Bilingüismo
LANGUAGE SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE
Language shift is defined by Mesthrie, Swann, Deumert and Leap (2001, p.253) as ‘the replacement of one language by another as the primary means of communication and socialization within a community’. It is said that this phenomenon tends to happen especially to the third-generation members of immigrant families. Whether a language is maintained or not to future generations depends on many economic, demographic, institutional support and environmental factors.
The main factor is the usage within the family. Some parents put much more effort than others for their children to keep their first language by using only the heritage language either on purpose or just because of a lack of proficiency in the host language. Others, however, code-switch constantly since children are born, encouraging them not only to listen but also to react in both languages, developing a linguistic awareness. Whereas it is true that this would be positive for the child, in this cases quick or slow shift is inevitable.
A negative attitude toward the language can also accelerate language shift, it can be occurring when an ethnic language is not highly valued and it is not seen as a symbol of identity. Holmes affirmed that “young people are the fastest to shift languages (1992;60)”. Also, it is highly determining the level of integration and assimilation of families within a host culture. There are cases of separation, such as Chinese communities, in which individuals reject the dominant or host culture in favor of preserving their culture of origin. Therefore, they form their own ghettoes so next generations have no other option than to maintain their heritage language.
Last but not least, we would have to take into consideration the education. The third generations are usually the most educated ones. They have a different attitude towards language maintenance than the first generations, who see it as a way to preserve their cultural identity. Instead, the young ones see it rather as a matter of language prestige, giving more importance to the language which is considered more powerful and influential for the future in the current times.
SOURCES
Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A. and Leap, W.L. 2001. Introducing sociolinguistics, Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Holmes, J. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (London: Logman, 1992). Holmes, 1992
