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"Minority languages"
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Mindsets Matter for Linguistic Minority Students: Growth Mindsets Foster Greater Perceived Proficiency, Especially for Newcomers
Growth language mindsets (i.e., beliefs that language ability can be improved) are found to sustain learners’ motivation and resilience in challenging situations. Considering that migrants who are speakers of languages other than the dominant ones often face challenging daily communications, we examined important but understudied questions of ‘how’ and ‘when’ growth language mindsets predict migrants’ language experiences, including language anxiety, language use, and perceived English proficiency. In 3 studies, we surveyed 2,163 foreign‐born university students in Canada who indicated English as their second language. We found that growth language mindsets positively predicted self‐assessed English proficiency, even 4 months after the initial assessment of mindsets. Answering ‘how,’ we found that migrants with stronger growth mindsets were less anxious, were more likely to use English, and reported higher proficiency, even after accounting for baseline proficiency. Concerning ‘when,’ we found that mindsets have significant and moderate association with language use, anxiety, and perceived proficiency for only more recently arrived students (who lived in the receiving country for less than 7 years). Although newly arrived migrants are more anxious about using English and less likely to use English, they are resilient when they envision growth in their new language. Growth mindsets may help English as a second language (ESL) students thrive in intercultural communication and succeed in language development.
Journal Article
Linguistic and Cultural Collaboration in Schools
This article extends the work of culturally sustaining pedagogy by moving towards the conceptualization of linguistic and cultural collaboration (LCC) in classrooms through reconciliation of majoritarian and minoritized language users. Whereas attention in mainstream educational research has been given to students’ cultures, this article underscores that explicit attention to diverse languages and language varieties is essential to reconfiguration of power relations in schools and reconciliation among culturally and linguistically minoritized and dominant groups. Drawing on scholarship regarding plurilingual and multilingual practice, the authors conceptualize LCC as both a process and a product that expands all students’ critical multilingual language awareness. They draw on an ongoing research-practice partnership (RPP) with a U.S. school district experiencing growing cultural and linguistic diversity. The article focuses on a single school to illustrate how LCC has been taken up as a whole-school approach to leveraging students’and families’cultural and linguistic resources as vital to learning and living together in a multicultural and multilingual world. After outlining development of the RPP following a social design–based methodology, the authors discuss how in practice reconciliation is forged as teachers, students, and their families engage in collaborative multilingual bookmaking. They focus on three aspects of reconciliation (collaboration, restoration, living together) that support students in becoming more language-aware and in moving towards multilingual activism.
Journal Article
Pride, prejudice and pragmatism: family language policies in the UK
In this study, we examine how mobility and on-going changes in sociocultural contexts impact family language policy (FLP) in the UK. Using a questionnaire and involving 470 transnational families across the UK, our study provides a descriptive analysis of different family language practices in England and establishes how attitudes influence the different types of FLP in these families. Complementing the descriptive analysis, we use interview data to understand the driving forces behind the different types of language practices and language management activities, and explore how ideological constructs of ‘pride’, ‘prejudice’ and ‘pragmatism’ are directly related to negative or positive attitudes towards the development of children’s heritage language. The findings indicate that migration trajectories, social values, raciolinguistic policing in schools, and linguistic loyalty have shaped family decisions about what languages to keep and what languages to let go. Our paper responds to the linguistic and demographic changes in British society, and makes an important contribution to our knowledge about multilingual development of children in transnational families. Critically, this study shows that FLPs alone cannot save the minority languages; institutionally sanctioned language practices and ideologies have to make a move from limiting the use of these languages in educational contexts to legitimising them as what they are: linguistic resources and languages of pride.
Journal Article
Multilingualism, Translanguaging, and Minority Languages in SLA
The study of second language acquisition (SLA) has seen important developments in the last decades, including far‐reaching reflection processes that question its scope, method, and aims. One of the most influential articles was published by Firth and Wagner (1997) who highlighted the role of the social context. The Douglas Fir Group (DFG) article (2016) also highlights the role of the social context and proposes a new transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. In this commentary, we look at some of the ideas discussed in the DFG article as well as in the articles in this Special Issue regarding new perspectives and critical questions in SLA. Our ideas are obviously shaped by our own social context, which is European, and our type of multilingualism, which involves not only English but also minority languages.
Journal Article
Language Learning Motivation and Language Attitudes in Multilingual Spain From an International Perspective
In Spain, more than 40 % of the population lives in officially bilingual regions in which the minority language is used as a means of instruction at school and university. In addition, the increasing importance attached to learning English has led to the proliferation of multilingual school programs in which different languages are used to teach content. With this background in mind, this article analyzes students' motivation to learn Spanish, minority languages (Basque, Catalan, or Galician), and English (as the predominant foreign language). Because the percentage of immigrant students has steadily increased in the last 2 decades, special attention will also be paid to how they react to the multilingualism they have to face in the education system. The review of the literature will critically discuss the impact of global English on motivation to learn the other languages in contact and will examine the adequacy of current research approaches with a view to developing an agenda for needed research.
