No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Heritage language recognition: The multimodal construction of language in a Tibetan-Canadian family’s literacy activities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2025
Abstract
This ethnographic study examines literacy activities in a Tibetan-Canadian family, members of a heritage language community facing intergenerational language loss. Drawing from twelve months of video ethnography, as well as ethnographic interviews and participant observation, I show how children use sound, gesture, and objects to mediate a shared understanding of the Tibetan heritage language, despite the dominance of English in their spoken repertoires. Informed by anthropological methods of language socialization, I examine children’s multimodal articulations of metalinguistic knowledge to argue that literacy activities provide material anchors for Tibetan children to identify as heritage language speakers through a process that I term heritage language recognition—an interactive objectification of language as culture that does not rely on metapragmatic discourse. Analyses discuss heritage language recognition in conversational patterns of entextualization, demonstrating that metalinguistic knowledge can be located in young children’s multimodal repertoires. (Heritage languages, language socialization, literacy, metalinguistic knowledge, multimodality)
Information
- Type
- Non-Special Issue Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
References
Au, Terry Kit-Fong (2008). Salvaging heritage languages. In Brinton, Donna M., Kagan, Olga, & Bauckus, Susan (eds.), Heritage language education: A new field emerging, 337–53. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bangsbo, Ellen (2008). Schooling and ‘quality education’ in the Tibetan diaspora and Tibet. In Barnett, Robert & Schwartz, Ronald (eds.), Tibetan modernities, 189–211. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Bauman, Richard, & Briggs, Charles (1990). Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:59–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brox, Trine (2016). Tibetan democracy: Governance, leadership and conflict in exile. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Byon, Andrew Sangpil (2003). Language socialisation and Korean as a heritage language: A study of Hawaiian classrooms. Language, Culture and Curriculum 16(3):269–83. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310308666674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, Grace (2000). The role of heritage language in social interactions and relationships: Reflections from a language minority group. Bilingual Research Journal 24(4):369–84. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2000.10162773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Das, Sonia (2016). Linguistic rivalries: Tamil migrants and Anglo-Franco conflicts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Korne, Haley (2017). The multilingual realities of language reclamation: Working with language contact, diversity, and change in endangered language education. Language Documentation and Description 14:111–35. Online: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd158.Google Scholar
de León, Lourdes (2014). Language socialization and multiparty participation frameworks. In Duranti, Alessandro, Ochs, Elinor, & Bambi, B. Schieffelin (eds.), The handbook of language socialization, 81–111. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Erin, Debenport, & Anthony, K. Webster (2019). From literacy/literacies to graphic pluralism and inscriptive practices. Annual Review of Anthropology 48(1):389–404. Online: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011309.Google Scholar
Duff, Patricia A. (2008). Heritage language education in Canada. In Brinton, Donna M., Kagan, Olga, & Bauckus, Susan (eds.), Heritage language education: A new field emerging, 71–90. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Lily Wong (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 6(3):323–46. Online: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(05)80059-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness (1991). He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among Black children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2022). Profile table, Census profile, 2021 Census of population - Canada [Country], February 9. Online: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E accessed 2 November 2024.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, Kris D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third space. Reading Research Quarterly 43(2):148–64. Online: https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.43.2.3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, Kris D.; Baquedano‐López, Patricia; & Tejeda, Carlos (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity 6(4):286–303. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039909524733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauck, Jan David (2018). The origin of language among the Aché. Language & Communication 63(November):76–88. Online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.03.004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnes Weiyun, He (2004). Identity construction in Chinese heritage language classes. Pragmatics 14(2–3):199–216.Google Scholar
