The Impact of a Bilingual School Program on Generational Heritage Language Loss

• Author / Creator

  Cheung, June M

• With each passing generation, immigrant families often experience the loss of their heritage language. This has frequently been attributed to influences such as societal pressures and a lack of motivation to learn the language. As a result, heritage language classes are regularly suggested as a means to transmit the heritage language to later generations. This investigation examined the impact of the Mandarin-English bilingual program administered through the Edmonton Public School Board on the heritage language abilities in Cantonese, Mandarin, or Taishanese for second- and third-generation Chinese-Canadian immigrants. Participants were asked to complete listening, speaking, reading, and writing tasks in their respective heritage language, as well as take part in an interview and questionnaire regarding their current language environments. Second-generation participants who attended the bilingual program obtained higher scores in reading and writing than their counterparts who did not attend the program. Scores for oral language usage (i.e., listening and speaking) were similar between the two groups. For third-generation participants, those who attended the bilingual program displayed higher scores in all aspects of heritage language use than the third-generation participants who did not attend. In fact, this latter group was largely unable to use the heritage language altogether. These results suggest that the Mandarin-English bilingual program has a positive effect on heritage language maintenance in later generations of Chinese-Canadian immigrants, particularly in regard to literacy. Nevertheless, a decline in heritage language ability across the second- and third-generation was noted, regardless of program attendance. This suggests that while the Mandarin-English bilingual program may slow the rate of heritage language loss for Chinese-Canadians, the attrition of heritage languages continues to occur.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • bilingualism
  • language education
  • immigrants
  • language maintenance
  • Chinese
  • bilingual program
  • heritage language

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-fa5d-c997

• License

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