Journal Article
Ethnic minority language maintenance from a sociopolitical multilayered perspective: the mongolian case in Northeast China
The promotion of
Putonghua
, as a national language policy in China, has been implemented by drawing on both historical and modern practices. How to preserve the cultural essence of ethnic minority languages alongside strategies to promote
Putonghua
is worthy of attention. Based on a multilayered framework approach encompassing macro, meso, and micro levels, this study investigated the current status and protection measures of the Mongolian languages in Qian Gorlos Mongolian Autonomous County (Qianguo County), Northeast China. Multiple data were collected by means of policy documents, linguistic landscaping, and semi-structured interviews with community members. Findings reveal positive collaborations among government, schools, families, and local residents for language preservation, with family language planning playing a crucial role at the meso level. Notably, differences in linguistic landscape standardization exist between autonomous counties and provincial-level autonomous regions. Future research should adopt multilayered frameworks to comprehensively investigate minority language use and preservation across regions.
Journal Article
Which Measures Better Discriminate Language Minority Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder? A Study Testing a Combined Protocol of First and Second Language Assessment
Purpose: This study aimed to assess a protocol for the evaluation of developmental language disorder (DLD) in language minority bilingual children (LMBC). The specific aims were (a) to test group differences, (b) to evaluate the discriminant validity of single measures included in the protocol, and (c) to define which model of combined variables had the best results in terms of efficacy and efficiency. Method: Two groups of LMBC were involved, one with typical development (n = 35) selected from mainstream schools and one with DLD (n = 20). The study protocol included the collection of demographic information and linguistic history; a battery of standardized tests in their second language (Italian), including nonword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and vocabulary and narrative skills; and direct (children's evaluation) and indirect (parents' questionnaire) assessment of linguistic skills in their first language. Results: Results showed that the two groups differed in almost all linguistic measures. None of the single measures reached good specificity/sensitivity scores. A combined model that included direct and indirect assessment of first language skills, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and nonword repetition reached good discriminant validity, with 94.5% of cases correctly classified. Discussion: The study defines a complex picture of the linguistic profile in bilingual children with DLD, compared to typically developing bilingual peers. The results reinforce the idea that no single measure can be considered optimal in distinguishing children with DLD from typical peers. The study offers a concrete example of an effective and efficient protocol with which to discriminate LMBC with and without DLD.
Journal Article
Teaching and learning resources for minority language certifications in Europe: A comparative overview of availability for Catalan, Galician, Irish, Welsh, Upper Sorbian, and Lower Sorbian
The creation of standardised certifications is a complex procedure, even for major world languages. For many minority and minoritised languages, the development of relevant criteria, specifications, and accreditations may be complicated by historical, societal, and political factors. In developing the author’s previous work on the topic, this contribution will analyse the teaching and learning resources relating to the official certifications for six languages which are generally viewed as minority languages: Catalan, Galician, Irish, Welsh, Upper Sorbian, and Lower Sorbian. Noting that certification possibilities are available in a wider range of minority languages, the principal selection criterion for the present interdisciplinary study was that the relevant official certifications comprised a portfolio of independent qualifications which were available at different levels and were explicitly aligned to the CEFR. Based on analysis of the official materials available on the websites of the relevant certifications, the study delves deeper into the types of teaching and learning resources available, including specimen examination papers, specially-designed textbooks, online training courses, and other pedagogical materials. In addition to summarising the current state of play for the six languages profiled, it also aims to offer suggestions on how resources for other minority language certifications could be expanded in the future.
Journal Article
Minority Language Maintenance: A Case Study of Mandaran Language in Kampung Mandar Village, Banyuwangi
This study focuses on the maintenance of Mandaran as a minority language used by the Mandar community in Kampung Mandar Village, Banyuwangi. The primary objective of this research is to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of Mandaran as well as the strategies employed by the community to maintain its use amid the dominance of the majority language. This study employs a qualitative approach with data collection techniques including participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. The findings reveal that the process of maintaining Mandaran involves several key aspects. First, language choice patterns across various domains of life, such as family, social environment, workplace, education, social media, and in customary practices and traditions. Second, the language attitudes of the Mandar ethnic community towards the use of Mandaran. Third, the degree of language maintenance determined by language choice, language attitudes, the role of rituals and traditions, and the intensity of language use. Fourth, determining factors affecting the maintenance of Mandaran include the language's social status, its speakers' distribution, and institutional support. Furthermore, the discussion addresses strategic themes such as language maintenance and revitalization, language attitudes about cultural identity, language choice dynamics within mixed families, the influence of language contact on language shift, the role of economic factors, and the contribution of rituals and traditions in sustaining the existence of Mandaran within a multilingual society.
Journal Article