“There is no space for being German”: Portraits of Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German

1. “There is no space for being German”: Portraits of Reluctant Heritage Language Learners of German Roswita Dressler University of Calgaryrahdress@ucalgary.ca

2. While some Heritage Language Learners (HLLs) are comfortable identifying themselves as such, others are decidedly uncomfortable or reluctant to adopt this term (Piño & Piño, 2000, p. 13). Motivation for Article

3. By definition, HLLs may have one parent or grandparent who speaks the target language or they may have spent a significant period of their childhood in the country where the target language is spoken (Beaudrie & Ducar 2005). “Does the above definition apply to you? Study Definition

4. HLLs, who appear at an advantage because of their connection to the target language community, are not always more successful than true beginners (Montrul 2007). • HLLs may come to the L2 classroom with incomplete or little language competence (Kagan 2005). • HLLs often report higher motivation to learn the target language than their non-HLL peers (Noels 2005). Characteristics of HLLs

5. language identity is the “assumed or attributed relationship between one’s sense of self and a means of communication (i.e. language)” (Block, 2007, p. 40). • comprised of expertise (competence), affiliation (formal identification) and inheritance (heritage) (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997, p. 555) Language Identity

6. objects or symbols which have meaning for a specific group of people. • An artifact can “assume a material aspect (which may be as transient as a spoken word or as durable as a book) and/or an ideal or conceptual aspect (such as a label, like “good girls” and “bad boys”) (Bartlett, 2007, p. 217). Cultural Artifacts

7. Block (2007) describes positioning as the adoption of an “imagined” subject position by the language learner. Positioning

8. Beginner, intermediate, advanced German language students at the University of Calgary • Fall semester – 2 online questionnaires • Beginning and end of semester • 33 participants completed both • Winter semester - follow-up interviews • 12 participants Study Design

9. 6 students • 4 “typical” HLLs • 2 reluctant HLLs • Pseudonyms chosen by the students Case Studies of HLLs

10. HLL Participants

11. Mature student, adv. German class, parents speak German • Chose German to “open pathways to older members of the family” • Driven to obtain mastery of grammar “grammar in German is critical to communicating, perhaps more so than English” • Sees herself as German-Canadian Christine

12. “There’s a broader openness to different cultures, accepting that there can be significant differences. I think some of the work ethic definitely was inherited from my parents. The German part tends to be a little more rigid. ‘This has to be done now. It’s got to be on time’” (Christine). On being German-Canadian

13. First year student, dual citizenship, previous HS and Community school German classes • Chose German to keep up her competence • Somewhat demotivated “seen it all before” Magdalena

14. “In Germany, when we say we are Canadian, we tend to get more attention. . . just because we’re from Canada. . . In Canada, I feel like I am like any other person” (Magdalena). On Her Language Identity

15. 4th year student, advanced German class, German- speaking grandparents • “always wanted to know German” • Desires fluency, but hesitant to speak in class • Proud of German heritage, unable to articulate why it is important • Identifies with German traditions Sue

16. “My German identity comes out at Christmas time” (Sue). On Her Language Identity

17. 2nd year student, beginner German, German-speaking grandparent • “always wanted to know German for a really long time” • More motivated than for other classes • “wasn’t brought up in a classic German household” Carolyn

18. “It started making my life better. It became the course I would look forward to every day” (Carolyn). On Studying German

19. 3rd year student, advanced German class, German-speaking grandparent • Interested in languages, since family heritage is German, it would be a “terrible thing to let go” • Devotion to German high, to assignments “not very high” • Does not consider himself an HLL Alexander

20. “My grandmother, she’s German, but she never spoke it. Kind of odd. I would say a few sentences, but she would never respond in German and that’s why [I answered no. I] never had German spoken to me in my family” (Alexander). On not self-identifying

21. Recently graduated, adv. German class, lived in Germany ages 8-10 • Spoke German fluently as a child, then forgot it, relearned “’cause it might be easy for me” • Very motivated, found it interesting • Does not consider herself an HLL Bianca

22. “I don’t feel anything at all. I feel no connection. I already have to judge being Canadian with being Romanian. Really, there is no space for being German” (Bianca) On Her Language Identity

23. Language expert - Expertise • Language loyalty • Affiliation • Inheritance (Rampton, 1990) Discussion

24. “My devotion to German is high.” (Alexander) • “I like German. I like the way it is structured. I enjoy the language, I have no negative points on it.” (Bianca) Expertise

25. “Me being German, a German citizen, I am German. That’s how I always will be”. (Magdalena) • “being just someone who passed through Germany, on the way to Canada. . .” (Bianca) Affiliation

26. “All my friends know I am German”. (Sue) • “My family heritage is German, so it is kind of nice to keep it up.” (Kath) • “I was always really interested in that part of my heritage.” (Carolyn) Inheritance

27. German Christmas traditions • “a classic German household” • Canada as a multicultural country • Germany as a country intolerant of non-Germans Cultural artifacts

28. For the classroom • Student • Instructor • For research Implications

29. Where students reject the label of HLL, these students do not “situate themselves” or consider themselves to be “situated by others” (Block, 2007, p. 18) in an HLL identity. Conclusion

30. Bartlett, L. (2007). Bilingual literacies, social identification, and educational trajectories. Linguistics and Education, 18(3-4), 215-231. Beaudrie, S., & Ducar, C. (2005). Beginning level university heritage programs: Creating a space for all Heritage Language Learners. Heritage Language Journal, 3(1), 1-18. Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London: Continuum. Gonzalez Piño, B., & Piño, F. (2000). Serving the Heritage Speaker across a Five-Year Program. ADFL Bulletin, 32(1), 27-35. Kagan, O. (2005). In support of a proficiency-based definition of Heritage Language Learners: The case of Russian. International Journal of Bilingual Education &Bilingualism, 8(2-3), 213-221. References

31. Leung, C., Harris, R., & Rampton, B. (1997). The idealised native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 543-560. Montrul, S. (2007). Bilingual Past Project. from http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/nhlrc/2007summer/Bilingual+Past+Project.pdf Noels, K. A. (2005). Orientations to Learning German: Heritage Language Learning and Motivational Substrates. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 62(2), 285-312. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the 'native speaker': expertise, affiliation, and inheritance. ELT Journal, 44(2), 97-101. References