Language Maintenance Efforts Research Articles

Language maintenance, emotional investments, family values and imagined futures

ABSTRACT This research investigates how Jewish-Israeli immigrant parents’ approach to Hebrew maintenance relates to their emotional investments and connection to their homeland. It integrates a values-based perspective with Tannenbaum's Coping and Defence Mechanism framework, which centres the emotional aspect of family’s language maintenance decisions. The connection between language maintenance efforts and emotions is an understudied phenomenon that is increasingly relevant to the lived experience of immigrants. Whilst some authors have mentioned Tannenbaum’s framework in reference to the emotional aspect of language maintenance, it has yet to be applied on a theoretical or practical level to determine its pertinence to particular immigrant populations. Furthermore, New Zealand’s Israeli immigrant population remains an understudied minority group for whom emotionality is likely to impact language maintenance efforts. Thematic analysis of six semi-structured interviews revealed participants’ language maintenance efforts were inconsistently aligned with their connection to their homeland, however, could be described as coping or defence mechanisms in other ways. In particular, participants showed an investment in pursuing ‘imagined futures’ they wanted for their children through their language choices. A suggestion for the inclusion of this alongside a values-based perspective within Tannenbaum's framework is provided with the intention of broadening the framework’s applicability.

English Language Attrition Levels and Language Maintenance Efforts among Indonesian Non-English Department Students

In the EFL context, the primary linguistic environment for learners is a formal classroom in which they receive input, feedback, and opportunities to practice with teachers and other learners. However, as learners graduate from schools, they might no longer have access to such an environment and thus be deprived of the main intake to support acquisition and retention, which makes them susceptible to language attrition. This study aims to explore the levels of attrition experienced by 165 multilingual non-English department students 30 months after graduating from their secondary schools, the possible factors associated with attrition, and the predictive power of some language maintenance efforts (LMEs) on English attrition. The participants took standardized English tests, that is, Test 1 and Test 2 administered within a 24-month interval and responded to a questionnaire about LMEs. A paired t-test was used to establish a link between attrition level and the identified factors. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the predictive power of LMEs for attrition. The results show that learners with different proficiency levels experience different levels of attrition. Factors like attitude and motivation showed different degrees of correlation with attrition. A negative correlation was found in the three dimensions of LMEs: entertainment, literacy activity, and academic activity. Contrary to popular literature on first- and second-language attrition, the dimension of social interaction has a very low predictive power for foreign-language attrition.

Youth’s individual language policy in shaping family-community citizenship

ABSTRACT This study examines minority youth’s daily language life in the family and ethnic community domains. It focuses on young ethnic minorities in a subtractive language context in Vietnam and how they construct their individual language policy through their language practices, beliefs and management in responding to language policies of the family and community of which they are members. Ethnographic interviews with college-age students were the main data sources. Findings suggest that the youth’s L1-oriented individual language policy was strongly informed by their family and ethnic community’s (in)visible language policies, peer culture and the culture of respect, as well as the broader local and mainstream social settings. The youth’s individual language policy reflected their awareness of family and community desires for them to speak the ethnic language and nurture positive L1 attitudes tying to their family-community citizenship. Developing young people’s sense of family-community citizenship through language, as well as building family – community partnership for conserving a common L1-priority policy among members, may be potential grassroots initiatives which can help effectuate minority language maintenance efforts.

Sweden’s multilingual language policy through the lens of Turkish-heritage family language practices and beliefs

AbstractThis study explores the language maintenance efforts of Turkish heritage-speaker families in Sweden and their relation to state-level language policy from three angles. First, Swedish mainstream language ideology is described as it manifests in legislation, language policy and mother-tongue tuition. Then, the language practices of the families of 105 Turkish/Swedish children (age four to seven) are characterised via a questionnaire survey. This is complemented by findings from a follow-up study two years later, where ten of the families participated in interviews and home observations. Parents preferred to speak Turkish and wanted their child to learn and speak Turkish alongside Swedish. Another common denominator was the children’s early, extensive preschool attendance. Parent-child interaction was predominantly Turkish, although second-generation parents raised in Sweden reported higher uses of the majority language Swedish. Exposure to Swedish increased over time due to schooling, sibling interaction and media use, but third-generation children still spoke Turkish to a considerable degree. In their heritage-language maintenance efforts, many parents enlisted the support of grandparents, mother-tongue tuition, and literacy activities. Parents generally considered Turkish and Swedish equally important and showed low levels of anxiety regarding their children’s bilingualism, unlike what has been reported in studies of the same ethnolinguistic group in other national settings. The interviews revealed that parents who consulted Swedish health professionals and teachers were advised to speak and support the heritage language (Turkish) and maximise exposure to it in the home. Whilst unusual from an international perspective, this is in line with the official multilingual language ideology in Sweden.

