Heritage Language Research Articles

Language Management in Transnational Multilingual Families: Generation 1.5 Parents in Finland

In today’s globalized world, more children are born to parents who speak two or more languages between them. These families manage complex language dynamics, with diverse language practices influencing communication among family members. The complexity intensifies when multilingual and multicultural parents move with their children to a country with a new majority language, while keeping connections to their original society. In such cases, balancing heritage and host country languages affects both cultural preservation and integration into a new society. Based on semi-structured interviews with seven Generation 1.5 Russian–Hebrew bilingual parents living in Finland, this paper explores their strategies for managing their children’s multilingual development. The study poses two key questions: What are the language management strategies reported by the parents? What are the major challenges these parents face in maintaining heritage Russian and Hebrew languages in Finland? Thematic data analysis using ATLAS.ti software highlights the parents’ persistent commitment to maintaining multilingualism within their families, focusing on preserving existing social connections and fostering new ones for the entire family. The findings reveal key aspects of parental language management, parental involvement and home environments, along with reported challenges, both personal and institutional, in maintaining Hebrew and Russian as heritage languages in Finland. This study offers a new perspective on language management strategies in multilingual families, handling a less-explored language combination. By analyzing individual language management approaches, this study reveals common strategies used to support multilingualism and balance heritage languages with those of a new environment, thereby contributing to discussions on linguistic diversity and multicultural integration in transnational settings.

Understanding the Difference Between Autism and the Autistic Spectrum: A Focus on the South African Context

Autism is a group of severe developmental disorders with impairments beginning before 30 months of age and characterized by a qualitative disturbance of social development and of language for communication, a stereotyped behaviour, and a lack of a broad set of interests. The expression of autism varies from one individual to the next. It is a communicative disorder and is not due to poor reception. The researchers drew their literature from reputable journal articles, book chapters from established publishers, and informal community conversations amid the researchers’ experiential intuition. Currently, South African children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) lack government support structures and rely primarily on families for assistance with education and therapy. An additional challenge is that in some South African black communities, autism is not recognized as a disorder. A study exploring differences in the nature, application, experience, and examination of social awareness and understanding of selected educators about new terminology in their environment found that local black teachers had less exposure to autism knowledge, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis in their communities, and little understanding, awareness, or acceptance of this condition. This article underscores the crucial role of social service professionals, such as psychologists, registered counsellors, social workers, etc, in these communities. Their presence and active involvement provide hope in these challenging times. It recommends that they conduct psychotherapeutic education, which could involve awareness campaigns and counselling about psychotherapeutic education. Their role would be to provide support, guidance, and education to the community members, helping them to build their resilience to fight the coronavirus.

Classification of Banjarese Hulu and Kuala Dialects in Banjarese Prose Texts

This research focuses on classifying the Hulu and Kuala Banjarese dialects in the prose text “Datu Kandangan and Datu Kartamina”. These dialects represent linguistic variations resulting from geographical, social, and cultural differences among language communities, particularly in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Language analysis methods such as Python Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), NumPy, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) Visualization (LyLDAvis) were employed to classify the dialects, involving data preprocessing steps like tokenization, punctuation removal, stop word normalization, and stemming. The research findings reveal the superiority of the "Naive Bayes" method over the "Boolean Query," achieving high accuracy in identifying positive examples and classifying texts into Upper and Lower Banjar dialects. The "Naive Bayes" method outperforms the "Boolean Query" with precision and recall values of 0.955563 and 0.956098, while the "Boolean Query" only reaches 0.021416 and 0.146341. This study makes a significant scholarly contribution to understanding language and cultural diversity in South Kalimantan, opening opportunities for further exploration in developing Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology for Indonesian regional languages.

