Mother's social network and family language maintenance

Abstract

This article reports the results of a social network analysis (SNA) performed on the mother's primary network of interaction in 15 Mexican American families in the city of El Paso, Texas, the neighborhood of La Villita, in Chicago, and the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. The goal of this study was to examine potential opportunities for Spanish use by her children as well as sources of information and influence that might shape her views about the benefits and drawbacks of linguistic maintenance in her family. The network features of primary language of exchange, density, strength of ties, level of integration to local, regional and transnational networks and gender segregation were examined. Results suggest that in these families Spanish transmission is influenced by mother's perception of benefit/cost, mother's participation in networks where Spanish is vested with social capital, and mother's linguistic competence.

“Dime con Quién Andas y te Diré Qué Piensas Sobre el Español de los US”: Language Attitudes and Motivation to Learn Spanish as a Heritage Language through the Lens of Social Networks

“…Within this framework, previous related research on Spanish HL speakers in the US is very limited (see Gonzalez 2011;Velazquez 2013;Zalbidea et al 2023). Gonzalez (2011) looked at Spanish HL maintenance in Arizona, to analyze how Spanish speakers use their language resources in oral interaction and the linguistic insecurity that may emerge from it.…”

The Zone of Ethnolinguistic Social Networking (ZonES) in Khalaj Turkic: A Model for Language Endangerment

“…Congruently, Tribur (2017) unveiled the impact of different network types on the emergence of dialectal variation in Amdo Tibetan. The shift-/maintenanceoriented view, on the other hand, is based on the idea that networks made up primarily of close-knit ties serve as a mechanism to support (sociallymarginalized or even stigmatized) minority languages; once these networks deteriorate, it is highly likely that language shift occurs (Milroy & Llamas, 2013;Velázquez, 2013;Tribur, 2017). In this sense, Sallabank (2010) concluded that strong social network ties led to maintenance of an endangered Norman French variety, Guernesiais, with more potential new speakers who were eager to learn the language.…”

“…The study revealed that L1 abilities decreased with each generation, and that limited exposure to L1 caused changes in how lexical items were recalled from the mental lexicon. Velázquez (2013) focused on the role of 15 Mexican American mothers' social network on the linguistic maintenance in immigrant environments in a variety of cities in the US. She concluded that the Spanish maintenance was shaped by mother's social networks in which their heritage language, Spanish, was primarily considered as a social capital.…”

How Output Outweighs Input and Interlocutors Matter for Study‐Abroad SLA: Computational Social Network Analysis of Learner Interactions

“…SNA has also been considered a useful tool for investigating language maintenance and shift in expatriate and immigrant communities, providing a means for comparing differences in relationships resulting from social pressures. For instance, Velázquez (2012) discovered that immigrant children coming from households with a high frequency of parental interaction exhibited increased instances of socialization. Trudgill (2011) likewise postulated that language is a product of various social networks and structures, rather than a random occurrence.…”