. Particular attention is paid to prosodic phenomena, especially stress and intonation, given their role in intelligibility, pragmatic meaning, and pronunciation assessment. On the basis of this evidence, the paper examines implications for pronunciation assessment and placement practices, highlighting the risk of misclassification when evaluation relies primarily on literacy-based tasks. The final section translates empirical findings into pedagogical implications, advocating intelligibility-oriented pronunciation targets, contextualized instructional approaches, and greater integration of phonetic research into teacher education.