The influence of differing contexts on minority languages: Jewish schools in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and China

• In Event: Religious education: the issues of traditionalism, nationalism, identity, and language

Abstract

The Influence of Differing Contexts on Minority Languages: Jewish Schools in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and China

Prof. Zehavit Gross, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel and Prof. Suzanne Rutland the University of Sydney (NSW).

Abstract

• Objectives and Purposes
The aim of this article is to investigate minority groups' attitudes towards their heritage language as influenced by their local context, as well as associated relevant challenges. Specifically, we examined seven Jewish communities' attitudes towards Hebrew in the Asia-Pacific region – Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, New Zealand, Sydney and Melbourne. Knowledge of the Hebrew language is central to developing a strong Jewish identity, as it has always been the language of prayer and study, as well as being used in everyday life. It has been the glue that has sustained the Jewish people and religion throughout the period of the Diaspora. It is important to understand contemporary challenges to maintaining a minority, heritage language in this global, transnational language.

• Theoretical Framework
Language serves not only as a means of communication but also implies a symbolic value. Lev Vygotsky considered language to be a major vehicle by which socio-cultural processes shape individual identity formation (Vygotsky 1978; Penuel and Wertsch 1995). Benedict Andersen (1983) asserted that our communal sense of belonging is an ‘imagined’ concept, with a common language playing a central role. The socio-cultural context is central to language learning, with both linguistic factors and a range of non-linguistic factors, including family attitudes, demography and social and cultural conditions, affectingschool policy to language maintenance (Bialystok, 2007). Other factors include monolingualism, bilingualism and multilingualism, as well as the transnational, global context (Faist, 2000). This has created a new phenomenon of'situational minorities', that may affect minority language transmission (Hutchison, 2009).

Analytical Methods
This study utilized grounded theory methodology, a qualitative research method that aims to investigate systematic social processes existing within human relations and actions and to conceptualize them (Strauss and Corbin 1997). It enables us to follow patterns of interaction and behaviors that are grounded in real life events.

Data
This study draws on in-depth interviews with major stakeholders in the education systemsacross the five countries studied, as well as direct classroom observations,Altogether, 110 individuals participated in separate interviews, including 63 teachers, 12 principals, 13 presidents and school board members, 22 individual interviews with parents, rabbis and community members, and 242 participants in focus groups, including 58 parents in 14 focus groups and 184 students in 30 focus groups. Most of the parents were female, most were either expatriates or residents, with a few Israeli parents in the Asian focus groups. Approximately 1,332 students and 84 teachers were observed in classrooms.The two researchers constituted an insider-outside team.

Results and Conclusions
Our main finding was that understanding the ‘complex ecology’ (Spolsky 2014, 142) where language acquisition was situated helps elucidate minority groups' attitudes towards heritage languages. We found that majority/minority relations rendered a direct impact on the maintenance of heritage languages and delineated three major categories: expatriate, immigrant and full citizen.

Significance
Findings demonstrate the need for a paradigmatic shift in relation to heritage language research, which takes context into consideration as a major analytical constituent. Knowledge of many heritage ethnic languages has already been lost, so that it is important to understand what contextual factors can facilitate maintenance of those still in existence.

Authors

• Zehavit Gross, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

• Suzanne Rutland, The Sydney University, Australia