Heritage Language Maintenance and Loss: Teacher Candidates’ Personal Experiences and Perspectives

• In Event: Multilingual Realities: Translanguaging in Schools

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates how 25 teacher candidates from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds have experienced the maintenance or loss of their heritage language (HL), and how these experiences shape their beliefs and practices as future educators. Drawing on interviews with candidates representing Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Visaya, the study explores the sociocultural, familial, and institutional factors influencing HL development. Findings reveal that HL loss is commonly driven by assimilationist schooling, family language shift, and punitive HL instruction. Maintenance was fostered through family policy, pop culture, language brokering, and access to recreational print. Grounded in the theories of Wong Fillmore, Valdés, Tse, and Krashen, this study offers insights into identity, linguistic resilience, and bilingual teacher preparation.

Author

• Christy Y. Lao, San Francisco State University