Language Proficiency, Use, and Maintenance among People with Vietnamese Heritage Living in Australia

Abstract

Multilingualism provides cultural, economic and social benefits to individuals and societies. Many people with Vietnamese heritage have migrated to English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada and the US. This study describes language proficiency, use and maintenance of 271 adults with Vietnamese heritage living across Australia. The majority were first-generation immigrants (76.6%), spoke Vietnamese as their first language (94.3%), and indicated Vietnamese was their most proficient language (78.5%). The majority were more likely to use Vietnamese (than English) with their mother, father, older siblings, Vietnamese-speaking grandparents, relatives in Vietnam, and Vietnamese friends. They used English and Vietnamese with their partners, children, younger siblings and English-speaking grandparents. They were more likely to speak English when working, studying and watching TV, but used English and Vietnamese equally on social media. The most important reasons for maintaining Vietnamese were: maintaining bonds with relatives, maintaining Vietnamese cultural identity, and building friendships.

Vietnamese–Australian children’s language proficiency and use

“…A questionnaire with two parts was developed with reference to established surveys (Ho, 2010; Lam, 2011; Park, 2007; Tannenbaum, 2003) and factors identified by a literature review of factors affecting language proficiency, use and maintenance (Tran et al, 2019). Part 1 of the survey explored participants’ language proficiency, cultural idenity, and demographic details (see McLeod et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2021) while part 2 focused on family language use and preference, family language policies and rules, and demographic information (e.g., income, language, and education). A detailed description of the survey development can be found in McLeod et al (2019).…”

“…Part 1 of the survey explored participants’ language proficiency, cultural idenity, and demographic details (see McLeod et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2021) while part 2 focused on family language use and preference, family language policies and rules, and demographic information (e.g., income, language, and education). A detailed description of the survey development can be found in McLeod et al (2019). The current study used data from part 2 of the survey which was completed by parents of children under the age of 18.…”

Family Language Policies of Vietnamese–Australian Families

“…[35][36][37][38] The development of the whole questionnaire, and the results of the first part of the questionnaire is detailed in. 34 The second part of the questionnaire was designed to ask parents of children under the age of 18 years questions related to family demographics, family language use and preference, family language policies and rules, and attitudes toward home language maintenance. 14,30 The question group on family language policies and rules included a question of whether or not the parents maintained a set of rules around which language to be used in different contexts or situations by family members and an openended question asking them to describe their family language policies and rules.…”

Consonant accuracy and intelligibility of Southern Vietnamese children

“…The majority of parents who responded were highly educated, which may be associated with their level of literacy and interest in research, as well as that the study was undertaken in three private preschools and one public preschool. Previous research with the Vietnamese community in Vietnam and Australia similarly has included a greater number of highly educated parents (McLeod et al, 2021;McLeod, Verdon, Wang, & Tran, 2019;Phạm & McLeod, 2019). In future research, it would be useful to analyse these data to determine typical non-adult productions and typical phonological patterns to serve as a reference for speech-language pathologists who work with children with speech sound disorders.…”