Heritage language : the Polish language used by generations of Polish communities abroad

The term heritage language has been functioning in the world literature since the late 1990s. It began to be used in Polish publications somewhat later gradually gaining acceptance in the circles of researchers, teachers and users. Its popularity ensures its broad application in various subfields of linguistics - it is used not only by language teachers but also psycho-, ethno- an sociolinguists. The study outlines the specificity of heritage language as such with the particular focus on its significance in ethnic education, its usefulness when differentiating between natural and cognitive bilingualism and describing users’ linguistics competences which differ considerable from generation to generation.