Linguistic Diversities in Nepal: A Glimpse of Past and Present

Nepal is known m as a multilingual nation; however, language policies and statistics of languages spoken in Nepal showed the challenges to maintain linguistic diversities in Nepal. In this context, aim of this study is to outline the language policies of Nepal. Constitutional provisions and arguments of the participants were analyzed with geographical and historical contexts. The study also presents the current population census and highlights the statistics of languages on the basis of mother tongue, second language and ancestor language. Government reports, law and rules related language policies, published between 1950 to 2013 were analyzed with the opinions and perceptions of the participants. Throughout history, the language politics in Nepal has undergone significant shifts and changes due to various political transformations. Current statistics of languages show that it is difficult to preserve minority languages because he numbers of speakers is very low. Except that lack of sufficient resource mobilization on the preservation of minority languages, confusing government policies, socio economic and cultural shift of the respected language community creates problems to sustain minorities language in Nepal. Finding of this study can be apply to formulate the policies and programs related to the preservation and promotion of endangered language because the study analyzes the present linguistic polices and statistics of the language spoken in Nepal.

Cross-Cultural Insights into Phatic Communication: Indonesian and Australian Student Interactions

Phatic communication, a widespread yet often unnoticed language phenomenon, primarily serves to maintain social interactions rather than convey substantive information. This study investigated the use of phatic expressions among Indonesian and Australian students, examining how cultural backgrounds and social contexts influence their communication styles. Using a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) with both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research revealed significant differences between the two groups. Australian students frequently used phatic speech to initiate conversations, provided comfort, and expressed empathy, emphasizing respect and interpersonal connection. In contrast, Indonesian students tended to use phatic expressions to promote social harmony, engage in casual discourse, and offer interpersonal support, often focusing on group cohesion. Social variables, such as social status and distance, played a critical role in shaping the choice of phatic functions and forms, with both groups adapting their communication strategies based on these factors. The findings highlight the intricate relationship among culture, social dynamics, and language in phatic communication, offering a nuanced understanding that can enhance intercultural interactions, minimize misunderstandings, and improve communication effectiveness in multicultural settings. This research underscores the importance of considering cultural and social contexts when analyzing language use, contributing valuable insights for educators, linguists, and communication professionals aiming to foster more effective and harmonious interactions across diverse cultural landscapes.

Using TED talks to improve engineering students’ oral skills

This paper deals with the training of undergraduate engineering students and is interdisciplinary in nature. It brings together three distinct aspects of scientific dissemination: the content of an engineering degree; the oral transmission of this content following the effective TED talks model; and the use English as a medium of scientific transmission. The paper highlights the need for trainee Spanish engineers to be able to communicate their work to the public through oral presentations that are brief and entertaining, yet scientifically rigorous. The core of the study consists of an analysis of a particular TED talk that is relevant for a variety of engineering degrees. We conclude that while it is necessary for Spanish engineers to receive specific training at a professional level in oral communication skills, there is a close relationship between the mode of transmission and the subject specific content to be transmitted that needs to be considered carefully. Developing a mastery of English is important, but essential communication skills are the most crucial aspect, regardless of the language of communication.

Phrasal verb production in child heritage speakers of English residing in Mexico: Chronological age, experience, and protracted development

Phrasal verb production in child heritage speakers of English residing in Mexico: Chronological age, experience, and protracted development

Shortcomings and challenges in the intersection of L2 pedagogy and applied cognitive linguistics

Abstract This paper aims to explore the shortcomings and challenges of Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) in L2 classrooms and research. It examines the main issues and presents a case study with three quasi-experimental classroom studies. These experiments taught the Spanish past simple tenses using approaches informed by Cognitive Linguistics and Communicative Language Teaching, plus a control group, through a pretest/posttest design. Results favored cognitive-pedagogical instruction, but only in one production task (Alonso-Aparicio & Llopis-García, 2019). Subsequent studies replicated and extended the first, with further changes in instruction and assessment design, but found no significant differences between experimental groups in the posttest. The discussion highlights the steps taken to ensure study success, pointing out shortcomings in traditional assessment tests that favor notional-functional instruction. We suggest alternative testing tasks that consider cognitive-based approaches and new avenues for future research, aligning with Martín-Gascón et al. (2023).