Identity and Voluntary Language Maintenance Efforts: A Case of Bilingual Korean-American University Students in Hawai‘i

Summary Reporting on the experiences of four bilingual Korean-American university students enrolled in Korean language classes in Hawai‘i, this case study focuses on their identity development and voluntary efforts to achieve heritage language (HL) competence. According to the participants’ narratives, they all experienced regression in their HL abilities and language shift from Korean to English after entering school. However, they began to regain HL skills as adolescents, which was possible due both to their voluntary engagement with HL literacy and speaking practices and to the abundance of opportunities to learn and speak the HL in the home and community. Transnational connections with their heritage nation, including Korean media and visits to Korea, were key in motivating and facilitating their voluntary HL learning. Their narratives further show that the HL played an important role in the participants’ ability to construct a strong sense of ethnic identity, and that they tended to view themselves as part of two distinct cultures. They were connected to the norms and values of both the receiving country’s culture and the culture of their heritage nation. As second-generation immigrant children, they learned to utilize their bilingual and bicultural knowledge to navigate between the two cultures in a flexible manner, to construct situated identities, and to avoid conflicts and achieve collective identity, solidarity, and group membership. The study’s insights into the role of voluntary effort in HL learning and identity development have implications for HL education.

Trilingualism, Education and Ethnic Language Subjectivities

ABSTRACT This study investigates the subjectivities of tertiary students in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) of the People's Republic of China. Specifically, we investigate self-reported language practices and attitudes in relation to identities in a language ecology with three prominent languages (Zhuang, Standard Chinese [Putonghua], and English). This mixed methods study shows that despite the population size and some educational support, Zhuang language vitality is challenged through subjectivities linked to promotion of Putonghua and Zhuang specific factors (e.g. script and dialectal variations). In addition, the data show multiple interpretations of what mother tongue might mean to people in this region, including those of Zhuang ethnicity. The study leads to insights on multilingualism in this region. It also suggests that a language ecology approach is useful for understanding subjectivities as multifaceted, with multiple influences, helping us better understand why implementation of national policies or community supports on their own are insufficient for language maintenance efforts.

An evaluation of a multidimensional identity measurement instrument: The heritage language speaker identity tool (HLS‐IT)

AbstractThis mixed‐methods study explores the efficacy of a multidimensional identity measurement tool that aims to represent the diverse language experiences of heritage language learners (HLLs) and heritage language speakers (HLSs). Drawing on the thematic commonalities across 13 definitions of HLLs, a questionnaire was developed to capture age of acquisition, self‐reported proficiency level, home exposure, language maintenance efforts, and cultural and familial ties to the heritage community. Questionnaire data spanning HLSs (N = 135) of 41 heritage languages were submitted to K‐means cluster analysis to investigate identity‐based trends across respondents. Interviews (n = 10) and autobiographical essays (n = 4) from a subset of respondents from each resulting cluster were thematically analyzed and used to corroborate descriptive HLS profiles from cluster analysis results. Three HLS profiles emerged from the data set, and their defining characteristics (based on the five HLL identity themes) illustrate the complex interplay of language, culture, family, and education within the HLS population. Qualitative analysis of respondents’ perspectives highlights the challenges of quantitatively measuring inherently qualitative experiences. The study concludes with implications for how questionnaire‐based instruments derived from bottom‐up statistical analyses can be leveraged in future research, advancing the agendas of linguists and educators to better understand and support HLSs.

