Czech and Slovak Mothers Struggling to Maintain Children's Heritage Language in North Carolina

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11410%2F17%3A10328345" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11410/17:10328345 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Czech and Slovak Mothers Struggling to Maintain Children's Heritage Language in North Carolina

Original language description

This study offers insight into heritage language maintenance among an understudied population of Czech and Slovak immigrants in North Carolina. Due to their relatively low numbers and geographical dispersal, Czechs and Slovaks in North Carolina find themselves in situations where neither an ethnic community nor a language school is available to support heritage language maintenance. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews with immigrant mothers in ten families, this chapter describes the struggles and dilemmas the mothers faced when attempting to raise bilingual children in a new gateway state. Findings show that immigrant mothers felt isolated and often unsuccessful in their efforts to (a) provide heritage language exposure and instruction for their children; (b) secure suitable language materials; and even (c) supply a viable motivation for heritage language learning. Unable to find support from schools and the larger society, the families relied heavily on transnational contexts and resources. At the same time, the mothers prioritized children&apos;s English language proficiency over heritage language learning, perhaps a result of the general lack of support for societal bilingualism in the United States. The struggles and dilemmas of the mothers have profound implications for both educational theory and practice.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50301 - Education, general; including training, pedagogy, didactics [and education systems]

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Immigration and Education in North Carolina: The Challenges and Responses in a New Gateway State

ISBN

978-94-6300-807-5

Number of pages of the result

26

Pages from-to

241-266

Number of pages of the book

266

Publisher name

Sense

Place of publication

Rotterdam

UT code for WoS chapter

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