Acceso usuarios
Donald M. Taylor, M. Caron, Lynn McAlpine
The present research focused on mothers of school children living in small isolated communities in arctic Quebec (Nunavik). Patterns of perceived language ability and use in three languages, Inuttitut, English, and French, for both themselves and their children were examined. The pattern of perceived language ability was similar across the three languages. Fluency was superior to literacy, understanding was better than speaking, and reading scores were higher than those for writing. Mothers judged themselves to be best in Inuttitut, second best in English, and least fluent in French. A pattern of perceived subtractive bilingualism emerged. Ability in the heritage language, Inuttitut, was negatively correlated with ability in the mainstream language, English. Additionally, as the mothers' ability in mainstream languages increased, the perceived ability of their children in Inuttitut decreased. Similar patterns of subtractive bilingualism emerged when language use was examined. The results are discussed in terms of the potential survival of the heritage language.