Discovering Pre-Service English Teachers' Orientations and Experiences in Designing Communicative Language Teaching Based-Activities by Using Islamic Songs

Discovering Pre-Service English Teachers' Orientations and Experiences in Designing Communicative Language Teaching Based-Activities by Using Islamic Songs

Students’ Actional Competence in Presentation Skills in EFL Classroom: A Lesson of Communicative Language Teaching Implementation

Students’ Actional Competence in Presentation Skills in EFL Classroom: A Lesson of Communicative Language Teaching Implementation

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Implementation In Kurikulum Merdeka: A Lesson From English Teachers’ Voices

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Implementation In Kurikulum Merdeka: A Lesson From English Teachers’ Voices

Modern technologies and subject content of a foreign language course for future media specialists

Importance. The subject-language integrated approach is relatively new in the field of foreign language teaching methods. It pursues a dual goal related to the formation of professional communication skills in a foreign language (the formation of communicative and professional competencies). The application of the subject-language integrated approach faces several challenges related to both teachers and students. Firstly, the level of training of students should correspond to the B1B2 level. Secondly, the level of teacher training should combine the foreign language teaching with the specialized content teaching. The potential of the subject-language integrated approach in teaching foreign languages has already been applied and evaluated in the future doctors training, lawyers, and agricultural specialists.Research Methods. The subject-language integrated approach can be incorporated into the language training for future professionals in the media sphere (areas of training “Journalism”, “Advertising and Public Relations”, “Media Communications”). The professional component of the course is related not only to the thematic content of the classes, but also to the possibility of using modern technologies (for example, the artificial intelligence capabilities, virtual and augmented reality technologies) in the media products development within the framework of the training course with their subsequent discussion in the language being studied.Research Results. The subject-language integrated approach has obvious potential in the language training of future media specialists (areas of study “Journalism”, “Advertising and Public Relations”, “Media Communications”). The specialized subject content of the course, as well as the technologies and tools used in the practice of media specialists in the media products and advertising products development, along with language competencies, allow the formation of professional competencies.Conclusions. The aim of the research is to further investigate the potential of an integrated approach to the training of future media professionals. Of particular interest to the study is the identification of specific speech skills required for effective foreign language communication in the speech interaction professional sphere.

Developing Graduate Curriculum for Digital Language Archive Stewardship

Our interdisciplinary team including information and language scholars and educators and practicing information professionals at University of North Texas (UNT) and Indiana University (IU) is developing an evidence-based practice-oriented online curriculum to train library, archives, and museums (LAM) professionals in the archiving, curation, and ethical dissemination of resources that provide the means to revitalize community memory and language. During this 2-year project, over 30 LAM students will complete the project-developed UNT graduate course INFO 5385 Community Language Archiving and Curation for Information Professionals, and additional estimated 100 students at UNT and IU will complete individual project-developed learning modules integrated into other courses. Development of the learning materials is informed by digital language archive practices, research, and existing training materials for archive depositors. Resulting open-access adaptable learning resources are expected to be widely used by academic programs and educators for training LAM students and by participatory archives as continuing education resources.

CRIMINOLOGICAL FEATURES OF PROFESSIONAL CRIME

The article is devoted to the study of the criminological features of professional crime, which is an important and relevant issue for shaping the system of measures aimed at its prevention and counteraction. Professional crime refers to the criminal activities of individuals who systematically, throughout their lives, commit criminal acts in a specific field, using the results of these activities as a means of earning or gaining profit for their livelihood. For such individuals, their specific “criminal activity” becomes a “profession” in which they develop, continually improve their criminal skills, and reach professional “heights” to maximize profits (income) and hide the traces of their criminal activities from law enforcement. The authors identifies the following characteristics of professional crime: its persistent and stable nature; the presence of “specialization” and “qualification” in the offender; the regular income (profit) from criminal activity; the offender’s constant connection with an antisocial environment; and the existence of a specific “subculture” in the form of traditions, customs, and particular “languages of communication” (slang). Based on the research, the authors has formulated a system of economic, social, political, and legal measures to prevent and counter professional crime. As part of the legal measures, the author proposes amending different articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine by adding a new qualifying feature: “the commission of an act in the form of criminal activity.” Currently, the only qualifying feature in the Criminal Code of Ukraine is “repeat offense,” which applies whether two episodes of a crime have been committed or even if there have been 3-15 episodes of the same crime. This approach fails to account for the activities of professional criminals, where the commission of 3-15 crimes should be qualified as a more serious offense compared to ordinary “repeat offenses,” which only cover two episodes. The authors also suggests the creation of a separate law, the “Law of Ukraine on the Basics of Prevention and Counteraction to Professional Crime,” which would include specific sections ensuring comprehensive regulation of the issue of combating professional crime. The structure of these sections may include: 1) “General Provisions”; 2) “Subjects of Countering Professional Crime, Their Competence”; 3) “Preventive and Countermeasures Against Professional Crime”; 4) “The Identity of the Professional Criminal and Their Legal Status”; 5) “Liability for Violations in the Sphere of Countering Professional Crime”; 6) “Control and Supervision over the Enforcement of Laws in the Fight Against Professional Crime”; 7) “Final and Transitional Provisions”. In the author’s opinion, a comprehensive legislative regulation of professional crime and the formation of an effective system of measures to counter it are key to building a successful preventive criminological policy of the state in the fight against such crime.

