| Debra Suarez
SUNY-Albany
Heritage language maintenance and its relationship with second language instruction
FINAL REPORT:
Research in heritage language maintenance, language shift and language loss challenges the assumption that a native language is necessarily replaced by the second, dominant language within two or three generations. Given that this assumption underlies both second language instruction as well as U.S. language policy, an examination is critical.
The purpose of this research project is to examine patterns of heritage language maintencance within generations and across generations, and their relationship with second language instruction. This study offers conceptual models representing the assumptions underlying the traditional relationship between these variables, as well as a model, representing alternative assumptions, which has implications for language use within generations. The proposed study will use the NELS:88 data to test the strength of these two models over time, using the LISREL structural equation model. The result of these analyses will give direction to a qualitative exploration of language maintenance across generations.
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