Using FLP as the theoretical framework (King et al., 2008; Spolsky, 2004, 2009, 2012), this study explores linguistic, extra-linguistic, external and internal factors (Stavans, 2012) that determine parental success in Heritage... [ view full abstract ]
Using FLP as the theoretical framework (King et al., 2008; Spolsky, 2004, 2009, 2012), this study explores linguistic, extra-linguistic, external and internal factors (Stavans, 2012) that determine parental success in Heritage Language (HL) transmission. Migrant speakers of Russian to four different countries (Israel, Sweden, Cyprus and Ireland) are investigated in order to explore this issue.
A total of 345 Russian-speaking mothers with varying length of residence in the host country completed a questionnaire (Otwinowska & Karpava, 2015) focusing on their background, age of migration, past and current socio-economic status, community language proficiency, well-being in the society, and language practices at home. The respondents did not differ in their educational level, but they differed significantly in their employment status, self-identification with the host country culture, host language and its use at home. An average of 91% of participants' children could speak and understand Russian, with no significant differences between the countries.
189 mothers with at least one child aged 6-17 were chosen to investigate the predictors of children's HL literacy, i.e. their ability to read and write HL-Russian. On average, 52% of children could read and write in HL-Russian, but the percentages varied between the countries (Cyprus 78%, Ireland 33%, Israel 41%, Sweden 52%). The multiple regression analysis revealed that literacy transmission depended on several variables, including the child`s enrolment into HL-Russian programs, the mother's age at migration, her self-identification with the host country language and culture, and the active use of HL-Russian with the child at home. Different variables seem to predict literacy transmission in the different countries: while target language level and age of immigration are important in Ireland and Israel, culture self-identification and mother's educational level are the main predictors in Sweden, using language at home – in Cyprus.
Overall, although mothers' identity and HL active use is the key to the understanding family language and literacy practices (cf. Walters et al., 2014), our study emphasizes the importance of different factors for different environments and discusses possible reasons for their importance.
