The prestige and perceived value of home languages. Insights from an exploratory study on multilingual speakers’ own perceptions and experiences of linguistic discrimination

Schroedler, Tobias; Purkarthofer, Judith; Cantone, Katja Francesca

doi:10.1080/01434632.2022.2121402

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The kind of choice a family makes about their language usage, e.g., to use it at home and take measures to hand down a heritage or minority language to children, largely depends on the perceived value of the language considered by the speaker per se (in terms of beliefs), which in turn can be influenced by broader societal attitudes and ideologies (Schroedler et al 2022).…”

Section: Family Language Policies and Hl Maintenancementioning

confidence: 99%

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

Cangelosi,

Borghetti,

Bonifacci

2024

Languages

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The growing field of family language policies (FLPs), defined as overt and explicit planning in relation to language use among family members, has garnered increasing interest. FLPs influence child–caretaker interactions and are closely linked to child language development and acquisition. This study investigates the impact of FLPs on children’s proficiency in their heritage language (HL). Employing a multi-method approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 53 multilingual parents to explore their beliefs, ideologies, and language management within the family context. Concurrently, their children were administered standardized tasks in their heritage language (HL) to assess receptive vocabulary skills and morphosyntactic comprehension. Our findings indicate that parents’ perceived value of the HL significantly correlates with their children’s language performance, going beyond the influence of reported domestic language usage.

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Section: Family Language Policies and Hl Maintenancementioning

confidence: 99%

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

Cangelosi,

Borghetti,

Bonifacci

2024

Languages

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“…Venturin, 2020), migrants from marginalized backgrounds, or ethnic minorities (cf. Rzepnikowska, 2019;Schroedler et al, 2022;Wang & Dovchin, 2022;Yağmur, 2017). Clearly, the complexity of multilinguals' selfperceptions makes it an exciting and still relatively unexplored area of research.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Constellation of Voices: How the Network of Languages in Migrants’ Minds, Hearts, and Interactions Shape Their Sense of Self

Panicacci

2023

Discourses on Culture

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Multilinguals often report having different perceptions of themselves when switching languages, typically indicating their first language (L1) as the one in which they feel more authentic and describing a sense of detachment when using any foreign language (LX). This phenomenon amplifies in migration contexts, where the LX is the language of the host society. The present study approaches the topic in a holistic way, by interconnecting the L1 and LX dimensions and investigating their joint influence on migrants’ self-perceptions. Data from 468 Italian migrants living in English-speaking countries, supported by 5 in-depth interviews, revealed that the maintenance of an emotional and cognitive bond with the L1 anticipated stronger perceptions of self-change when speaking the LX. Conversely, higher levels of dominance in the LX and its use in social interactions predicted milder feelings of difference. Participants described their identity shifting as a reflexive sociolinguistic practice in response to their emotional and cognitive needs.

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“…Consistency of input (e.g., OPOL, One Person-One Language, Chevalier 2015) and multilingual discourse strategies of adults interacting with children (Chevalier 2015;Quay 2011) have been discussed as successful strategies in the context of early child trilingualism. In addition, there are factors which add to positive language prestige (especially of the minority language), which are difficult to measure (Schroedler et al 2022) or to a prestigious, valuable image of the minority language(s) (Barron-Hauwaert 2000;Faingold 1999, p. 287;Hoffmann and Stavans 2007, p. 63;Quay 2001, p. 193;Wang 2008, p. 63). (Speakers') attitudes towards multilingualism add to the possible influencing factors.…”

Section: Acquisition Strategy 2 (Strategy Based On Linguistic Knowledge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

AAiMLL: Acquisition Advantages in MultiLingual Learners: The Case of the Multilingual Child

Müller

2023

Languages

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Cognitive science has demonstrated that multilinguals (including children) show a cognitive advantage over monolinguals. Linguistics has provided evidence that multilinguals (including children) are able to successfully separate their lexicons and grammars and negotiate multilingual environments. Apart from these achievements, linguistics has generally failed to demonstrate a multilingual advantage related to the multilingual’s linguistic proficiency. The present article summarizes the current literature, which shows that there are first indications of an acceleration effect in multilingual children. This effect is discernable if the languages radically differ, if the child uses a ‘weak’ language (often a minority language), if the child acquires more than two languages from birth, and if contact with the language exhibiting the acceleration effect is delayed until kindergarten age. This kind of acceleration effect represents an explanation gap under current theorizing in cognitive science and linguistics, and calls for a new language acquisition theory, a best-of-breed solution for further research in language acquisition. AAiMLL (Acquisition Advantages in MultiLingual Learners) combines cognitive and linguistic aspects with a threshold theory. It is claimed here that the multilingual child learns from two cognitive acquisition strategies. One is fed by grammatical features, and requires the child to (re-)use already acquired knowledge by generalizing to new domains. The other strategy enables the child to consider rejected alternatives of earlier decisions in one language, for use in the other language. An acceleration effect related to the multilingual’s linguistic proficiency is indicative of the success of both strategies. The success of the strategies is argued to be related to a threshold of language usage from a quantitative or a qualitative perspective.

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The prestige and perceived value of home languages. Insights from an exploratory study on multilingual speakers’ own perceptions and experiences of linguistic discrimination

Cited by 10 publications

References 57 publications

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

A Constellation of Voices: How the Network of Languages in Migrants’ Minds, Hearts, and Interactions Shape Their Sense of Self

AAiMLL: Acquisition Advantages in MultiLingual Learners: The Case of the Multilingual Child

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