Home Language Maintenance Research Articles

Towards critical cultural and linguistic awareness in language classrooms in Norway: Fostering respect for diversity through identity texts

This article reports the results of a school-based curriculum development project that aimed to support language teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in Norway to develop teaching strategies that foster intercultural citizenship and multilingual competence. Three university researchers collaborated with two schools to increase mutual respect and tolerance for cultural and linguistic diversity in language classrooms, to increase awareness of the positive impact of home language maintenance on academic performance, and to improve the engagement of multilingual literacy and student identity in the classroom. Data were collected during teacher workshops and while following the delivery of the project, and consist of lesson planning materials, texts produced by students, and a follow-up teacher survey. The article presents examples of activities and materials the teachers at the cooperating schools designed and implemented, samples of student work, as well as teacher reflections on the extent to which the project promoted multiliteracy and intercultural citizenship. The findings suggest that while the project helped strengthen awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity at the schools, understanding of the relevance of the home language to literacy development and academic success and multiliteracy were not adequately supported. Implications for future work to promote language classrooms that foster linguistic and cultural diversity and multiliteracy are discussed.

Reaching out to migrant and refugee communities to support home language maintenance

ABSTRACTMigrant and refugee parents considering raising their children in their non-mainstream home language often fear that this decision may impact negatively on their children’s English language ability and thus affect their academic prospects. The lack of institutional support for home languages in the Australian school system, and the well-intentioned but misguided advice parents may receive to switch to the mainstream language in family interactions reinforce parents’ doubts. To assuage parents’ concerns and assist them in making an informed decision most appropriate for their family circumstances, we developed and delivered free workshops on bilingual upbringing. We also trained bilingual facilitators who adapted the workshops culturally and linguistically and conducted these in their own communities. This paper discusses these workshops, the feedback received, our observations, and lessons learned.

Home language maintenance and development among first generation migrant children in an Irish primary school: An investigation of attitudes

This qualitative study was undertaken against the backdrop of rapidly increasing levels of immigration to Ireland and a subsequent growing increase in the percentage of children attending Irish primary schools with a first language other than English or Irish, the two official languages of the country. The research investigates the attitudes of a group of first generation minority language children, of various ethnic backgrounds, to home language maintenance and development as well as their experiences of home language use both in school and in the family home. Data were collected from 17 minority language children, aged between 10 and 13 years and living in Ireland for a period of between three and seven years. Data collection methods included focus group interviews and semi-structured individual interviews, during which participants expressed beliefs, opinions and attitudes surrounding language practices. Interviews conducted with four parents of the child participants provided additional data. In addition, an interview with the teacher of a complementary language school for Polish children highlighted the efforts made by the Polish community; the largest non-Irish group in Ireland, to promote home language maintenance in the family. The data show that while the majority of children and parents display positive attitudes to home language maintenance and development, children face challenges in continuing to develop the literacy skills in the home language. The importance of maintaining and continuing to develop the home language for continued communication with extended family members is clear. The need for familial support in relation to the opportunities children have to engage in home language learning is evident. The perceptions of English as a global language and as a valuable asset were evident among both children and parents. There is no provision made for the formal learning of home languages to children in Ireland, and the only opportunity for children to do so is limited to privately run complementary schools, which are not always accessible to all nationalities. Concerns of children and parents regarding continued development in the home language are voiced, and in most cases, these concerns are borne out of a possible return to their native countries.

HOLM 2016 – The International Conference on Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Development

A report on a conference initiated by the International Association for Applied Linguistics (AILA) Research Network (ReN) on Social and Affective Factors in Home Language Maintenance and Developmen ...

Family literacy programmes and young children’s language and literacy development: paying attention to families’ home language

ABSTRACTIn this article, we review the literature on the impact of family literacy programmes on young children’s language and literacy learning. After defining family literacy, we present a brief historical overview of family literacy programmes, including persistent questions regarding their effectiveness with respect to young children’s language and literacy learning and their propensity to promote the dominant language (e.g. English) while ignoring the benefits of bilingualism and of families’ home language maintenance. Meta-analyses reveal that family literacy programmes have a positive effect on young children’s language and learning development and studies of bilingual family literacy programmes indicate that they are effective in significantly increasing children’s early literacy knowledge in the dominant or mainstream language and in promoting home language maintenance. This finding lends empirical support for bilingual family literacy programmes and the concept of additive bilingualism. We conclude by suggesting implications for practice and for future research.

Using the school setting to map community languages: a pilot study in Manchester, England

ABSTRACTRecording the home languages of schoolchildren has long been acknowledged as a useful way of mapping community multilingualism. However, the need to process large quantities of data on many different languages has meant that in order to assess the vitality of community languages, researchers have had to rely on schoolchildren's self-reported language preference and proficiency. Moreover, large scale data collection among minors poses ethical and data protection issues. We describe a pilot study carried out in Manchester, England, in which a method was tested to record home language proficiency based on rapid, anonymous speech acts. These were correlated with respondents’ self-reported exposure to their home languages. The results indicate that different factors can play a role in language maintenance in different communities, and that home language maintenance does not have an adverse effect on proficiency in the majority language.

Holding them at arm’s length: A critical review of Norway’s policy on Sámi language maintenance

Norway’s policy on its indigenous Sami minority is oftentimes heralded as best practice in fostering self-determination and home language maintenance. Norway’s policy rhetoric indeed promises that all Sami have a right to develop their home language, and that all Norwegian children will become familiar with Sami languages and culture. However, this paper takes a more critical perspective of Norway’s policy. It argues that rhetoric has not been operationalised to benefit all Sami nor promote Norwegian familiarity with the languages. Instead, the state appears to juggle its legislative obligations to promote the Sami languages with an ongoing ideology in the community that the Sami languages cannot be seen as contributing to the contemporary Norwegian nation. To make this argument, the paper firstly reviews the state’s Sami language policy to discuss fractures between rhetoric and policy. It then reports the findings of a case study whereby public online debates over the past five years about the Sami languages in a national context were critically analysed. The case study indeed reveals a vigorous preference to hold the Sami languages at arm’s length, for reasons such as that the languages endanger Norwegian identity, that the Sami do not deserve an indigenous status, that the Sami are foreign to Norway and, conversely, that the Sami do not fulfil their responsibilities as Norwegian citizens. The paper concludes that a potent Norwegian ideology against the Sami languages may explain the state’s reluctance to implement its high-level policy promises.

Multimodal Domains and Affordances for Home Language Maintenance Created by Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies: Intergenerational Impacts

Multimodal Domains and Affordances for Home Language Maintenance Created by Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies: Intergenerational Impacts

Albanian Parents and the Greek Educational Context: Who is Willing to Fight for the Home Language?

This article examines views of Albanian immigrant parents regarding home-language maintenance in Greece. It aims to reveal language ideologies in relation to broader ideologies about schooling and education. Following a qualitative interpretative approach, we conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with 19 parents of bilingual students. Parents express a range of ideological stances from total resistance to the dominant school monolingual ideology to passive acceptance and could be grouped into three categories: (a) the “fighters,” who make a conscious claim for home-language use and education; (b) the “probilingualism” parents, who partially consent to the dominant discourse of monolingualism in the Greek school; and (c) the “indifferent” parents, who appear not to be concerned about the future of the Albanian language. Data from interviews suggest that dominant school-language attitudes and practices play an important role in shaping the language views and practices of immigrant parents.

“Tiffany Does Not Have a Solid Language Background, As She Speaks Only English”: Emerging Language Ideologies Among California Students

Californians often take for granted a split between ethnic and linguistic identities, expecting immigrants to maintain strong ethnic identities while becoming monolingual in English. However, recent immigration has led to increasing diversity at California universities, with no majority ethnic group and many students bilingual. This study explores the language ideologies of diverse university students through an analysis of 100 essays written by undergraduates in an introductory Linguistics class. Specifically, the study asks what language ideologies are constructed when California students write about the language backgrounds of other people, and whether these ideologies appear connected to the writers' own backgrounds. Results show strong tendencies for students, regardless of ethnolinguistic background, to support home language maintenance as an index of ethnic pride and loyalty. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these results for the pedagogy of introductory Linguistics classes.

Teachers' beliefs about the role of prior language knowledge in learning and how these influence teaching practices

The present study was developed to assess teachers’ beliefs on (1) the role of prior language knowledge in language learning; (2) the perceived usefulness of language knowledge in modern society; and (3) the teaching practices to be used with multilingual students. Subjects were 176 secondary schoolteachers working in Italy (N=103), Austria (N=42), and Great Britain (N=31) who taught subjects ranging from languages to science, literature, or physical education. Teachers were asked to rate a series of statements on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) Likert scale. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis distribution-free test to identify differences in responses in the three countries. Overall results suggest that teachers in Italy, Austria, and Great Britain tend to share similar views on the three topics examined. The article discusses the need to introduce modules on multilingualism and language learning as a regular feature of teacher training programs as many teachers show beliefs that suggest little awareness of the cognitive benefits of multilingualism and of the usefulness of home language maintenance for students and their families.

