According to United States census data, over 160 languages are spoken in the U.S., and over 20% of the population speaks a language other than English at home. Bilinguality is a matter of both degree and definition. Most true bilinguals are immigrants as they bring their native language to their newfound country and use it in the household. This study examines different aspects of bilinguality and heritage language. An extensive survey was administered to students from five different public and private universities in the United States. An online 100-item in-depth questionnaire of bilinguality presented in English was designed for this study. The questionnaire asked for demographic information about the subjects, and additionally, it required the participants to provide their self-ratings about their level of competence in speaking, reading, and writing a second (non-English) language. Based on their responses, the subjects were divided into heritage and non-heritage and fluent and non-fluent bilinguals. It was hypothesized that those participants who have two bilingual parents are likely to learn the foreign language at a faster rate and be more fluent than the subjects who had only one bilingual parent or two monolingual parents. However, the main focus of this study was to determine any possible social influences on the maintenance of bilinguality. Parts of the survey dealt with whether or not bilingual subjects have ever been made fun of or felt embarrassed for speaking their second language in public. Further, the sense of pride and comfort in speaking a foreign language was measured among heritage and non-heritage bilinguals. Based on the results of this study, more fluent heritage and non-heritage bilinguals reported a sense of comfort in speaking their heritage language, although they also reported having been ridiculed at some point. Many children of heritage language households face strong social forces against learning their heritage language and are unable or unwilling to maintain the heritage language of their parents. However, it seems that the fluent heritage speakers in this study have a stronger sense of commitment and social and cultural support, which together can help keep their ancestral language alive. Heritage speakers seem to also report a stronger sense of pride about being bilingual than non-heritage speakers.
Author
(s) Details
Lily
Halsted
Department of Psychology, Queens University of Charlotte,
Charlotte NC 28274, USA.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/lleru/v3/5093
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