Conversational leadership in toddler-educator talk and its potential to promote learning

It is well-established that toddlers make sense of things when they talk with their educators. While previous research has explored how educators’ talk shapes young children’s learning, less in known about how toddlers participate in conversations with educators and what learning opportunities their participation affords. In this study, we video-recorded and qualitatively examined naturalistic conversations between 12 two-year-old toddlers and their educators. Attending to both toddlers and educators, we first coded each conversation for its communicative purpose and language features, which allowed us to identify eight types of toddler-educator conversations. We then examined the conversations with a focus on who exercised ‘conversational leadership’, that is who influenced the topic and communication purpose (determined by intent and language features) in each conversation. We found that in three conversation types conversational leadership belonged to toddlers, in another three to educators, and in the remaining two to both. We also examined the potential of each option of conversational leadership distribution to provide toddlers with learning opportunities to either demonstrate their knowledge or create new knowledge. Our findings support a broader understanding of toddlers’ agency in shaping their own learning. The findings can inform and help to validate educators’ efforts to enrich their conversations with toddlers as an effective learning-promoting pedagogy.

Language policy and linguistic landscapes in the internationalization of a non-Anglophone university

PurposeInternationalization strategies that have been issued for a decade affect non-Anglophone higher education institutions (HEIs) in the clash of importance in preserving national language or using international languages. One of the observable objects of this dilemma is the inconsistent language display of universities’ public signages as a linguistic landscape (LL). To address these issues, the presence of language policy is urgent unless the preservation of the national language is no longer the responsibility of HEIs. However, rigorous discussion about language policy in non-Anglophone HEIs remains limited. This study aims to address the gap by providing a critical analysis of the existing language policy documents in an Indonesian higher education institution that has a multilingual environment and its effect on the LL.Design/methodology/approachThis case study used document analysis and LL analysis. The setting was an Islamic university in Indonesia that represents the trial importance of building religious identity, preserving the national language and engaging with international demands. The data were collected from National Law Enforcement websites, which provided various national policy documents and the institutional documents that were retrieved from the university website by using the document analysis method by Bowen (2009). The secondary data were 216 visual images of public signage in an Islamic university in Indonesia as the representation of multilingual phenomena. The additional data were gathered from a pilot interview with a lecturer and a student.FindingsThis study found that both the national government and institutional administration in Indonesia do not have a language policy that regulates LLs or language preferences in public places for HEIs. The university tends to solely refer to international accreditation policy by using either bilingual English-Indonesian or monolingual English in the public signage. However, the limited use of the Arabic language in specific venues such as mosques and musallas shows that Arabic serves neither as symbolic identity nor communicative functions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study sets a single case study in an Islamic university, and the policy documents were limited to the Indonesian Government and institutions as the representation of non-Anglophone countries. Further studies are expected to have a bigger and larger size of data and settings.Practical implicationsThis study implies that non-Anglophone countries’ governments should start to design and enforce a language policy that preserves national language and facilitates major national and international language communities, such as Thai, Arabic, Javanese and Malay, without being absent in international competitive labeling. A practical implication for religion-based and cultural-based universities is that the function of their Holy Book or local languages can be used as communicative functions to strengthen the religious and local identity.Social implicationsThis study implies that non-Anglophone countries’ governments should start to design and enforce a language policy that preserves their national language without being absent in international competitive labeling.Originality/valueGiven the fact that there is limited awareness to bring the discussion about LL patterns into language policy issues in non-Anglophone countries, this study was originally conducted as a case study to pilot the discussion about the absence of language policy as represented through LLs in Indonesia. This case study was brought up as a pilot discussion to urge non-Anglophone countries lawmakers to issue language policy at the university level. This message is meant to respond to internationalization programs that can potentially jeopardize the existence of the linguistic and cultural diversity of non-Anglophone countries.