Culture and Language Maintenance Efforts of the Hungarian Community in San Diego

In this paper, I argue that members of the Hungarian community (who are assumed to be first-generation Americans) living in the city of San Diego, California and have assimilated into the mainstream culture of their adopted country, have developed anidentity that can be regarded as a combination of their native language and culture as well as their dominant language and culture. This distinctively dynamic identity contributes to the maintenance of their heritage language and culture. Through negotiating their identity via intentional code-mixing in their written discourse, they invite members of the mainstream group to learn about and become interested in their culture. Among the many types of significant influences that minority communitymedia can have on ethnic identity construction, there is an opportunity for the community to be present inside and outside of the group as well as operating as an essential communicator of culture and a creator of cultural artifacts. The illustrative material analyzed in this paper is sourced from the House of Hungary (San Diego) website and the latest issues of their newsletter.

Cherishing the heritage language: Predictors of parental heritage language maintenance efforts

Aims: Multilingual families are often challenged with the transmission of their heritage language (HL) to future generations. Departing from this observation, this study aims to investigate which factors correlate with multilingual families’ HL maintenance efforts. The variables taken into account are the families’ language policy (FLP), advice from both Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) professionals and other (informal) sources, the parents’ linguistic and educational resources, as well as their migration generation. Methodology: Exclusively quantitative in nature, the data for this study involve 776 multilingual families in the Flemish community of Belgium. Analysis: These data have subsequentially been subjected to two inferential analyses: a bivariate correlational analysis followed by a logistic regression for a more detailed understanding of the relations at play. Findings: The results indicate a positive correlation between families’ policies and their HL maintenance efforts, in addition to confirming the independence of FLP’s three components (beliefs, practices, and management). Furthermore, contrary to advice from ECCE professionals, advice from other sources is positively and significantly associated with HL maintenance efforts. Finally, families comprised of parents with access to higher linguistic and educational resources are less likely to try and pass on the HL to their children, probably favouring the acquisition of the institutional language (IL). Originality: This paper quantitatively explores factors that correlate with parental HL maintenance efforts using a large and language-diverse sample. This quantitative approach facilitates generalizations for future (qualitative) research and advice-giving bodies to build on. Significance: Our findings bring about greater insights into the motivation of parents concerning HL maintenance and could contribute to the advice given to multilingual families.

Language maintenance mechanisms of Kigiriama language in Ganze Sub-county, Kilifi County, Kenya

Global figures and reports by UNESCO indicate that 90% of the world’s languages are endangered. Kigiriama not being a minority language may attract little or no attention in terms of language shift and maintenance investigation. However, in spite Kigiriama having an estimated number of 600, 000 speakers and the trend at the moment is that many of its speakers and especially the youth are shifting to the use of Kiswahili language in many domains raises questions on the concept of language shift and maintenance. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate on language maintenance mechanisms of Kigiriama language. The study employed Fishman’s Domain theory and Holmes’ theory on language maintenance. The study employed descriptive survey research design. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the study reveal that language maintenance in Kigiriama language is done at family domain, community domain, and media domain and through language planning policy. The study concludes that language the use of Kigiriama language in both formal and informal will enhance language maintenance efforts of indigenous languages.

Minority language maintenance and the production‐prescription interface: Number agreement in New York Yiddish

AbstractStandardization is a focus of language maintenance efforts in many, but not all, minority language communities. What is the impact of this choice on interspeaker variation in maintained languages? This study investigates variable number agreement in Yiddish, a minority language spoken by two distinct communities in the New York area: (1) Hasidic Jews, who maintain the language without standardization, and (2) Yiddishists, who are overtly committed to maintaining a “correct” Yiddish. An analysis of data from 40 sociolinguistic interviews shows that Yiddishists have significantly higher rates of normative agreement than Hasidim do. The Yiddishists’ standard language ideology has also contributed to a leveling of the differences across grammatical constructions, a predictor that is more robust among the Hasidic speakers. These community‐based differences in speech reflect differences in speakers’ prescriptive judgments, which were elicited through a novel postinterview text editing task.

