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Intersections between language retention and identities in young bilingual children
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Abstract:
This study set out to investigate the connections between language retention and identity construction among young bilingual Spanish-speaking children from Latin American backgrounds living in urban communities in Sydney, It provides a critical examination of the complex articulation between languages, identity and education. The thesis proposes that there are significant cultural, social and political forces involved in language retention in childhood and that these forces mediate and shape identity construction in bilingual children. Much of the research literature on childhood bilingualism draws on dominant and established psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic theories of bilingualism and language learning. These theories do not fully explain the impact of broader sociological processes that impact on home language retention and identity construction in young children. Consequently, in early childhood and primary education, pedagogical understandings of bilingualism and language retention have focussed narrowly on learnability issues and cognitive development. Established theories of bilingualism have not fully articulated the intersections between language retention and identity construction in the early years of children’s lives, where the formation of identity is constantly negotiated, transformed and contested amidst a background of hegemonic English-speaking social fields such as in prior-to-school, school and other community settings. This thesis begins in Chapter One by providing an overview of the limitations of these psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic theories in making connections between identity construction and language retention for children of particular immigrant minority groups. Chapter Two reviews the literature and research. There has been little research in Australia into how bilingual families and their children negotiate identity and language retention. The thesis explores the proposition that the dominance of English and discourses of monolingualism legitimise institutional and educational practices that position young bilingual children, families and educators into marginalised situations in everyday social relations. It is against this field that the research reported here investigated how such sociological factors represent a significant force in children’s lives by impacting on their retention of their home language. Chapter Three introduces the key theoretical concepts used in this study which draws on Bourdieu’s theory of social practice (1990, 1991) and the theoretical resources of cultural studies informed, in particular, by concepts from Hall (1992, 1996) and Bhabha (1994, 1998). These conceptual tools enable the study to examine ways in which identity construction and bilingualism accumulate social, cultural and linguistic capital in selective cultural fields, and how these may hinder or promote the retention and learning of languages in children. Chapter Four overviewed the research methodology involved in this study. It incorporated quasi-ethnographic, case study and interpretative approaches using questionnaires, informal interviews, participant observations, field notes, children’s work and the collection of documentation. The research process began as a pilot study in which 5 adults and 3 children participated. Three interrelated phases followed. The participants in the study included 25 children and 29 family members, including grandparents and parents with different family structures from extended, blended, interethnic and interracial families. An additional 34 caregivers and teachers working in prior-to-school and school settings participated. The first phase involved 14 interviews of parents and grandparents. The second phase involved a case study of parents and their children attending an after-school Spanish Community Languages Program. I interviewed and surveyed 26 children, 13 parents, and 2 staff members. Finally, in the third phase, I surveyed 30 practitioners working with Spanish-speaking Latin American children in prior-to-school and school settings were. The investigation involved the documentation and analysis of young children’s bilingual experiences using Spanish and English in a range of social fields, such as family life, educational and community settings. As the children and their families are the focus of this study, the children’s views about growing up with two languages, and family perspectives and aspirations about living, working and raising children in multicultural/multilingual communities, form the basis of the investigation. Furthermore, the data analysis involved the examination of the evidence to ascertain how the power relations in educational and community settings shape and influence children’s negotiation of identity and the retention of Spanish. Likewise, data relating to caregiver and teacher attitudes towards bilingualism and language retention were also analysed. Chapter Five details the links between diaspora, hybridity and diversity apparent in the cultural histories and heterogeneous make-up of the families and their children. Analysis of the links between Spanish language retention and diversity show that diversity in families is a significant but not conclusive factor in what constituted success in language retention in young children. This analysis examines of the multiple ways in which the families and their children constructed their identities. The influences these constructions have on speaking Spanish were analysed to demonstrate the connections between language retention and identity construction. Chapter Seven draws on the children’s views, experiences and preferences for speaking Spanish to analyse how the linguistic habitus enables the accumulation of cultural and social capital in speaking Spanish across a variety of social fields. Finally, Chapter Eight provides an analysis of how teachers’ and caregivers’ attitudes towards bilingualism and language retention can impede or promote opportunities for children’s language retention. In particular, the evidence indicates that the lack of institutional and structural support for community languages had a direct impact on children’s interest in using Spanish in both mainstream and non mainstream educational settings. Four key findings emerged through the data analysis presented in the evidentiary chapters of this thesis. First, diaspora and hybridity highlighted the significance of the heterogeneity in Latin American families. Second, it was revealed that multiple constructions of identity mediated everyday lived experiences of being bilingual. Third, the linguistic habitus was significant in shaping children’s identity across different social and cultural fields. Fourth, teacher and caregiver attitudes and pedagogical practices towards bilingualism and language retention shaped children’s identity construction and opportunities for using Spanish. In conclusion, this study revealed that there is a strong connection between identity construction and language retention in young bilingual children. In particular, the study highlights the significance of multiplicity and hybridity in shaping identity which in turn forms dispositions that can enable the formation, reproduction and transformation of cultural and social capital. This study investigated the broader sociological factors associated with growing up bilingual and how these mediate and shape children����s understanding of themselves and their families, in terms of how they negotiate two (or more) linguistic codes. Hence, the study has contributed towards a reframing of understandings about bilingualism and language retention in childhood.
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Keyword:
Australia; bilingualism in children; children; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD); identity; language; language acquisition; Latin Americans
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URL: http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/30505
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