Instagram vs reality: Exploring local culture through various lenses

Rather than viewing online and face-to-face learning as two dichotomous domains (Kessler, 2018), this study seeks to explore ways that social media can be used to support and facilitate face-to-face exploration and communication in target language environments. It also aims to help English language learners improve their ability to critically evaluate social media by exploring a local community through a critical lens. This study applied the concept of “social media pathways” (authors, 2024) through an experiential learning model to integrate an authentic social networking site, Instagram, into an ESL curriculum for a community engagement project promoting a deeper and multifaceted understanding of the target language community. This study employed qualitative method approach, including seven international students’ reflections, a post-task questionnaire, and focus-group interview data, to investigate how the assumptions made from social media compare with observations made in the field. The findings were then used to establish a “Model for Community Exploration within Virtual and Face-to-face Contexts” that adds to the experiential learning framework the additional stages of experimentation, reflection, and new conceptualization that take place when learners use social media to form assumptions about a community and then use in-person exploration to test those hypotheses.

Maintaining ethnic identity and heritage language through community involvement: a case study of third-generation Australian-Latvians

ABSTRACT By the third generation, migrant languages are usually no longer spoken and few identify with their grandparents’ ancestry. This study investigates factors that have encouraged a group of third-generation Australian-Latvians in their teens and twenties to maintain their ethnic identity and heritage language. Active community involvement was found to be a major factor, particularly in organizations such as Latvian schools, folk dancing, and singing groups. Involvement is facilitated by their connections with family, friends, people, and organizations in Latvia, and creates an individual sense of belonging with the community and identification as a Latvian.

The Perspective of Haitian Parents on Heritage Language Maintenance in Children With Speech-Language Disorders

Purpose: This study is part of a larger study that explores the beliefs and attitudes of Haitian parents in the United States regarding heritage language maintenance. The study sought to understand Haitian parents' perspective of heritage language maintenance when the parent has a child with a communication disorder. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with seven Haitian parents of children who have or had a speech-language disorder. The interviews were conducted virtually through videoconferencing. A thematic analysis was used to explore the data and determine recurring themes. Results: Participants desired to preserve the heritage language; however, fear of further language delay and sociolinguistic factors influenced their language choice. Furthermore, the results revealed that the lack of Haitian Creole language maintenance led to a communication breakdown with family and parental regret on the missed opportunity to pass on the heritage language. Conclusion: The findings from this study demonstrate a need for continued education with physicians, SLPs, and other related service providers on the issues related to bilingual language development, language maintenance, and counseling families regarding home language practice. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27190611

<span><strong>Non-verbal language application in language teaching and learning in the English classroom: A systematic review study</strong></span>

The weight of non-verbal language application is strongly believed to significantly offer several benefits to language teaching and learning. This paper is a critical and systematic analysis of available literature on the application of non-verbal language in the English classroom context. Specifically, it investigates common types of non-verbal language used in the English classroom. In addition, the paper focuses on highlighting the effects of non-verbal language on teachers and students in terms of knowledge transferring and understanding, teaching and learning motivation and language communication. Finally, it looks into some rules and techniques to implement non-verbal language in the educational context. The research findings provide a comprehensive overview of the application of non-verbal language in order to enrich teachers’ teaching experience, boost up the students’ performance as well as competence, improve learning outcomes, and increase the quality of language teaching and learning.