Abstract Summary
Multilingual adolescents in the U.S., Israel, Germany or Finland to immigrant families; they went through their childhood in the twofold surroundings of clashing values. Their educational experiences were colored through needs of conformity and acculturation. They spoke about their attitudes toward the languages and were tested in their L1 Russian.
Abstract :
Self-identification is often an imposed process entailing self-reflections and a narrative self-analysis resulting in a hierarchical multilayered construction. Individuals constantly renegotiate it for the new environments and interlocutors (Pavlenko, Blackledge 2004). Speakers adapt their oral behavior to their interlocutor and control expressed identity (Hansen Edwards 2008, Preece 2016). Self-acceptance may interfere with individual contesting demands and deviations from standard, so that the speaker purposely avoids the standard.
We asked 58 bilinguals (heritage speakers of Russian) aged 15-18 in the U.S., Israel, Germany, and Finland about their use of languages, networking, feelings of belonging, and ties to the countries of origin of their parents. Conscious and subconscious construction of oneself is taken here at the moment of transition from childhood to adulthood and therefore coincides with more general psychological transformations (cf. Erikson 1994). These young people were born in their countries of dwelling or brought here as babies. They displayed a variety of multiple and hybrid identities. They typically continue using Russian at home and the language of their surroundings elsewhere. They are competent or near-competent speakers of L1 Russian, but have deficient writing abilities. Their positive attitudes toward the Russian language combine with their scruples about their origins and doubts about their futures. Comparing the linguistic and sociolinguistic capabilities of Russian heritage speakers in the four countries and their self-assessments as speakers of multiple languages results in an improved understanding of the conditions leading to language maintenance and loss.
The attitudes toward the L1 preservation demonstrate the elevated level of self-consciousness in combination with conglomerate of parents’, teachers’ and friends’ views about the sense of belonging. Although nobody would think that he/she is a competent native speakers of Russian, they feel some connection with the Russian heritage. Adolescents adhere to the idea of ameliorating it one day.
