When the Survival of a Language is at Stake

Abstract

This article compares the functional roles of English, French, and Inuttitut in arctic Québec. In their concern with disadvantaged members of society and their focus on functional differences in language use, the authors draw on early research by Robinson concerning language and social behavior for working- and middle-class speakers. First, they present evidence concerning the importance of sustained heritage language (Inuttitut) development in second-language acquisition and address the implications of this finding in terms of additive versus subtractive bilingualism in the North. Second, they contrast the language proficiencies of children in the two dominant languages, English and French, exploring variations in status and their concomitant effects on language acquisition. Finally, they compare the conversational versus academic language proficiencies of Inuit children in the context of minority versus dominant language education and discuss implications for the debate on language deficits versus differences for disadvantaged children.