The United Arab Emirates have long been in contact with English. Its economy requires high rates of migration, resulting in large numbers of migrants who impact the local linguistic ecology. English acts as lingua franca and occurs in several forms, as labour is recruited from nations having experienced British or American influences. Arabic is…

This paper reports on a study that examined patterns of language maintenance and use -- standard Persian as well as dozens of dialects spoken by Jews in provincial towns -- among three generations of Israeli residents of Iranian origin. Issues of identity, acculturation, and the immigration experience were explored through a language prism as well…

Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the most disadvantaged of the minority groups, account for only about 2.4% of the total population. Within the Minnan dominant society of Taiwan, the Indigenous minority groups are confronted by critical language loss often attributed to cultural and structural assimilation factors. This study aims to investigate…

Language practices and attitudes among young minority language speakers in Thailand, focusing on the Kui language, are examined. Sociolinguistic data obtained from three months of fieldwork in the northeastern provinces of Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani and in Bangkok provide insights into the language competence, language attitudes and…

The research question of the present paper is the following: to what degree (if any) is gender relevant as an explanatory factor in, firstly, the process of assimilation and later, the process of (re)vitalisation of indigenous and minority languages in northern Fenno-Scandia (the North Calotte)? The assimilation of the ethnic groups in question…

This study examines perceptions of language threat in Hong Kong against a background of increasing political tensions between Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China (PRC). These tensions gained international attention in 2014 during the 79-day protests known as the Umbrella Movement and more recently in 2019 due to the proposed introduction…

In this paper, we first explore the trends in the maintenance of migrant community languages among the first generation migrants and then the socio-economic variation in the shift in use of community languages. Our analysis showed that language shift to English among first generation migrants has not been uniform, with some migrant groups adopting…

This article presents the results of an analysis of reported interlocutors in Spanish in a group of heritage speakers (HS), in three communities of the US Midwest. Participants were college-aged bilinguals developing their own personal and professional networks outside the direct influence of their parents. Responses are compared with those from…

One of the focuses of language revitalisation policies is to incorporate minority languages into education. Evaluation of new language-of-instruction models is usually based on the increase of minority language speakers. However, it is also important from an educational perspective to study the possible relationship between performance and…

This study examined the family language policies (FLP) of Korean American parents and how the language practice, management, and ideology components of their FLP and demographic variables predict maintenance of the home language. Results of a large-scale (N = 480) survey show that different sets of FLP and demographic variables contributed to a…

This paper was a subset report of a research project on skill-based English learning strategies by Indonesian EFL learners. It focusses on the attempts to reveal: (1) the differences in the use of strategies of learning speaking skill by male and female learners, and (2) the contribution of strategies of learning speaking skill on the learners'…

Children's exposure to a minority language is often limited to the education domain. Consequently, educational establishments have an important role to play in maintaining and enhancing the linguistic achievements of minority first language (L1) speakers whilst at the same time developing the competence of those learning it as a second language…

This paper provides an analysis of language shift from African languages to English (and Afrikaans) in South Africa, using home language data from the South African population census (1996 and 2001). Although census data have been criticised for its "essentialist" construction of language, they nevertheless provide sociolinguists with a…

This paper examines the transmission patterns of Eastern Brittany's Romance language variety, Gallo, based on quantitative data showing learning patterns of school pupils of the language and their parents in 2003 and 2004. Results confirm the sharp decline in Gallo transmission between generations. Nevertheless, Gallo transmission has not…

The paper presents the results of an empirical evaluation of a mathematical model of ethnolinguistic vitality. The model adds several new factors to the set used in previous models of ethnolinguistic vitality and operationalises it in a manner that would make it easier to compare the vitality of different groups. According to the model, the…