Accepting a “New” Standard Variety: Comparing Explicit Attitudes in Luxembourg and Belgium

Language maintenance efforts aim to bolster attitudes towards endangered languages by providing them with a standard variety as a means to raise their status and prestige. However, the introduced variety can vary in its degrees of standardisation. This paper investigates whether varying degrees of standardisation surface in explicit attitudes towards standard varieties in endangered vernacular speech communities. Following sociolinguistic models of standardisation, we suggest that explicit attitudes towards the standard variety indicate its acceptance in vernacular speech communities, reflecting its overall degree of standardisation. We use the standardised Attitudes towards Language (AtoL) questionnaire to investigate explicit attitudes towards the respective standard varieties in two related vernacular speech communities—the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. The vernacular of these speech communities, Moselle Franconian, is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted to introduce different standard varieties: Standard Luxembourgish in Luxembourg shows lower degrees of standardisation and is only partially implemented. In contrast, Standard German in the Belgian speech community is highly standardised and completely implemented. Results show that degrees of standardisation surface in speakers’ explicit attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation in language maintenance efforts.

Attitudes towards linguistic variation in the Ukrainian community in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT This paper examines the language attitudes of first-wave members of the Ukrainian community in the UK towards the two varieties of Ukrainian present in the community (labelled Diasporic Ukrainian and Contemporary Ukrainian), and considers the language ideologies underpinning these attitudes. Drawing on the analysis of data obtained through semi-structured interviews with second- and third-generation community members, I demonstrate how attitudes towards the two varieties of Ukrainian are mixed, but internally consistent. Positive attitudes towards Diasporic Ukrainian coincide with negative attitudes towards Contemporary Ukrainian, which is considered ‘Russified’ and ‘impure’. A contrasting set of attitudes is also identified, in which informants express negative attitudes towards ‘archaic’ Diasporic Ukrainian and positive attitudes towards Contemporary Ukrainian. I show that attitudes towards the two varieties of Ukrainian appear to be connected to attitudes towards Russian and are influenced by purist ideologies and interviewees’ perceptions of the relationship between Ukrainian language and identity. I consider how the mixed nature of these language attitudes may have a negative impact on future language maintenance efforts in the community, as the choice to teach one variety of Ukrainian over another may prevent attendance at Ukrainian complementary schools, which play a key role in language maintenance in the community.

Standardisation: bolstering positive attitudes towards endangered language varieties? Evidence from implicit attitudes

ABSTRACT Language maintenance research generally argues that providing endangered varieties with a standard impacts positively their vitality by e.g. increasing positive attitudes. This paper investigates whether different degrees of linguistic proximity between vernacular varieties and the standard may lead to different speakers’ attitudes towards the vernacular varieties. Following sociopsychological models of implicit automatic attitudes, e.g. dual attitude models, we hypothesised that varieties that have a more linguistically close standard would elicit more positive attitudes. We then used an online Auditory Implicit Association Test to investigate attitudes towards vernacular Moselle Franconian varieties in two speech communities, the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. Moselle Franconian is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted for different methods of introducing a standard variety. While the speech community of Luxembourg created an ‘own’ linguistically close standard (Standard Luxembourgish), the Belgian speech community relies on a more linguistically distant standard, namely Standard German. Results show that linguistic distance between the standard and its vernaculars can impact on speakers’ attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation processes in language maintenance efforts.

Double-voicing and rubber ducks: the dominance of English in the imaginative play of two bilingual sisters

ABSTRACT Through analysis of a video recording of two bilingual siblings playing with rubber ducks, this article explores the concept that imaginative play can serve as a potential site for language shift. The article argues that the siblings use English as a means to ‘double voice’ (Bakhtin, M. M. (1981[1963]). The Dialogic Imagination (C. Emerson and M. Holquist). Austin: University of Texas Press) their imaginary narrative, thus transmuting the adult world and demarcating their play from the ongoing interaction with their mother. By triangulating this microinteractional analysis with interviews with the siblings’ mother and Irish immersion pre-school leader, the paper further argues that the dominance of English in imaginative play may relate in part to the pro-Irish Family Language Policy (FLP) enacted by their mother and the robust Irish language ethos of the pre-school; in other words, the siblings’ sense of agency is heightened by using English, the language they are not ‘supposed’ to speak. The paper concludes by discussing the conundrum this explanation poses for language maintenance efforts, as it is only through initiatives such as pro-minority language FLPs and minority language immersion classrooms that children are able to acquire the minority language in the first place.

