Household Perspectives on Minority Language Maintenance and Loss: Language in the Small Spaces

Isabel Velázquez

Published by Multilingual Matters 2018

Household Perspectives on Minority Language Maintenance and Loss

Language in the Small Spaces

Isabel Velázquez

In the series Bilingual Education & Bilingualism

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788922289

Overview
Contents

About this book

Investigates everyday minority language interactions within households and families in the US

This book examines minority language maintenance and loss in Spanish-speaking families in communities in the US with a low ethnolinguistic vitality for Spanish. It offers an account of the gendered nature of linguistic transmission and compares the self-perceptions, motivations and attitudes of members of two generations in the same household.

Author / Editor information

Velázquez Isabel :

Isabel Velázquez is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. Her research interests include bilingualism, sociolinguistics and heritage languages, with a particular focus on Spanish in the United States.

Reviews

Quite simply, without intergenerational transmission of a language within families, there is no maintenance and thus very little for linguists to study. This carefully nuanced study explores everyday linguistic choices navigated by working class Mexican immigrant mothers in the Midwest. A must-read for families raising kids bilingually and for scholars interested in the vitality of Spanish in the US.

This book is a fascinating portrayal of the struggle, resilience and triumph of Spanish language maintenance from an up-close-and-personal perspective in the US Midwest. Isabel Velázquez has gifted us with an innovative example of a storytelling sociology of language that will be emulated by researchers in years to come and that shines a bright light on the personal and lived consequences of language policy.

Masterfully written and highly compelling, this book not only foregrounds the voices of Latina mothers in Nebraska’s New Latino Diaspora, it helps us understand the important role they play in language maintenance and transmission, as well as the great cost to society when these processes are interrupted.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface: Language Planning in Intimate Household Settings Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
1. Language Maintenance and Loss in Low Vitality Settings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Latino Language Experience in the US Midwest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
3. Language in the Small Spaces: A Description of this Project Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
4. In What Language Do You Pray? Household Language Use and Parental Strategies for Management Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
5. Mothers and Children: Attitudes and Motivations to Use Spanish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
6. Mothers and Children: Reported Language Competence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
7. Children: Observed Skills in Spanish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
8. Tell Me a Story: Analysis of Children’s Storytelling in Spanish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
9. Toward a Theoretical Model of Language Maintenance in Low Vitality Settings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
10. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Appendices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Author Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Subject Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213