Heritage Language Maintenance among Bangladeshi

‘Little Bangladesh’: A
Language Landscape
Subi Subhan
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Locale
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(Source: http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/india.html)
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Foreign-born as a percent of metropolitan
population, 2000/01
Percent of Metropolitan Population
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
To ro nto
M iami
Vanco uver
Sydney
Lo s A ngeles
New Yo rk
M o ntreal
Foreign-born population in several major metropolitan cities
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001; U.S., Census
Bureau, 2000 (Ryerson University, 2004)
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Top Spoken Languages of the World: Number of Native Speakers
Rank Order
Language
Number of speakers
1
Mandarin Chinese
885,000,000
2
Spanish
332,000,000
3
English
322,000,000
4
Bengali (Bangla)
189,000,000
5
Hindi
182,000,000
6
Portuguese
170,000,000
6
Russian
170,000,000
8
Japanese
125,000,000
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Demographics of Bangla Speakers
Area
Number of
Bangla
___ Speakers
Speaks Only Speaks
Bangla
Bangla
at home at home
Toronto 18,470 15,785
Canada 34,650 29,705
6,050
12,840
Mostly Speaks
Bangla
at home
5,640
9,615
Equally Speaks Regularly Speaks
Bangla and English
Bangla
at home
at home
1,500
2,780
2,595
4,470
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Purpose of the Study
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To surface the emic story of the Bangladeshi
immigrants in Toronto as they transmit their
language and the values that accompany
language, to the next generation.
To surface the issues of language
maintenance/attrition particular to this group.
To describe the emerging pattern of practices
and manifest attitudes regarding first language
maintenance/attrition in the daily lives of these
families living in the Toronto area.
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Flowchart of the Research Design
_________________________________
Naturalistic Exploratory Inquiry
Data Collection:
Ethnographic
Fieldwork
Fieldwork
Observation
Analysis and
reporting:
Portraiture
Data collection:
Historical
interviews and
sources
Conversational
interviews
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Research questions:
1. To what extent is language maintenance noticeable within the
families of Bangladeshi immigrants in Toronto?
2. To what extent and in what ways is the heritage language present
and used in the context of the families?
3. What are the ranges of relationships that Bangladeshi immigrant
families in Toronto have with outside contexts and resources with
regards to their heritage language?
4a. In what ways do parents or adults in the family convey values and
attitudes about heritage language to their children?
4b. How much importance do parents attach to the transmission of
heritage language?
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Participants
Researcher
 Three Families – based on convenience and availability
 Resource people – knowledgeable members of the population under
study or associated people
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Instrumentation
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Researcher
Ethnographic Fieldwork
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Observation notes
Conversational interviews
Historical research methods
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Documents reviews
Historical interviews
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Method
Ethnographic methods
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Historical methods
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Data Collection
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Three years of rapport building - contributing to background information
One full cycle of observation supplemented by a few rapid assessment
tools
Three families observed for three to four days each
Note writing in between
Informal conversations
Reviewing documents
Mostly private spaces - home
Families followed outside to public spaces – streets, stores, and religious,
cultural and social congregations
Resource people interviewed privately face-to-face and over the phone
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Analysis
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Qualitative methods – coding and seeking the pattern
Using ‘N-6’ and ‘manually’
Bracketing interview
Triangulation
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Source
Data
Theory
Member checking

Guest analyst
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Reporting
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‘Potraiture’
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A thick description of the background and of the lives of the subjects observed
“[I]ntends to address wider, more eclectic audiences… beyond academy’s inner
circle, [and] to speak in a language that is not coded or exclusive” (Lawrence-Lightfoot &
Davis, 1997, p.10)
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Findings
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The Emergent Pattern
Three important aspects of the emergent
pattern:
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Children’s role and preferences
Parents’ priorities
Parents’ lack of awareness about or negligence of
language education.
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Children’s Role and Preferences
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Seen but rarely heard
Functional interaction only
Language use habits and communication
Children’s role in language use and communication
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Parents’ Priorities
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Adults’ Role and Attitude Regarding Children
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Health
Companionship and entertainment
Children’s choice
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Parents’ Priorities
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Other Priorities
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Survival and adjustment
Lack of life-skills
Information sharing
Networking
Socialization and preoccupation with life and
family left behind
‘Fitting in’ and identity crisis
Importance of food
Time spent on food
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Non-prioritized Status of Heritage
Language Education and Maintenance
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Religious education
English education or learning English
Tutoring and other elements
Lack of awareness and negligence of
heritage language
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Relationships with outside contexts
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Negative
 Religious observance
 Cultural shows
 Public libraries
 Bookstores
 Media stores
 TDSB language programs
 University of Toronto
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Positive
 Private institutions for cultural instruction
 Social visits
 Ethnic enclaves (although not exclusively ethnic)
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Confusing Cultural Values
The girls holding the letters to
spell ‘Happy New Year’ in the top
picture are wearing cotton
handloom saris in traditional style
and flowers.
The girl in the bottom picture is
wearing Bollywood influenced
shelwar kameez currently
popular among upper class
urban Bangladeshis.
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Parents’ views towards transmission of
language
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Very little effort noticed among the parents
The general assumption – automatic transmission
Most parents do not seem to notice the lack of use by children
Acceptance - “Oh well, after all this is Canada, what should we
expect?”
Assumption - only English is needed to be successful
Giving excuses and avoiding or postponing the issue of heritage
literacy education
Parents find it challenging to find time, means, & context to
transmit
Children immigrated older also slack use and practice – parents
lack awareness and knowledge
Efforts of a few parents - not strong enough for whole group to
maintain heritage language
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Follow up
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Less visibility of children
Blending outfits and Westernization
More cultural groups and performances – but only
adults are involved
Complete loss of language habits in the cohort of
children
Disappearance of the audiovisual outlets
Reduction of number of newspapers
Conversion of bookstores
Rise of the internet
Change in language program enrollment – a positive
trend?
Continued lack of funding in needed areas
Increased number of businesses
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Conclusion
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Families with children generally show definite signs of language
attrition
Only a handful of such families show evidence making attempts
to maintain heritage language
Few families take Bangla school seriously
Some others are known of trying to teach their children Bangla
literacy at home
A few others consciously enforce speaking Bangla at home,
reportedly
Encouraging children to perform in cultural activities - negligible
portion of the population
Language transmission generally neglected at younger age or is
assumed to be automatic process
Primary and junior age children – more susceptible to attrition
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Thank you!
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