Heritage language classes and bilingual competence: the case of Albanian immigrant children in Greece

Abstract

The present paper reports on a questionnaire survey conducted in the course of a broader research project on bilingualism (BALED). It compares two groups of Albanian immigrant parents in Greece with respect to their practices for supporting minority language development. The first group includes parents (N = 35) whose children receive systematic instruction in the heritage language; the other group (N = 167) comprises parents who do not send their children to heritage language classes but may support Albanian language maintenance in various ways. Αccording to their parents’ reports, all children were dominant in Greek. Our purpose was to compare the two groups with regard to (i) language use patterns among family members, (ii) parental practices in support of the minority and the majority language, and (iii) children’s language competence in the respective languages. Τhe ultimate aim is to explore the relations between parental practices and children’s competence in the minority language. Results indicated that parents who send their children to heritage language courses also engage more often in practices which promote literacy in the heritage language at home. These children were reported by their parents to possess literacy skills in Albanian to a higher degree than children who do not attend systematic instruction in this language. Our findings corroborate previous research (e.g. Bylund, E., and M. Díaz. 2012. “The Effects of Heritage Language Instruction on First Language Proficiency: A Psycholinguistic Perspective.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 15 (5): 593–609; Chumank-Horbatsch, R. 1999. “Language Change in the Ukranian Home: From Transmission to Maintenance to the Beginnings of Loss.” Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal 31 (2): 61–75; Schwartz, M. 2008. “Exploring the Relationship between family Language Policy and Heritage Language Knowledge among Second Generation Russian-Jewish Immigrants in Israel.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 29 (5): 400–418) suggesting that literacy development at home and especially attendance of heritage language instruction are extremely beneficial for its development without disrupting the development of the majority language.