Language Variation in Mandarin as a Heritage Language: Subject Personal Pronouns

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Xinye Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Usage Pattern ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
First Languages ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Because of limited language input, different dominant languages, and learners’ differing backgrounds, the acquisition of heritage languages is distinguished from the acquisition of L1 and L2. Few studies of Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) have explored whether students can acquire native-like sociolinguistic competence and language-specific variables with educational input. Based on a sociolinguistic variationist perspective, this study investigates the acquisition of variation between null and overt subject personal pronouns (SPP s) by heritage learners in an undergraduate-level Mandarin program. A total of 11,970 tokens were collected through classroom observation, sociolinguistic interviews, and narratives. Measuring mixed-effects logistic regression with Rbrul (Johnson, 2009), results show that the overall usage pattern of SPP s by CHL students largely resembled that in the input provided by the language program. Results also demonstrate that linguistic constraints including coreference, person and number, and verb type, and social factors such as discourse context, first languages, course level, and age of arrival had a significant effect on SPP expression by CHL learners. Implications for CHL development and variationist studies in heritage languages are discussed.

scholarly journals A manutenção do espanhol e a consciência linguística das crianças peruanas no Japão: um experimento de aulas de língua espanhola (amigos espaneses) no empoderamento da identidade

2016 ◽  
pp. 94-122
Author(s):  
Sachie Miyazaki
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Language Program ◽  
The Public ◽  
Foreign Population ◽  
First Languages ◽  
Culture Education

Japan has experienced a growth in its foreign population during the last two decades. In many ways, the growth has brought diversity to Japanese culture, education, and communities. During the first decade especially, educators did not have specialized training and struggled teaching culturally and linguistically diverse children. Although the situation has been improving for both teachers and children, it is still difficult for children to maintain their first languages and cultural identity in Japan. One reason for this difficulty is that governmental support tends to emphasize language education at early stages, and there is a lack of understanding of the importance of nurturing bilingual children in the public educational system. This paper examines how heritage language program can empower minority children in Japan.

Constraints on speech rate: A heritage-language perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692092093
Author(s):  
Naomi Nagy ◽  
Marisa Brook
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Highly Correlated

Research questions: Polinsky argues that speech rate in heritage languages is highly correlated with proficiency level. In sociolinguistics studies, speech rate in monolingual speakers is found to be conditioned by social factors. What occurs when both proficiency and social factors vary? Is speech rate a valid measure of proficiency? Methodology: We use two automated methods of measuring articulation rate (syllables per second), cross-referenced to improve accuracy: an orthographic vowel count and an acoustic measure of amplitude changes from syllable nucleus to periphery. Data and analysis: Across 51 speakers, each recorded in an hour-long conversation in Heritage Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, or Homeland Italian, we calculate speech rate in more than 10,000 clauses. Findings: Linear regression analyses reveal that articulation rate correlates with generation (since immigration) and age, but, surprisingly, not with ethnic orientation, sex or language. Age and generation are partly collinear in our sample, and models with generation fit better than those with age. We also find that articulation rate does not predict performance on sociolinguistic variables (voice onset time for stops, subject pronoun presence) in heritage varieties. Originality: This study compares two ways of calculating articulation rate automatically, examining whether speech rate is a viable stand-in for proficiency when social factors and proficiency vary independently. We resolve several obstacles to using articulation rate as a stand-in for more labor-intensive proficiency measures in spontaneous speech data. Implications: These findings suggest that speech rate is a valid proxy for heritage language proficiency. The factor with the strongest effect is generation since immigration (indicating the dominant language in the speaker’s childhood community). The effects of the social factors are complex but must be considered in order to interpret the proficiency measure accurately.

Heritage Language Instruction for Post-secondary Students from Immigrant Backgrounds

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Kimi Kondo-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Students ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Post Secondary

The “intergenerational transmission” of heritage languages (HLs) is crucial to the vitality of heritage language communities (especially for indigenous communities, where immigration is not a source of new speakers). We know, however, that HLs in the United States often do NOT survive well from one generation to the next as the shift to English takes place. In conjunction with the Second National Conference on Heritage Languages in America, a small group of researchers met to discuss priorities for research on intergenerational transmission of languages. Each of the ten researchers who participated prepared a short paper, posing research questions with some commentary to guide future research. Those papers form the major part of this article, covering topics related to language ecological patterns (in communities, families, and institutions), language ideology, measurement issues, and literacy.

Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language Instruction: A Critical Applied Linguistic Approach

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
College Level ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Dialect Awareness ◽  
Linguistic Approach

The present paper argues that while the Spanish for Heritage Learners (SHL) profession has given ample attention to sociolinguistic issues such as linguistic standards and language variation in teacher training, it has not yet given sufficient attention to the promotion of dialect awareness among heritage learners themselves. After discussing the role of dialect in heritage language pedagogy, I review some of the ways in which dialect awareness has been fostered in existing SHL textbooks and ancillary materials. I argue that these approaches can be sharpened by attending to the social functions of language variation. I present a critical applied linguistic approach to dialect awareness that focuses on the indexical aspects of language variation in society. I discuss three strands of this approach to dialect awareness: functions of dialects, distributions of dialects, and evaluation of dialects. Finally, I suggest some activities to present these strands in a first year college level Spanish for heritage learners class.

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.

Using Materials in Refugee and Immigrant Adults' Heritage Languages in Instruction

2020 ◽  
pp. 422-447
Author(s):  
Fernanda Minuz ◽  
Belma Haznedar ◽  
Joy Kreeft Peyton ◽  
Martha Young-Scholten
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Resource ◽  
Reading Materials ◽  
Adult Immigrants ◽  
Community Access

There has been a shift in receiving countries and their education programs for adult immigrants around the world. A complete focus on immigrants' cultural integration and learning of the language of the country has shifted to an understanding that supporting heritage language maintenance benefits adults with little or no formal schooling in that language, including a more nuanced sense of identity, stronger second language (L2) and literacy learning, and confidence in supporting the schooling of the younger members of their communities. Teachers and tutors need, but lack, professional development focused on implementing instructional approaches that incorporate this new focus and on using reading materials in learners' languages. This chapter describes a new Online Heritage Language Resource Hub, which gives teachers, tutors, adult learners, and younger members of the community access to materials in hundreds of immigrants' languages. It also provides teachers ways to use the reading materials in the Hub in their classes with adult learners.

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