Ancestral Language Acquisition

Abstract

This article investigates associations between the acquisition of an ancestral language and ethnic affinity. Narratives about Armenian and non-Armenian cultural activities, and attitudes toward language usage and culture were elicited from 44 boys and girls aged 8-15 years. Some of the children spokeArmenian in addition to English, but all were active in an Armenian American community. American-born bilingual children were found to use relatively more first person plural pronouns than singular pronouns in stories aboutArmenian cultural activities compared with English-only speaking children of Armenian descent and foreign-born bilingual children, suggesting thatAmerican-born bilingual children may have closer affinity with theArmenianAmerican community than either monolingual or foreign-born bilingual children. Differences between the groups in attitude toward bicultural background also were found. Monolinguals made relatively fewer positive evaluations of their bicultural experiences than either the American-born or foreign-born bilingual children.