J. Gibbons and E. Ramírez: Maintaining a Minority Language. A Case Study of Hispanic Teenagers. Multilingual Matters, 2004.

Abstract

Maintaining a Minority Language by J. Gibbons and E. Ramírez explores Spanish language maintenance among second-generation Hispanic teenagers in Sydney, Australia. The book brings together five semi-independent studies that measure proficiency and examine societal, interpersonal, and attitudinal factors contributing to minority language development and maintenance. The status and outcome of a minority language are currently issues of major concern in developed societies that face new challenges posed by immigration. The present case study provides practical suggestions for minority language speakers, researchers, and public policy makers concerned with promoting a minority language in the midst of a dominant ideological milieu of a homogeneous monolingual society. The book contains eight chapters written in 240 pages. The first and the last chapters correspond to the introduction and conclusions. The remaining parts are dedicated to establishing the criteria for defining and measuring both oral and academic proficiency in the English and Spanish of Chilean second-generation teenagers. Each one of the chapters is dedicated to a different factor that is studied individually in order to determine its influence on the status and development of proficiency. These factors are grouped under the headings of (a) the societal, (b) interpersonal contact, (c) education, media use and literacy, and finally (d) attitudes and beliefs. The style of the book is easy to read and the structure of each chapter shows a clear instructive intention with an introduction that includes a short summary of the state of the field along with a definition of the main concepts. The chapters also include tables that show the statistic correlations of the factors in question with proficiency, and to end there is a set of conclusions highlighting the major findings of the chapter.