Analyse The Factors Contributing To Language Maintenance Education Essay

Analyse The Factors Contributing To Language Maintenance Education Essay In countries of significant migration, like Australia, newly arrived settlers from non-English speaking countries need to become bilingual, adding to fluency in their own language at least some fluency in English. With the passage of time, perhaps generations, families may find that their ethnic language becomes lost to them. Many consider that this loss is not only a loss for families and individuals, but that it is also a loss for the community at large. For the purposes of this essay, the term â€Å"language maintenance† is used to refer to the ability of ethnic communities, families and individuals to maintain their own language while adapting to the language of their new country. This essay will consider the factors which appear to influence the maintenance of a language, focusing on some of the more powerful social and psychological forces which propel individuals towards the continued learning and maintenance of a minority language. There seems to be little doubt among the researchers that attitudes influence language maintenance. In fact, attitudes towards the minority language and culture appear to underlie the other relevant factors, which include sense of ethnic identity, motivation and family support. These factors will be dealt with in turn in this essay. There is a considerable body of evidence that attitudes to the ethnic language and culture influence language maintenance. In order to consider attitudes towards a language, one needs to consider what makes a language valuable. According to Edwards (1985), greater possibilities of employment and acceptance by the community that speaks the language are some valuable qualities. Factors that devalue a language would include the embarrassment some children feel about parents’ use of the minority language in public when the children want to conform. Gardner (1985) has produced and reviewed studies attempting to establish a relationship between attitudes towards a language and culture and motivation to practise the language and participate in that culture. He concludes on the basis of the research that attitudes are fairly consistently related to achievement in a language. Political issues obviously affect attitudes and Romaine (1989, p. 42), in dealing with the effect of ties with the homeland on language maintenance, wrote that â€Å"refugees often reject the language of the oppressive regime and try to assimilate to the new culture as quickly as possible†. An individual’s and community’s sense of ethnic identity appears to have a profound influence on language maintenance. Issues of identity are extremely personal and often emotional, interwoven as they are with personality. One expects the extent to which a person identifies with his/her ethnic background to influence the motivation behind maintenance of the ethnic language. Some studies (e.g. Bentahila and Davies, 1992) have disputed this expectation. It appears that it is possible for a sp eech community to value its ethnic background and language highly though not passing it on to their children, possibly for utilitarian reasons. Or language may not be considered a core value of ethnic identity, as with the Dutch community in Australia, which tends not to maintain the Dutch language over generations (Clyne, 1982). The Dutch community in Australia, according to Smolicz and Secombe (1979), is a group that does not consider it very important to retain its own culture as distinct to that of the dominant majority. Poles and Greeks, however, are language-centred cultures, in which language is considered an important and defining aspect of group membership. These communities, according to Clyne (1979), do maintain their languages well. It thus appears that a strong sense of ethnic identity is an important factor contributing to language maintenance as long as language is considered an important part of that identity.