This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the motivations that key policy documents have put forward as justifications for Sweden's mother-tongue instruction in immigrant and historical minority languages as a multicultural policy that has endured for nearly half a century. The diachronic development of these motivations is analysed in four…

This article focuses on the ever-increasing stress on multilingual education (MLE) in policy documents, especially its pairing with mother tongues in education (MTE). This focus brings into relief the relationship between MTE, the preservation of linguistic diversity and social democracy. We argue that the outcome of this relationship crucially…

Indigenous communities, linguists, teachers, and language activists have been developing methods to revitalise endangered languages over several decades. Not only are these methods diverse, they are usually implemented in various ways according to local needs and aspirations. Language revitalisation methods focus on proficiency, but there is also…

Studies on Brunei Malay have made inconsistent findings: while some have asserted that this variety is thriving and is in no way endangered, others have found that its use is now waning. As the dynamics of family speech can inform what is happening linguistically at the community level, this study seeks to investigate the family language policies…

Despite the range of varieties of Han Chinese, Mandarin is the most widely studied variety in research on Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) around the world. To better understand the role of other varieties of Han Chinese in addition to Mandarin, this article presents a synthesis of research on the learning of Chinese varieties in formal and…

This study examines attitudes to language use and maintenance among Yorùbá-English bilinguals in the United States. Using the direct approach in language attitude research, it specifically interrogates attitudes toward using the heritage language (HL) in public domains and maintenance among subsequent generations. It also jointly examines the…

This study investigated heritage language (HL) maintenance and ethnic identity among Korean heritage speakers in the Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii), an understudied population in the field. It focused on patterns of language use and factors (i.e. age at immigration (AI), self-rated language proficiency, and frequency of…

A qualitative research with multiple methods, which investigates the phenomena of language shift and sustainment it of one Dine´ family. A Dine´ father was interviewed. The mother tongue should still be use at home however, the Navajo language is taught at school. I spent eighty plus hours interviewing the Dine´ father. I spent countless hours of…

Despite Nepal's huge linguistic diversity, maintaining minority languages and providing the mother tongue-based education to non-dominant language children are Nepal's two major obstacles. Scholars have pointed to a negative consequence of the standard language ideology on non-dominant language maintenance and mother tongue-based schooling. Using…

This book sheds light on the role of mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB MLE) as a means to enhance educational outcomes, creating a space for non-dominant languages alongside more dominant regional, national and international languages. It brings together a number of underlying concerns including the maintenance of non-dominant…

Immigrant parents are being challenged in several different ways to maintain their heritage language (HL) in the United States. Majority White, affluent communities are one of the many complex language ecologies that exist across the variety of U.S. societies. The research setting of this study, Southern California, is one of the wealthiest…

This study investigated parental involvement in five Korean American families where there was evidence of successful heritage language (HL) maintenance in the second generation. The data in the current study were drawn from interviews of five Korean women who were first-generation immigrants to the U.S. and their daughters who were raised in the…

This mixed-methods study explores the efficacy of a multidimensional identity measurement tool that aims to represent the diverse language experiences of heritage language learners (HLLs) and heritage language speakers (HLSs). Drawing on the thematic commonalities across 13 definitions of HLLs, a questionnaire was developed to capture age of…

For decades, the O'odham language has been in decline. But like many tribal nations, the Tohono O'odham are working to reclaim their language. Located on the campus of Tohono O'odham Community College (TOCC), the center was founded in 2020 and is for all O'odham, including those from other O'odham speaking nations. Creating opportunities where the…

Indigenous people of the world fight to maintain our lifeways, culture, and more specifically our languages. Speakers have endured waves of violence and persecution and in the face of that still fought to preserve and bring back languages. Language loss has been observed by communities and linguists and each figures out ways to document and…