‘Qué barbaridad, son latinos y deberían saber español primero’: Language Ideology, Agency, and Heritage Language Insecurity across Immigrant Generations

Abstract

This case study examines the consequences of community language attitudes and ideologies on later-generation heritage speakers through qualitative sociolinguistic and discourse analysis of 22 interviews with first- and second-generation Latinos of diverse backgrounds in a major US metropolitan area. The findings show that imposed deficit identities derived from ideologies of language purity, proficiency, and individual agency were misunderstood and stigmatized later-generation heritage speakers, leading to language insecurity and avoidance despite overtly positive attitudes toward Spanish maintenance. Results demonstrate the resilience of prescriptive/purist language attitudes and the tension inherent between these beliefs (albeit couched within positive heritage language attitudes) and speakers’ actual bilingualism. Further, they show that the ideologies of individual agency can paradoxically contribute to the imposition of deficit sociolinguistic identities on later-generation speakers and curtail their language use. The study renders visible connections between ideologies of language, identity, and agency and demonstrates how their reproduction within families and communities circumscribes later-generation heritage speakers’ linguistic identities and behavior.

Understanding Heritage Language Learners’ Critical Language Awareness (CLA) in Mixed Language Programs

“…Holguín Mendoza (2018), for instance, emphasizes that traditional HL pedagogies have resulted in the alienation and disempowerment of HL speakers. Similarly, Tseng (2020) discusses the internalized linguistic insecurity that many HL speakers experience as a result of language purity ideologies and explains that, in many cases, linguistic insecurity leads to the avoidance of HL use. Additionally, Pascual y Cabo and criticize the monolingual lens that most HL programs in the U.S. have adopted.…”

“…Some scholars warn that heritage speakers' experiences are not always recognized in HL programs due to a prioritization of standard language practices (e.g., Beaudrie 2015;Bernal-Enríquez and Hernández-Chávez 2003;Pascual y Cabo and Prada 2018;Torres et al 2018;Beaudrie et al 2020;Beaudrie 2020). The underscoring of standard language practices fails to address the unique socio-affective needs of HL students, including negative attitudes toward their language varieties (Beaudrie and Ducar 2005;Martínez 2003) and linguistic insecurity (Tseng 2020), among others.…”

“I Look Mexican, So They Assume I Speak Spanish”: Latinx Teacher Candidates’ Experiences With Raciolinguistic Policing

“…In her description of her linguistic repertoire, rather than framing herself as monolingual given her reported sense of lack of proficiency in Spanish, she framed Spanglish as much of a language as English is, thereby becoming able to position herself as bilingual in English and Spanglish. As she put it, she is very fluent in Spanglish, “the language that I use to move around through my daily life.” Alma's categorization of Spanglish as a language in its own right challenges a history of marginalization against the hybrid language practices of border town Latinxs such as the one she grew up in (Ek et al., 2013; Tseng, 2021).…”

“…As she put it, she is very fluent in Spanglish, "the language that I use to move around through my daily life." Alma's categorization of Spanglish as a language in its own right challenges a history of marginalization against the hybrid language practices of border town Latinxs such as the one she grew up in (Ek et al, 2013;Tseng, 2021).…”

“…More specifically, recruited Latinx TCs may have experienced raciolinguistic policing, or the drawing of unwanted, negative attention to their language practices in connection to perceived ethnoracial affiliations (Flores et al., 2018; Rosa, 2019). Acknowledging these experiences is critical because they significantly inform Latinx TCs’ views of their own language practices and overall sense of ethnic identity (Briceño et al., 2018; Tseng, 2021; Zarate, 2018).…”