Inclusion of heritage language learners on the autism spectrum: Lessons from second‐generation parents

Drawing on the frameworks of family language policy and linguistic practice, this study examines the constraints and affordances of heritage language maintenance efforts in three families of children on the autism spectrum whose parents are second‐generation Chinese‐Americans. The findings show the parents’ choices for facilitating heritage language maintenance were significantly constrained by the pressures for their children to achieve normative standards and by the lack of supports for addressing their children's intersectional needs. We discuss the implications of these findings and make an argument for an inclusive approach to education grounded in an intersectional understanding of disability and language.

A Bourdieusian perspective on child agency in family language policy

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates child agency in Ethiopian and Colombian refugee families in New Zealand. Emerging scholarship has highlighted ways in which children’s actions may influence family language policies. However, the existing descriptions are typically not embedded in a wider social theory, and have generally not included refugees. This study draws on 3 years of ethnographic observations, interviews with 29 mothers and 17 children and recordings of naturally occurring home interactions from three families. The families were part of a governmental programme for the resettlement of refugees. Data from both ethnic communities indicate that children influence their parents’ socialisation practices through (1) metalinguistic comments, (2) medium requests, (3) language brokering, (4) sociocultural socialisation and (5) majority language teaching. As a theoretical contribution, I argue that child agency is most fruitfully interpreted theoretically within a Bourdieusian framework of structure and agency. At a more micro-level, the notion of ‘cleft-habitus’ supplies a useful tool to discuss the effects of the children’s divergent cultural socialisation. From a practical perspective, targeting children along with parents may be beneficial for promoting language maintenance efforts.

STRATEGI PEMERINTAH KABUPATEN PAMEKASAN DALAM PEMELIHARAAN BAHASA MADURA

This article is about to describe a research result on the study of language maintenance efforts planned by Pamekasan (a district in Madura island). This study is considered urgent due to a fact that Madurese (language spoken by Madura people) have been gradually left by the speakers. Three questions are purposed as the research focus, they are 1) how local government of Pamekasan use instructional field to maintain Madurese language; 2) how local government of Pamekasan use media to maintain Madurese language; and 3) how local government of Pamekasan use linguists to maintain Madurese language. This research is qualitative in design. The results show that the local government of Pamekasan put Madurese language as a subject in local schools that is mandatorily taught; it is also exclusively discussed in any formal forums about curriculum development; the local government also conducts in-house training programs for the Madurese language teachers.

Language maintenance in the Caribbean

This paper uses a case study approach to understand how perceptions of language threat have worked to maintain local language practices on the islands of Aruba and Puerto Rico. Through document analysis, interviews with key players in language policy and planning efforts as well as participant observation, this paper explains the historical build-up of the perception that Papiamento and Spanish, respectively, are in some way threatened. In addition to documenting the language maintenance efforts, the author argues that differing colonization practices impacted islanders’ orientation toward language, such that in Aruba a language-as-a-resource orientation has resulted in societal multilingualism whereas a language-as-a-problem orientation has resulted in monolingualism on the island of Puerto Rico.

Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions

AbstractThe present study explores language socialization patterns in a Persian-Kurdish family in Sweden and examines how “one-parent, one-language” family language policies are instantiated and negotiated in parent–child interactions. The data consist of video-recordings and ethnographic observations of family interactions, as well as interviews. Detailed interactional analysis is employed to investigate parental language maintenance efforts and the child’s agentive orientation in relation to the recurrent interactional practices through which parents attempt to enforce a monolingual, heritage language “context” for parent–child interaction. We examine the interactional trajectories that develop in parents’ requests for translation that target the focus child’s (a7-year-old girl’s) lexical mixings. These practices resembled formal language instruction: The parents suspended the ongoing conversational activity, requested that the child translate the problematic item, modeled and assessed her language use. The instructional exchanges were asymmetrically organized: the parents positioned themselves as “experts”, insisting on the child’s active participation, whereas the child’s (affectively aggravated) resistance was frequent, and the parents recurrently accommodated the child by terminating the language instruction. The study argues that an examination of children’s agency, and the social dynamics characterizing parental attempts to shape children’s heritage language use, can provide significant insights into the conditions for language maintenance