Exploring Individual Bilingualism of Albanian Immigrant Children in Greece: what the Language Biographies Tell Us

Exploring Individual Bilingualism of Albanian Immigrant Children in Greece: what the Language Biographies Tell UsUrania Sarri

Citation details:
Sarri U. (2014) Exploring individual bilingualism of immigrant children: what the language biographies tell us. Conference Proceedings, 7th International Conference on ICT for Language Learning, Libreria Universita edizioni, Florence, ps. 466- 469 ISBN:8862925484

Abstract
The present study investigates the issue of individual bilingualism of second-generation Albanian, immigrants in Greece. The linguistic impact of migration and the phenomena of language maintenance and shift are investigated, based on the example of Albanian immigrant, primary school students in Greece.
In this article one of the research methods of the study is presented, the method of linguistic biographies. The aim of this method is to obtain information that will help us elucidate how the participants learned both languages as well as when, where, why and with whom they use them.
Results revealed that L1 transmission is problematic for the Late Bilinguals’ group, while the possibility of non-acquisition of Albanian remains a reality for the participants who were born in Greece or came to Greece in infancy. The home context is normally the only domain where Albanian is used in fragmented patterns of communication. Findings also revealed signs of language shift for these young immigrants despite their claims for the use of Albanian that stem from symbolic reasons.

Keywords: bilingualism, migration, language biographies, language shift

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