Tracing Language, Culture, and Identity Through Three Generations: The Experiences of a Spanish-Italian Family in the United States

Abstract

Most studies of language maintenance and loss in the United States have concentrated on contact between English and one specific heritage or minority language. The present study examines the experience of a Spanish-Italian immigrant family and the factors they identify as key in shaping their patterns of language use through three generations. The family on which the present analysis is centered is unique: the participants are European, they do not live in a Spanish-speaking community, and because members of the first generation immigrated in the mid 1950’s, their views of acculturation are different from those of more recent immigrants. This family’s story provides insight into the immigrant experience and highlights the potential role of heritage and ethnic pride as a means of motivating students to pursue the study of foreign languages.