Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Immigrants’ Linguistic Adaptation

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Adolescence

American Community Survey estimates that 15.7 million US children had at least one foreign-born parent in 2005–2006. Those children comprised more than 20% of American children ages from birth to 17, and over 70% of them reported speaking a non-English language at home (The Urban Institute 2009). In England in 2008, 14.4% of 3.3 million primary school children and 10.8% of 3.3 million secondary school children spoke a first language other than English (DCSF 2008). In France in 1999, 10.4% of the 12.3 million children reported using a non-French language at home (Kirszbaum et al. 2009).

The linguistic adaptation of these children and adolescents and their immigrant families is obviously important. It influences their personal daily experiences and affects the organization and functioning of national educational institutions. For youth as well as adults, proficiency in the majority language – the dominant language of their host country – serves as a foundation for their relationship with...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 2,050.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alba, R., Logan, J., Lutz, A., & Stults, B. (2002). Only English by the third generation? Loss and preservation of the mother tongue among the grandchildren of contemporary immigrants. Demography, 39 (3), 467–484.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arriagada, P. (2005). Family context and Spanish-language use: A study of Latino children in the United States. Social Science Quarterly, 86 (3), 599–619.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, R., & Schecter, S. (Eds.). (2003). Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bean, F., & Stevens, G. (2003). America’s newcomers and the dynamics of diversity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burck, C. (2005). Multilingual living: Explorations of language and subjectivity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldas, S. (2006). Raising bilingual-biliterate children in monolingual cultures. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castiglione, D., & Longman, C. (Eds.). (2007). The language question in Europe and diverse societies: Political, legal and social perspectives. Portland: Hart Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiswick, B., & Miller, P. (1998). Language skills definition: A study of legalized aliens. International Migration Review, 32 (4), 877–900.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chiswick, B., & Miller, P. (2007). The economics of language: International analysis. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Compas, B., Connor-Smith, J., Saltzman, H., Thomsen, A. H., & Wadsworth, M. (2001). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: Problems, progress, and potential in theory and research. Psychological Bulletin, 127 (1), 87–127.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, J. (1979). Cognitive/academic language proficiency, interdependence, the optimal age question and some other matters. Working papers on bilingualism, 19, 121–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • DCSF. (2008). Annual schools census. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families, UK National Statistics Authority. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000786/.

