Latinx and Immigrant Heritage Language Maintenance

Introduction

Latinx and immigrant families know how important it is for their children to learn English even though they also want them to maintain the heritage language (HL). A growing number of parents in the U.S. view bilingualism as a worthy personal and family goal, and strive to provide their children with the opportunity to learn a second language at a young age (King & Fogle, 2006). However, while wanting to learn a second language, parents consider it important for their children to maintain and preserve their native language at home. King and Fogle (2006) argued that language minority parents are increasingly vocal about desires for their children to maintain their first language and are more assertive about their educational rights and opportunities. While parents have many reasons for raising their children to be bilingual, they have little information about the process and challenges of raising bilingual children.

For Latinx and immigrant families, the integrational preservation of the Spanish language serves as transition and maintenance of cultural values which leads to parents' language ideologies shaping their children's language practices at home (Berardi-Wiltshire, 2017; Liu, 2018). Berardi-Wiltshire (2017), argues that children's chances of developing the heritage language depend on the way parents manage language use in the home, especially if that home is the one domain where the heritage language is spoken. The responsibility of its maintenance relies entirely on those families. Bilingualism is viewed as an opportunity for advancement for children ranging from maintenance of cultural ties to increased economic opportunities or other personal benefits (King & Fogle, 2006). Thus, bilingual language development is considered to be the parents' responsibility (Piller & Gerber, 2018). According to Piller and Gerber (2018), the need for language education efforts within the home domain increase when parents wish for their children to become competent in one or more languages other than English. The authors add that proficiency in English is considered an asset and a requirement for full socio-economic participation while proficiency in languages other than English is considered an incidental benefit or even a burden. This demonstrates a shift in the value of HL to the dominant language.

The ideology of English only education caused for schools in the U.S. to not meet the educational needs for English Language Learners (ELLs) which include Latinx and immigrant students. The schools system is simply not suitable to teach bilingual or multilingual students, but only monolingual students. Research has shown that schools in the U.S. lack instructional programs, curricula, and instructional services for ELLs to develop their HL, and find it challenging to understand the role that culture and language play in the classroom (Brutt-Griffler, & Jang, 2019; Torres & Turner, 2017). Yet, research shows that students who speak languages other than English at home, can benefit academically by maintaining and developing their HL and that a strong first language can serve as an important foundation for second language development (Brutt-Griffler, & Jang, 2019; Lindholm-Leary, 2014).

To better serve the student population from Latinx and immigrant populations, it is valuable to look at the family language policy. FLP is the practice that centers around what the family believes is better for their children’s language acquisition and practices when it comes to learning a second language that is different from the HL. This chapter will use FLP as a lens to understand Latinx and immigrant language ideologies and practices at home. As Curdt-Christiansen (2009) describes it, FLP can be defined as a deliberate attempt at practicing a particular language use pattern and particular literacy practices within home domains and among family members. FLP can be mostly applied to children's bilingual development where the degree to which they hear and use each language, i.e. Spanish and English, depends on parents' explicit or implicit language choices (Surrain, 2018). In other words, FLP addresses child language learning and uses as they are delivered from parental ideologies, decision-making, and strategies concerning languages and literacies and social and cultural context in the family life (King & Fogle, 2013). FLP is shaped by what the family believes will strengthen the family’s social standing and best serve and support the family members’ goals in life (Curdt-Christiansen, 2009).