Exploring and Supporting Home Language Maintenance in Informal Playgroups: Working with Pacific Communities

This paper draws on three years of fieldwork within informal supported play-groups in inner Sydney. In Australia, some 40% of children reach school age without attending formal preschools. Aboriginal and immigrant groups are greatly overrepresented in this statistic. For these children, informal playgroups, funded from a range of government and non-government sources are important sites for learning. For children who speak a language other than English in the home, the playgroups also offer an opportunity to strengthen and support the use of the home language and connection to heritage cultures. Using data from observations, audio and video recordings, interviews with mothers and carers as well as interviews with play-group workers, literacy specialists and community workers, this paper will examine the challenges facing these families as their children prepare for schools in which their home language will be ‘submerged.’ The case study includes an evaluation of a bilingual program within informal playgroups aimed at strengthening home language use among children from the Maori and Tongan communities. The program was designed and implemented in collaboration with these communities as a part of research discussed in this paper. The evaluation will examine the benefits and limitations of such programs as well as foregrounding those strategies that engage and support families in their efforts to maintain their home language. The effects of these programs in terms of strengthening parental home language support cannot be underestimated and the results of this study highlight the importance of supporting home language in early childhood education settings through structured programs that are responsive to local needs.

Learning a Community Language as a Third Language

This study is part of a larger action research project on the role of secondary school language programmes in the maintenance and spread of community languages in Melbourne. The study focuses on bilinguals learning another community language (Greek or Spanish) as a third language, some of them having a home language with a connection to the target language and some with completely unrelated home languages. Qualitative and qualitative data show that the bilinguals tend to be more effective and persistent learners of the target language than monolinguals, that they are able to benefit from their metalinguistic awareness, though there are differences between the schools in the degree of perception of this. Through L3, the pupils' home language maintenance is strengthened, they develop a more general interest in languages, and they engage in 'crossing'.

Can Two Tongues Live in Harmony: Analysis of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS88) Longitudinal Data on the Maintenance of Home Language

Using the nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS88) database, the relations of first language (L1, non-English) proficiency to subsequent use of that language (home language maintenance), English proficiency, and academic achievement were examined. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed that LI proficiency in tenth grade (T2) did not affect subsequent English test scores, school grades, or English proficiency in twelfth grade (T3), but had a strong positive effect on T3 L1 use and also positive effects on T3 standardized tests in English, math, and history. Use of L1 up to twelfth grade had almost no effect on T3 English outcomes or on T3 achievements other than English. Negative impacts of frequency in L1 use on perceived English proficiency were found only in the early years of high school and did not persist over time. The results did not support speculations that home language proficiency would have persistent negative effects on English and other academic outcomes, but suggest the need for support in L1 enhancement for home language maintenance.

Who decides the home language? A look at multilingual families

In this paper, I look at how multilingual parents attempt to transmit and maintain their native languages at home with their children. The 18 multilingual Jamilies in my study spoke mostly English at home even when both parents shared the same non-English language as their native language. Myfindings suggest that the children in these families are often the ones who decide what the family's home language will be. The parents' educational and socioeconomic statuses also influence the shift toward English language usage because poor and less-educated parents have few resources to help them with home language maintenance.

Strategies for bilingual maintenance: Case studies of Mexican-origin families in Texas

This article examines strategies Mexican-American parents, grandparents, and other family members employ in their efforts to assist children to maintain and develop Spanish while developing their linguistic and academic abilities in English. We focus on three south Texas families, selected from a sample of forty families, who represent a range of possible home language maintenance strategies as well as different socioeconomic levels and modes of life. The three families include a rural family living on a south Texas ranch, a working class family living in an urban barrio, and an upper middle class professional family living in an ethnically mixed suburban neighborhood. Analysis of audiotapes of extensive home observations and a variety of proficiency measures indicated that children in all three families had achieved proficiency in English. However, only the children in the rural family had maintained native proficiency in Spanish. The maintenance of Spanish by the children in the rural family is attributable to several factors, among them the parents' insistence that the children use Spanish among themselves, the relative isolation of the ranch on which the family lived, and frequent visits to Mexico and contact with monolingual Spanish-speaking relatives.

Study of Ethnic Minority's Attitudes toward Home-Language and English of Their Children in British Schools

The aim of the present study was to explore attitudes of ethnic minority parents towards their children's home-language and English in the British schools. Data were responses of fathers in 59 families originating from the Indian sub-continent who were settled in U.K. They expressed an overwhelming support for maintenance of home-language in their children's schools and their attitudes were not differentiated along instrumental and integrative dimensions of motivations. However, such differentiations persisted in their attitudes towards English. The paper also outlines a procedure for the study of language attitudes of ethnic minority parents.