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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 968

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Cyberspace bilinguals? On the use of the internet to foster language maintenance in young bilinguals.

Authors: Pauwels, Anne
Submitted by: Pauwels, Anne (School of Oriental and African Studies, Uni of London, United Kingdom)

Research on bi-and multilinguals in migrant settings has provided strong evidence that those migrating at a young age and those born to migrant parents (often referred to as ‘second generation’) are likely to undergo a (significant) degree of language shift, sometimes resulting in a complete abandoning of the ‘heritage’ language. Particularly at 'risk' are young people whose peers and social networks do not display positive attitudes towards linguistic diversity, plurilingualism or linguistic difference and whose communities are characterised by  low levels of ethnolinguistic vitality. Public exposure of heritage language use is experienced negatively by such youngsters leading them to ‘hide’ their heritage language, severely restricting its use to older family members, or abandoning it altogether. The advent of internet-based communication and other forms of technology-mediated language practices has had a significant impact not only on available and preferred modes of interaction but also on the notions of private and public communication. Through the internet one can engage in a range of communicative practices which provide privacy for the interlocutors, but which take place in public virtual spaces reaching a large number of people. Such communicative environments may constitute ‘safe’ places for young bilinguals in which to experiment with,  use,or enhance their bilingual practices. In this paper I  report on two case studies of  young bilinguals belonging to ethnolinguistic communities in Australia that have registered low to to very low language vitality and a high degree of language shift: the Dutch-Australian community and the South African (Afrikaans) -Australian community.  I explore  their ‘virtual’ language and communicative practices and the impact these have on heritage language maintenance and continued bilingualism. I conclude the presentation with some observations about the potential of 'cyberspace' to 'wake up' dormant bilinguals.