Determinants of Language Use and Attitudes among Turkish Speakers in Flanders: A Focus on Generational Difference

Abstract

The focus of this research is Turkish immigrants' language usepreference and language attitudes towards their first language, Turkish, in terms of intergenerational differences in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Borrowing the procedure by Yagmur and van de Vijver (2012), 136 participants were given "The Language Use, Choice and Preference Scale" and "The Attitudes to Turkish Language Scale". As we hypothesized that social class, place of birth, gender and age would be related to attitudes to Turkish, they were considered as independent variables in the study. The results indicated that generation with length of residence was significantly associated with some variables. Also, social class was found to be a significant contributor to respondents' attitudes towards Turkish. Gender was not a relevant category in terms of all language outcomes.

Determinants of emotional language use preferences of ethnolinguistic minority children in Antwerp, Belgium

“…However, when emotional acculturation processes occur among children of migrant families, children may adopt a different emotional language than their parents, especially when they are confronted with the majority language from a young age. The proficiency of children in the IL increases with every new generation, usually at the cost of their proficiency in the HL (Alba et al 2002;Alba and Nee 2003;Altinkamis and Agirdag 2014;Portes and Rumbaut 2001). As a result of their linguistic acculturation, children who are more proficient in the IL might then also be more likely to adopt that IL as their emotional language.…”

Interactive acculturation of Turkish-Belgian parents and children in Flanders: A case study of Beringen

“…The Turkish minority is attached to their language and use Turkish extensively in their daily lives to the point that many adults do not feel the need to learn Dutch. This is the case especially for the ones who were born in Turkey (Altinkamis & Agirdag, 2014).…”

The Strength of Cross‐Language Interdependence for Listening Comprehension Proficiency in Turkish–Dutch Emergent Bilinguals: Testing Three Hypotheses

“…Turkish households constitute the largest ethnolinguistic minority (approximately 12% of the population). Turkish shows high vitality as a primary family and community language, creating multiple opportunities for children up to the third generation to acquire and use this L1 as an everyday medium (Altinkamiş & Agirdag, 2014).…”