Issues in Heritage Language Learning in the United States

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Heritage Language Learning

Beyond Country of Birth

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Busi Makoni
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Culture Learning ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
African Languages ◽  
African Identity ◽  
Heritage Language Learning

This article reports the results of an exploratory study on how third-generation American-born Africans (ABAs) (i.e., descendants of African immigrants born and raised in the United States) construct their identities in and through learning African languages as heritage languages. Drawing from qualitative data in the form of in-depth interviews, the article argues that while ABAs contest and negotiate their identities through learning African languages and through other, multimodal semiotic practices such as clothing, there is a prevalent valorization of African identity indexed by proficiency in an African language irrespective of whether this is a heritage language. The impetus for this valorization of heritage identity is a feeling of dislocation and delocalization resulting from erasure of ABAs’ English native-speakerhood and constant misidentification as non-Americans by the dominant culture. Learning heritage languages fosters a sense of belonging and connection with an “imagined” home located “there” as distinct from “here.” Thus, through heritage language learning, ABAs construct an “identity of resistance.” The article concludes by pointing out how positive heritage identity metamorphoses into an awareness of not only the cultural and symbolic value of heritage languages but also the potential of translating proficiency in one’s heritage language(s) into economic capital in the global market.

scholarly journals Rethink about Heritage Language Learning: A Case Study of Children’s Mandarin Chinese learning at a Community Language School in Ontario, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxiao Du
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Knowledge Mobilization ◽  
Heritage Language Learning ◽  
Children's Literacy ◽  
And Migration

On-going knowledge mobilization and migration take place on a daily basis in the globalized world. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural country with a large number of visitors and immigrants. One in five Canadian speaks a foreign language other than English and French (Postmedia News, 2012). This case study examined six-year-old Chinese children’s heritage language learning in a community school from multiliteracies perspective using observations, interviews, and artefacts to understand children’s literacy learning. The findings indicated that Chinese children’s literacy learning was not in the traditional repetitive way but involved multimodal communication at school. Useful implications are made for heritage language educators regarding ways to support meaningful heritage language teaching and learning.  

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