scholarly journals Language ideologies and identities in Kurdish heritage language classrooms in London

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (253) ◽  
pp. 173-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgul Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Language Schools ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article investigates the way that Kurdish language learners construct discourses around identity in two language schools in London. It focuses on the values that heritage language learners of Kurdish-Kurmanji attribute to the Kurmanji spoken in the Bohtan and Maraş regions of Turkey. Kurmanji is one of the varieties of Kurdish that is spoken mainly in Turkey and Syria. The article explores the way that learners perceive the language from the Bohtan region to be “good Kurmanji”, in contrast to the “bad Kurmanji” from the Maraş region. Drawing on ethnographic data collected from community-based Kurdish-Kurmanji heritage language classes for adults in South and East London, I illustrate how distinctive lexical and phonological features such as the sounds [a:] ~ [ɔ:] and [ɛ]/[æ] ~ [a:] are associated with regional (and religious) identities of the learners. I investigate how these distinct features emerge in participants’ discourses as distinctive identity markers. More specifically this article examines how language learners construct, negotiate and resist language ideologies in the classroom.

University Spanish Heritage Language Coursework: Meeting the Needs of All Heritage Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Torres ◽  
Meagan Caridad Arrastia ◽  
Samantha Tackett
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
University Settings ◽  
The Impact

The structure and instruction of foreign language classrooms have changed to meet the needs of the growing number of Hispanic heritage language learners (HLLs) entering university settings. To understand the impact of these reforms, interviews were conducted with 11 HLLs about their experiences in Spanish classrooms designed for their unique learning needs. Although participants were divided in their beliefs of heritage coursework offered, all the students valued being within a community of shared life experiences.

scholarly journals Slavic and East European Language Programs and Heritage Language Communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Susan Kresin
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
College Level ◽  
European Language ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
East European ◽  
European Heritage ◽  
Language Schools

Among Slavic and East European heritage communities, the post-1989 geopolitical situation in Central and Eastern Europe has changed both emigration patterns and core aspects of the relationship between speakers in the homeland and abroad. Many speakers have both an enhanced motivation to maintain their heritage languages and greater resources to do so. As a reflection of this increased interest in Slavic and East European heritage languages, recent years have witnessed a rise in the number and scope of community language schools, established primarily by parents who wish to ensure that their children maintain active use of their heritage languages. At the same time, many Slavic and East European language programs at the college level have increasingly come under threat, due to the combination of reduced enrollments, greater administrative focus on class sizes, and a loss of federal funding. In this paper, using Czech as the base language, I suggest that by placing a greater emphasis on connections with heritage communities, we may be able to enhance the viability of Slavic and East European programs at the college level. This potential is supported by a marked increase in research on heritage language learners over the past two decades, which provides a foundation for curricular adjustments that address the specific needs of heritage language learners.

AN EMERGENTIST PERSPECTIVE ON HERITAGE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O’Grady ◽  
Hye-Young Kwak ◽  
On-Soon Lee ◽  
Miseon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
The Way

It is widely recognized that the processor has a key role to play in creating and strengthening the mapping between form and meaning that is integral to language use. Adopting an emergentist approach to heritage language acquisition, the current study considers the extent to which the operation of the processor can contribute to an account of what is acquired, what is subsequently retained or lost, and what is never acquired in the first place. These questions are explored from two perspectives. First, morphosyntactic phenomena for which there is apparently substantial input are considered, with a focus on the relevance of salience, frequency, and transparency to the establishment of form-meaning mappings. Second, a phenomenon for which there appears to be relatively little input (i.e., scope) is examined with a view to understanding its fate in heritage language acquisition. In both cases, the emergentist perspective appears to offer promising insights into why heritage language learners succeed—and fail—in the way that they do.

"There is no space for being German": Portraits of Willing and Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roswita Dressler
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
German Speaking Country

Some heritage language learners (HLLs) are comfortable identifying themselves as such, while others are decidedly reluctant to adopt this term (Piño & Piño, 2000). HLLs in this paper are defined as those students having a parent or grandparent who speaks German or those who have spent a significant part of their childhood in a German-speaking country (as suggested in Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005, p. 13). This paper highlights case studies of six HLLs of German at the post-secondary level who are participants in a motivation study (Dressler, 2008). Three students are ‘willing’ HLLs. The additional three case studies are of students that I will call ‘reluctant’ HLLs of German, and this paper explores the reasons behind their reluctance and the components of self-identification, which include language identity (Block, 2007; Pierce, 1995); language expertise; affiliation and inheritance (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997); cultural artifacts (Bartlett, 2007) and positioning (Block, 2007).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document