  • Dornbusch, S. (1989). The sociology of adolescence. Annual Review of Sociology, 15, 233–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckert, P. (1997). Age as a sociolinguistic variable. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 151–167). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Espenshade, T., & Fu, H. (1997). An analysis of English-language proficiency among U.S. immigrants. American Sociological Review, 62, 288–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishman, J. (1966). Language loyalty in the United States. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishman, J. (1971). Bilingualism in the barrio. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishman, J., & Terry, C. (1969). The validity of Census data on bilingualism in a Puerto Rican neighborhood. American Sociological Review, 34 (5), 636–650.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, R. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakuta, K. (1992). The gift of bilingualism. Proceedings of the Esther Katz Rosen Symposium on the Psychological Development of Gifted Children. American Psychological Association, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakuta, K., & D’Andrea, D. (1992). Some properties of bilingual maintenance and loss in Mexican background high-school students. Applied Linguistics, 13, 72–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakuta, K., & Diaz, R. (1985). The relationship between degree of bilingualism and cognitive ability: A critical discussion and some new longitudinal data. In K. E. Nelson (Ed.), Children’s language (Vol. 5). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakuta, K., Bialystok, E., & Wiley, E. (2003). Critical evidence: A test of the critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition. Psychological Science, 14 (1), 31–38.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hamers, J., & Blanc, M. (2000). Bilinguality and bilingualism (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harklau, L. (2003). Representational practices and multi-modal communication in US high schools: Implications for adolescent immigrants. In R. Bayley & S. Schecter (Eds.), Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies (pp. 83–97). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, M. (2001). Undoing the macro/micro dichotomy: Ideology and categorization in a linguistic minority school. In N. Coupland, S. Sarangi, & C. Candlin (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and social theory (Language in Social Life Series, pp. 212–234). Essex: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ishizawa, H. (2004). Minority language use among grandchildren in multigenerational households. Sociological Perspectives, 47, 465–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirszbaum, T., Brinbaum, Y., Simon, P., with Gezer, E. (2009). The children of immigrants in France: The emergence of a second generation (Innocenti Working Paper, no. 2009–13). Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberson, S. (1981). Language diversity and language contact: Essays. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, C., Harris, R., & Rampton, B. (1997). The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities. TESOL Quarterly, 31 (3), 543–560.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay, S., & Wong, S. (1996). Multiple discourses, multiple identities: Investment and agency in second-language learning among Chinese adolescent immigrant students. Harvard Educational Review, 66 (3), 577–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medvedeva, M. (2010). Perceived discrimination and linguistic adaptation of adolescent children of immigrants. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39 (8), 940–952.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mouw, T., & Xie, Y. (1999). Bilingualism and academic achievement of first- and second-generation Asian Americans: Accommodation with or without assimilation? American Sociological Review, 64 (2), 232–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okita, T. (2002). Invisible work: Bilingualism, language choice and childrearing in intermarried families. Vol. 12 of IMPACT: Studies in Language and Society. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peal, E., & Lambert, W. (1962). The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs, 76, 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pease-Alvarez, L. (2003). Transforming perspectives on bilingual language socialization. In R. Bayley & S. Schecter (Eds.), Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies (pp. 9–24). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pon, G., Goldstein, T., & Schecter, S. (2003). Interrupted by silences: The contemporary education of Hong Kong-born Chinese Canadians. In R. Bayley & S. Schecter (Eds.), Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies (pp. 114–128). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Hao, L. (1998). E Pluribus Unum: Bilingualism and loss of language in the second generation. Sociology of Education, 71 (4), 269–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Hao, L. (2002). The price of uniformity: Language, family and personality adjustment in the immigrant second generation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25 (6), 889–912.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Los Angeles: The University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Schauffler, R. (1994). Language and the second generation: Bilingualism yesterday and today. International Migration Review, 28 (4), 640–661. Special issue on the new second generation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powers, S., & Sanchez, V. (1982). Correlates of self-esteem of Mexican American adolescents. Psychological Reports, 51, 771–774.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, B. (2005). Crossing: Language and ethnicity among adolescents (2nd ed.). Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumbaut, R. (1994). The crucible within: Ethnic Identity, self-esteem, and segmented assimilation among children of immigrants. International Migration Review, 28 (4), 748–794. Special issue on the new second generation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumbaut, R., Massey, D., & Bean, F. (2006). Linguistic life expectancies: Immigrant language retention in Southern California. Population and Development Review, 32 (3), 447–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schecter, S., & Bayley, R. (2002). Language as cultural practice: Mexicanos en el Norte. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schieffelin, B., & Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15, 163–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, R., Sr. (2000). Language policy and identity politics in the United States. Philadelphia: Tample University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1981). Bilingualism or not: The education of minorities. (L. Malmberg & D. Crane, Tans.). Multilingual Matters 7. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, G. (1985). Nativity, intermarriage, and mother-tongue shift. American Sociological Review, 50 (1), 74–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, G. (1992). The social and demographic context of language use in the United States. American Sociological Review, 57, 171–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, G. (2006). The age-length-onset problem in research on second language acquisition among immigrants. Language Learning, 56 (4), 671–692.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, G., & Ishizawa, H. (2007). Variation among siblings in the use of a non-English language. Journal of Family Issues, 28 (8), 1008–1025.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolzenberg, R., & Tienda, M. (1997). English proficiency, education, and the conditional assimilation of Hispanic and Asian origin men. Social Science Research, 26, 25–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suarez-Orozco, C., & Suarez-Orozco, M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, R. (2001). Adolescent peer group language. In R. Mesthrie (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of sociolinguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Urban Institute. (2009). Children of immigrants data tool. Data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series datasets drawn from the 2005 and 2006 American Community Survey. http://datatool.urban.org/charts/datatool/pages.cfm.

  • Tseng, V., & Fuligni, A. (2000). Parent-adolescent language use and relationships among immigrant families with East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American backgrounds. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62 (2), 445–476.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veltman, C. (1983). Language shift in the United States. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters, M. C. (1999). Black identities: West Indian immigrant dreams and American realities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiley, T., & Lukes, M. (1996). English-only and standard English ideologies in the U.S. TESOL Quarterly, 30 (3), 511–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeung, A., Marsh, H., & Suliman, R. (2000). Can two tongues live in harmony: Analysis of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS88) longitudinal data on the maintenance of home language. American Educational Research Journal, 37 (4), 1001–1026.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zentella, A. (1997). Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, D. (2008). Between two generations: Language maintenance and acculturation among Chinese immigrant families. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, M., & III Bankston, C. (1998). Growing up American: How Vietnamese children adapt to life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Maria Medvedeva

Authors
  1. Maria Medvedeva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Medvedeva .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, 302 Sycamore Hall, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Roger J. R. Levesque

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Medvedeva, M. (2011). Immigrants’ Linguistic Adaptation. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_208

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_208

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1694-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1695-2

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation