Abstract: Naqvi and Clark

This study sought to build connections between heritage language learners and popular literature. It took  place within the context of heritage language classrooms in a Swedish and Nepali school. The research analyzed students’ understandings of how reading a popular novel like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is different in their heritage language and  iterated how students’ exposure to a heritage language, using a mainstream text, promotes cross-cultural connections and enables them to articulate items of interest with respect to their growing metalinguistic awareness . The study provided insight into metalinguistic awareness when applied to a reading situation and gave a more complete picture of the participating students’ linguistic awareness.  It also shed light on heritage language learners’ identity construction in relation to the learning of their home languages. The findings suggest a re-thinking of learning contexts within Heritage Language Schools, emphasizing the need to provide a new generation of hybrid learners with opportunities that permit them to transcend cultural boundaries.