The Paradox of Linguistic Hegemony and the Maintenance of Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 512-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Suarez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Linguistic Hegemony

Asian Immigrant Communities' Civic Participation in Cultivating Bilingualism and Biliteracy in the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. 157-171
Author(s):  
Kwangok Song
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Asian Immigrant ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Heritage Language Schools ◽  
Children's Literacy ◽  
Language Schools

This chapter discusses how Asian immigrant communities in the United States cultivate Asian immigrant children's literacy learning in their heritage languages. Although the United States has historically been a linguistically diverse country, bilingualism has not always been valued and acknowledged. Strong social and institutional expectations for immigrants to acquire the socially dominant language have resulted in language shifts among immigrants. Concerned about their descendants' heritage language loss, Asian immigrant communities make organized efforts to establish community-based heritage language schools. Heritage language schools play an important role in immigrant children's learning of their heritage language and culturally appropriate ways of behaving and communicating. It has also been noted that heritage language schools encounter several challenges in motivating heritage language learners. Heritage language schools should be considered as complementary education for immigrant students because they take critical responsibilities to support immigrant students' language and literacy development in their heritage languages.

The Linguistic Vitality of Chinese in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-304
Author(s):  
Na Liu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Vitality

This article examines the current status of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) in the United States, referring to the Capacity-Opportunity-Desire (COD) framework (Grin, 1990, 2003; LoBianco, 2008). After briefly describing the linguistic profile of Chinese immigrants in the United States, the current status and future prospects of CHL in the United States are discussed. Thearticle concludes that a wide variety of programs are available to CHLspeakers, compared to those available decades ago. However, heritage speakers’ capacity in Chinese will be developed only when they have opportunities to use thelanguage and a desire to learn it.

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