In this study, participants learning an endangered language variety shared their experiences, thoughts, and feelings about the often complex and diverse language-learning process. I used phenomenological interviews in order to learn more about these English or Spanish language speakers' journey with the Nahuatl language. From first encounter to…

Within the field of SLA, the incidence of nativelikeness in second language (L2) speakers has typically been explained as a function of age of acquisition. An alternative interpretation, however, is that L2 learners do not attain nativelike proficiency because of first language (L1) maintenance. This interpretation has nevertheless remained mostly…

Imagined identity is the way of positioning individuals or being positioned by others in an imagined world, where individuals' cultural identifications interplay with cultural and language practices. This lays the basis for the current research on the construction of imagined memberships by two young ethnic Korean students in China. An analysis of…

Offering Gaelic medium preschool provision poses particular challenges as most children only encounter Gaelic in the playroom and live in a context heavily dominated by English. Nevertheless, expanding provision for early years education in Gaelic is an important part of ambitious plans to revitalise the language. In this paper we explore the…

This ethnographic study investigated heritage language maintenance among two distinct groups of Chinese immigrant families (Mandarin and Fujianese) from the social network perspective. The results indicated that a co-ethnic network could be a double-edged sword, which works differently on children from different social classes. While the Mandarin…

I interrogate my personal diaries documenting my life in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and Sydney over a 20-year period. Taking bearings from Bakhtinian thoughts, I explore the emergence of my post-diasporic identity as a second generation Korean American through watching South Korean dramas. By conversing with journals kept over a 20-year period, I…

This study looks at how parents in one Spanish-English two-way immersion (TWI) charter school report their participation in various home language and literacy practices. Parent groups, based on a cluster analysis, highlight the heterogeneity of Latino parents at the school while acknowledging the commonalities as well. Four parent groups emerged…

This article explores the mobilization dynamics of a school-based minority language revitalization initiative in the French Basque Country, known as the Ikastola Movement. Bringing the study of language revitalization into dialogue with social movement theory, I discuss how the solidarity of Basque language activists was influenced by state-level…

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has been developing language-specific curricula for a range of languages in the "Australian Curriculum: Language"s and has also undertaken development of a "Framework for Australian Languages", to provide guidance for the development of curricula for specific…

This paper makes a link between two activities in which the author is engaged, i.e. between work on "saving" languages and work on "teaching" languages. Since it is an invited address, the Keith Horwood Memorial Lecture, the author begins by making further, and chronologically prior, to Keith Horwood. Then he addresses three themes of the…

The 2002 Language Policy for Higher Education (LPHE) identifies the currently dominant language of instruction--English--as being a possible barrier to many African students in accessing and successfully completing studies at higher education level. The LPHE thus requires that black African languages be developed at Higher Education Institutions…

In Australia, languages education in early childhood and primary education includes three main approaches: transitional, enrichment and full bilingual programmes. This article proposes that transitional and enrichment programmes in Australia are constituted and shaped by competing and contested institutional, material, discursive and economic…

This book examines how Russian-speaking adoptees in three US families actively shape opportunities for language learning and identity construction in everyday interactions. By focusing on a different practice in each family (i.e. narrative talk about the day, metalinguistic discourse or languaging, and code-switching), the analyses uncover…

Trilingual families need language support if they wish to maintain three languages. Most studies on trilingualism have paid little attention to the influence of grandparents as an affective factor. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the impact of the extended family, particularly grandparents, on trilingual families' language maintenance.…

This article critically examines the mediating role of scholarly expectations and the unexpected in the management--and transcendence--of failure/success as these concepts relate to language revitalization. Deloria remarks that, "expectations tend to assume a status quo defined around failure, the result of some innate limitation on the part of…