The Three-Generation Model (hereafter also the TGM) is the prevailing theory of language assimilation. According to the model it takes three generations for an immigrant family to lose the mother...Show moreThe Three-Generation Model (hereafter also the TGM) is the prevailing theory of language assimilation. According to the model it takes three generations for an immigrant family to lose the mother tongue and shift to English. Since the model forms the basis for theory and research, it is important to ascertain the validity of the model. This thesis therefore examined to what extent the Three-Generation Model of language shift can be applied to contemporary immigrant groups in the United States. In order to answer this question, this descriptive research built on U.S. census data from 1980, 2000, and 2018 to reflect the three generations. This data was collected by IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series). The proportions of monolinguals with a non-English mother tongue, multilinguals, and monolinguals who speak English were determined, in order to describe the linguistic assimilation process. Findings appear to be in agreement with the TGM. While roughly two-thirds of the first generation of immigrants spoke a non-English mother tongue (whether alongside English or not), 95.9% of the third generation reported that they spoke only English, which suggests that they lost the mother tongue. Nearly a third of the first generation was already a monolingual speaker of English in the first generation. The difference between the second and the third generation was especially large. Further research could aim to strengthen these findings, or to find out the reasons behind these results.Show less
This study investigates attitudes toward heritage language maintenance and shift among Chinese parents and their children in The Hague. It specifically explores the attitudes held by the parents...Show moreThis study investigates attitudes toward heritage language maintenance and shift among Chinese parents and their children in The Hague. It specifically explores the attitudes held by the parents and efforts made by them to maintain their children’s proficiency in Chinese language varieties. Ten families residing in The Hague were included in the study. Data for this paper were drawn from an online questionnaire shared through Wechat and face-to-face interviews with two families. Analysis of the data indicates that Chinese parents value their heritage language very much and they make a lot of efforts to maintain their children’s proficiency in Chinese language varieties. The children, however, do not have the same attitudes compared to their parents. Most of them consider Chinese to be a challenging language and do not see the necessity of learning it. Meanwhile, a lingua franca shift from Cantonese to Mandarin is gradually taking place and a new Chinese migrant category has been emerging in The Hague over time. Moreover, the local Dutch schools also play an important role in heritage language maintenance (HLM). My findings suggest that parents should attempt to adopt more measures to encourage their children to learn Chinese, and cultivate interest in Chinese culture and language for their children in order to motivate them to learn Chinese at a young age. Furthermore, the local Dutch schools should also continue the current education system and try to cooperate with parents in emphasizing the significance of Chinese heritage language.Show less
This research investigates the extent of importance Frisian parents consider whilst passing the Frisian language over to the next generation. The results were generated statistically through a...Show moreThis research investigates the extent of importance Frisian parents consider whilst passing the Frisian language over to the next generation. The results were generated statistically through a survey that was forwarded to parents of students in the second, third and fourth year of primary school. The following information was collected from the parents: * The governing language used in the household; * Influential factors of the language choice; * The opinion on the importance of learning Frisian; * The opinion on bilingualism in general. The results indicate that the parents made a conscious choice of their native language. 29% of the respondents speak Frisian at home, exclusively, whilst 49% speak both Dutch and Frisian. The main reason for the choice of speaking Frisian with the next generation is the positive view on bilingualism and the strong will to pass the Frisian language and culture to the next generation. The conclusion of this research shows that the Frisian language is likely to survive and the expectation of a complete language shift from Frisian to Dutch within the next generation is highly unlikely.Show less
