Role of Literacy in Heritage Language Maintenance
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Grant: Students Partnering with Faculty (SpF)
Brian Bejarano
CoPIs:
Aida Perovic, Kathleen Tobin, Erin Cervelli,
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Iyad Ghanim
Abstract:
Heritage bilingualism often results in the attrition of a home language as a result of increased use of a societal language. Previous studies explored reasons for this phenomenon and largely identified culture and language use as the major factors to maintain a heritage language. However, these reasons may not maintain in linguistically and culturally diverse areas, and few studies have explored the factors that contribute to language maintenance in diverse communities that align with the speaker’s cultural identity and upbringing. In this study, we use surveys and interviews to explore the phenomenon of heritage bilingualism in communities that are linguistically and culturally diverse in central and surrounding regions of New Jersey. Similarly to existing work, results indicated that bilinguals still experience attrition of Spanish when the community of residence is already bicultural and bilingual; however, differently from previous work, speakers’ cultural identity provides a lesser motivation to use heritage Spanish into adulthood than described in previous literature. Themes from interviews enriched these results and demonstrated a distinction between the in-group and out-group of Spanish speakers that was not dependent on culture.