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2011). Temporary public policy concerning Tibetans living in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. March 24 . Online: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/tibetans-arunachal-pradesh-india.html accessed 2 November 2024Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith (1996). Shadow conversations: The indeterminacy of participant roles. In Silverstein, Michael & Urban, Greg (eds.), Natural histories of discourse, 131–59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra; Androutsopoulos, Jannis; Sebba, Mark; & Johnson, Sally (eds.) (2012). Orthography as social action: Scripts, spelling, identity and power. Boston, MA: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, Brigitte, & Henderson, Austin (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences 4(1):39–103. Online: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0401_2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koda, Keiko (2005). Learning to read across writing systems: Transfer, metalinguistic awareness, and second-language reading development. In Cook, Vivian & Bassetti, Bendetta (eds.), Second language writing systems, 311–34. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Online: https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853597954-014.Google Scholar
Kroskrity, Paul (1998). Arizona Tewa kiva speech as a manifestation of a dominant language ideology. In Schieffelin, Bambi B., Woolard, Kathryn A., & Kroskrity, Paul V. (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 103–22. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, Annelies; Spotti, Massimiliano; Swanwick, Ruth; & Tapio, Elina (2017). Beyond languages, beyond modalities: Transforming the study of semiotic repertoires. International Journal of Multilingualism 14(3):219–32. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1321651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, Jungmin (2017). Immigrant mothers’ beliefs and transnational strategies for their children’s heritage language maintenance. Language and Education 31(6):495–508. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2017.1349137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miki, Makihara, & Bambi, B. Schieffelin (2007). Cultural processes and linguistic mediations: Pacific explorations. In Makihara, Miki & Bambi, B. Schieffelin (eds.), Consequences of contact: Language ideologies and sociocultural transformations in Pacific societies, 3–29. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meek, Barbra A. (2007). Respecting the language of the elders: Ideological shift and linguistic discontinuity in a northern Athapascan community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 17(1):23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth (2007). Semiotic anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 36:337–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza (2013). Displaying, contesting and negotiating epistemic authority in social interaction: Descriptions and questions in guided visits. Discourse Studies 15(5):597–626. Online: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613501577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 20(3):336–66. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.1_12177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgenstern, Aliyah (2023). The role of kinesic intelligence in child language development. In Bolens, Guillemette (ed.), Kinesic intelligence in the humanities, 22–55. New York: Routledge. Online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003299141-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naga, Sangye Tandar (2009). Some reflections on the mysterious nature of Tibetan language. The Tibet Journal 34/35(3/2):561–68.Google Scholar
Elinor, Ochs, & Bambi, B. Schieffelin (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In Richard, A. Shweder & Robert, A. Levine (eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emotion, 470–512. Levine, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1979). Language structure and linguistic ideology. In Clyne, Paul R., Hanks, William F., & Carol, L. Hofbauer (eds.), The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels, 193–247. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Soler, Josep, & Zabrodskaja, Anastassia (2017). New spaces of new speaker profiles: Exploring language ideologies in transnational multilingual families. Language in Society 46(4):547–66. Online: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404517000367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tibet: Justice Center (2016). Tibet’s stateless nationals III: The status of Tibetan refugees in India. Online https://www.tibetjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/TJCIndiaReport2016.pdf accessed 2 November 2024.Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicolas & Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2023). The Tibetic languages: An introduction to the family of languages derived from old Tibetan. Paris: LACITO Publications.Google Scholar
Tse, Lucy (2001). Heritage language literacy: A study of US biliterates. Language, Culture and Curriculum 14(3):256–68. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310108666627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tso, Bendi (2019). Rediscovering heritage identity through literacy. In Canagarajah, Suresh (ed.), Transnational literacy autobiographies as translingual writing, 175–80. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S. (1976). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. In Bruner, Jerome, Jolly, Alison, & Sylva, Kathy (eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution, 537–54. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Ed. by Cole, Michael, Jolm-Steiner, Vera, Scribner, Sylvia, & Souberman, Ellen. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ward, Shannon, & Roche, Gerald (2020). Language. In Powers, John & Templeman, David (eds.), Historical dictionary of Tibet, 2nd edn., 371–77. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Ka F., & Xiao, Yang (2010). Diversity and difference: Identity issues of Chinese heritage language learners from dialect backgrounds. Heritage Language Journal 7(2):314–48. Online: https://doi.org/10.46538/hlj.7.2.8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. (1998). Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In Schieffelin, Bambi B., Woolard, Kathryn A., & Kroskrity, Paul V. (eds.) Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 3–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar