Cover not available
Part of
Integration, Identity and Language Maintenance in Young Immigrants: Russian Germans or German Russians
Edited by Ludmila Isurin and Claudia Maria Riehl
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 44] 2017
► pp. 197–224

Chapter 7
Language attitudes and linguistic skills in young heritage speakers of Russian in Germany

| University of Bochum
The present study analyzes attitudes of young second generation migrants towards Russian as their first language and considers the correlation between attitudes and linguistic skills in Russian. First, attitudinal factors obtained from a questionnaire are analyzed according to the three-component model of attitudes. One main finding is that a loyal and emotional relationship towards Russian was exhibited by the 44 adolescent participants. Second, subjective and objective data for language skills (self assessments and test data) in Russian are presented. Finally, the interplay between the attitudinal factors and language skills is analyzed using Principal Component Analysis. Two main factors are identified: Firstly, the appreciation of Russian as a cultural value and secondly, the importance of Russian as a means of communication between peers. While self-assessments of competence in Russian are correlated to the first and speech rate to the second factor, morphological competence is correlated to both factors.
Keywords: language attitudes, linguistic skills, heritage language, language maintenance
Article outline
  • 1.Method
    • 1.1Participants
    • 1.2Materials and procedure
  • 2.Language attitudes
    • 2.1The affective component of language attitudes
    • 2.2The cognitive component of language attitudes
    • 2.3The behavioral component of language attitudes
  • 3.Language skills
    • 3.1Methods for measuring Russian language skills
    • 3.2Self-assessments of linguistic skills
    • 3.3Story-telling of a picture book
    • 3.4Grammaticality Judgments
    • 3.5Correlations between the types of linguistic data
  • 4.Relationships between attitudes and linguistic skills in Russian
  • 5.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.44.07ans
References (51)
References
Achterberg, J. (2005). Zur Vitalität slavischer Idiome in Deutschland: Eine empirische Studie zum Sprachverhalten slavophoner Immigranten. München: Otto Sagner.Google Scholar
Al Rifai, N. (2010). Attitude, motivation, and difficulties involved in learning the English language and factors that affect motivation in learning it. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 5216–5227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altarriba, J., & Morier, R. G. (2004). Language, emotion, and mental health. In T. K. Bhatia & W. C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 250–280). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Altenberg, E., & Vago, R. M. (2004). The role of grammaticality judgments in investigating first language attrition. In M. Schmid, B. Köpke, M. Keijzer, & L. Weilemar (Eds.), First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (pp. 105–129). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anstatt, T., & Dieser, E. (2007). Sprachmischung und Sprachtrennung bei zweisprachigen Kindern (am Beispiel des russisch-deutschen Spracherwerbs). In T. Anstatt (Ed.), Mehrsprachigkeit bei Kindern und Erwachsenen: Formen, Erwerb, Förderung (pp. 139–162). Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Anstatt, T. (2008). Aspect and tense in storytelling by Russian, German and bilingual children. Russian Linguistics, 32 (1), 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010). Kognitive Strategien Zweisprachiger: Lösungen lexikalischer Probleme im Russischen bilingualer Kinder und Jugendlicher. In T. Anstatt & B. Norman (Eds.), Die slavischen Sprachen im Licht der kognitiven Linguistik (pp. 217–239). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
(2011a). Russisch in der zweiten Generation: Zur Sprachsituation von Jugendlichen aus russischsprachigen Familien in Deutschland. In L. M. Eichinger, A. Plewnia, & M. Steinle (Eds.), Sprache und Integration: Über Mehrsprachigkeit und Migration (Studien zur deutschen Sprache 57) (pp. 101–128). Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
(2011b). Sprachattrition: Abbau der Erstsprache bei russisch-deutschen Jugendlichen. Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, 67, 7–31.Google Scholar
(2013). Polnisch als Herkunftssprache: Sprachspezifische grammatische Kategorien bei bilingualen Jugendlichen. In S. Kempgen, M. Wingender, N. Franz, & M. Jakiša (Eds.), Deutsche Beiträge zum 15. Internationalen Slavistenkongress (pp. 15–25). München: Otto Sagner.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2013). Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39, 129–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berman, R., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Böhmer, J. (2015). Biliteralität: Eine Studie zu literaten Strukturen in Sprachproben von Jugendlichen im Deutschen und Russischen. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Bradley, D. (2001). Language attitudes: The key factor in language maintenance. In O. Sakiyama (Ed.), Lectures on endangered languages 2: Endangered languages of the Pacific Rim series C002 (pp. 151–161). Kyoto: Nakanishi.Google Scholar
Butler, Y. G., & Hakuta, K. (2004). Bilingualism and second language acquisition. In T. K. Bhatia & W. C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (Handbooks in linguistics 5) (pp. 114–144). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Carreira, M., Jensen, L., Kagan, O., & Giangrande, M. J. (2009). Heritage language survey report. <[URL]> (last accessed on March 24, 2014).
Cuza, A., Pérez-Tattam, R., Barajas, E., Miller, L., & Sadowski, C. (2013). The development of tense and aspect morphology in child and adult heritage speakers. In J. W. Schwieter (Ed.), Innovative research and practices in second language acquisition and bilingualism (pp. 193–220). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dieser, E. (2009). Genuserwerb im Russischen und Deutschen: Korpusgestützte Studie zu ein-und zweisprachigen Kindern und Erwachsenen. München: Otto Sagner.Google Scholar
Dietz, B., & Roll, H. (1998). Jugendliche Aussiedler: Porträt einer Zuwanderergeneration. Frankfurt: Dolde.Google Scholar
Dornyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. Essex: Longman.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. (2010). Attitudes to Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hulsen, M. (2000). Language loss and language processing: Three generations of Dutch migrants in New Zealand. <[URL]> (last accessed on July 2, 2010).
Isurin, L. (2011). Russian diaspora: Culture, identity and language change. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klassert, A., & Gagarina, N. (2010). Der Einfluss des elterlichen Inputs auf die Sprachentwicklung bilingualer Kinder: Evidenz aus russischsprachigen Migrantenfamilien in Berlin. Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung, 4, 413–425.Google Scholar
Krefeld, T. (2004). Einführung in die Migrationslinguistik: Von der Germania italiana in die Romania multipla. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Köpke, B., & Schmid, M. S. (2004). Language attrition: The next phase. In M. S. Schmid, B. Köpke, M. Keijzer, & L. Weilemar (Eds.), First language attrition (pp. 1–43). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lasagabaster, D. (2004). Attitude. In U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. J. Mattheier, & P. Trudgill (Eds.), Socionlinguistics: An international handbook of the science of language and society (pp. 399–405). Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The language experience and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 940–967. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk, 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Meng, K., & Protassova, E. (2002). Zum ethnischen Selbstverständnis in einer russlanddeutschen Familie. In I. Keim & W. Schütte (Eds.), Soziale Welten und kommunikative Stile: Festschrift für Werner Kallmeyer zum 60. Geburtstag (pp. 261–280). Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. A. (2008). Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor (Studies in bilingualism 39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, B. (1982). An exercise in attitude measurement. In G. Breakwell, H. Foot, & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Social psychology: A practical manual (pp. 3–56). London: Macmillan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orfitelli, R., & Polinsky, M. (submitted). When performance masquerades as comprehension: Assessing grammaticality in non-L1 population.
Polinsky, M. (2008). Heritage language narratives. In D. M. Brinton, O. Kagan, & S. Bauckus (Eds.), Heritage language education: A new field emerging (pp. 149–164). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Polinsky, M., & Kagan, O. (2007). Heritage languages: In the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass, 1 (5), 368–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Protassova, E. (2005). Sprachkorrosion: Veränderungen des Russischen bei russischsprachigen Erwachsenen und Kindern in Deutschland. In K. Meng & J. Rehbein (Eds.), Kinderkommunikation – einsprachig und mehrsprachig (pp. 259–292). Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Rethage, W. (2012). Strukturelle Besonderheiten des Russischen in Deutschland: Kontaktlinguistische und soziolinguistische Aspekte. München: Otto Sagner.Google Scholar
Ries, V. (2013). da kommt das so quer rein: Sprachgebrauch und Spracheinstellungen Russlanddeutscher in Deutschland. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Roll, H. (2003). Jugendliche Aussiedler sprechen über ihren Alltag: Rekonstruktionen sprachlichen und kulturellen Wissens. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Sarnoff, I. (1970). Social attitudes and the resolution of motivational conflict. In M. Jahoda & N. Warren (Eds.), Attitudes (pp. 279–284). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Schendera, C. F. G. (2010). Clusteranalyse mit SPSS: Mit Faktorenanalyse. München: Oldenbourg. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, M., & Köpke, B. (2009). L1 attrition and the mental lexicon. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), The bilingual mental lexicon: Interdisciplinary approaches (pp. 209–237). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Schmid, M. S. (2011). Language attrition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schnar, N. (2010). Sprache als Kriterium ethnischer Identität: Eine empirische Studie zum Stellenwert des Russischen im Ethnizitätskonzept russlanddeutscher Jugendlicher in der Diaspora Deutschland. Hamburg: Kovač.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt (2011). Bevölkerung und Erwerbstätigkeit: Bevölkerung mit Mi-grationshintergrund – Ergebnisse des Mikrozensus 2009. <[URL]> (last accessed on January 14, 2012)
Vogelgesang, W. (2008). Jugendliche Aussiedler: Zwischen Entwurzelung, Ausgrenzung und Integration. Weinheim: Juventa.Google Scholar
Walters, J., Armon-Lotem, S., Altman, C., Topaj, N., & Gagarina, N. (2014). Language proficiency and social identity in Russian-Hebrew and Russian-German preschool children. In R. K. Silbereisen, P. F. Titzmann, & Y. Shavit (Eds.), The Challenges of diaspora migration: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Israel and Germany (pp. 45–62). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Walters, J., Gagarina, N., & Topaj, N. (2007). Language acquisition as a window to social integration among Russian language minority children in Germany and Israel. Zeitschrift für Slawistik, 1, 155–177.Google Scholar
Yağmur, K. (1997). First language Attrition among Turkish speakers in Sydney. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.Google Scholar