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Little Bangladesh A Language Landscape

• Subi Subhan

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Locale
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• (Source http//www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/i
  ndia.html)

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• Foreign-born population in several major
  metropolitan cities
• Sources Statistics Canada, 2001 Census
  Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001 U.S.,
  Census Bureau, 2000 (Ryerson University, 2004)

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Top Spoken Languages of the World Number of
Native Speakers Rank Order Language Number of
speakers1 Mandarin Chinese 885,000,0002 Spani
sh 332,000,000 3 English 322,000,000 4
Bengali (Bangla) 189,000,000 5 Hindi
182,000,000 6 Portuguese 170,000,000
6 Russian 170,000,000 8
Japanese 125,000,000_________________________
_____________________________________________

• Demographics of Bangla Speakers
• Area Number of Speaks Only Speaks
  Mostly Speaks Equally Speaks Regularly
  Speaks
• Bangla Bangla Bangla
  Bangla Bangla and English
  Bangla
• ___ Speakers at home at home
  at home at home
  at home
• Toronto 18,470 15,785 6,050
  5,640 1,500 2,595
  
• Canada 34,650 29,705 12,840
  9,615 2,780 4,470

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Purpose of the Study

• To surface the emic story of the Bangladeshi
  immigrants in Toronto as they transmit their
  language and the values that accompany language,
  to the next generation.
• To surface the issues of language
  maintenance/attrition particular to this group.
• To describe the emerging pattern of practices and
  manifest attitudes regarding first language
  maintenance/attrition in the daily lives of these
  families living in the Toronto area.
• __________________________________________________
  _____________

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Flowchart of the Research Design_________________
________________

• Naturalistic Exploratory Inquiry

Data Collection Ethnographic Fieldwork
Data collection Historical interviews and sources
Analysis and reporting Portraiture
Fieldwork Observation
Conversational interviews
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Research questions

• 1. To what extent is language maintenance
  noticeable within the families of Bangladeshi
  immigrants in Toronto?
• 2. To what extent and in what ways is the
  heritage language present and used in the context
  of the families?
• 3. What are the ranges of relationships that
  Bangladeshi immigrant families in Toronto have
  with outside contexts and resources with regards
  to their heritage language?
• 4a. In what ways do parents or adults in the
  family convey values and attitudes about heritage
  language to their children?
• 4b. How much importance do parents attach to the
  transmission of heritage language?

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Participants

• Researcher
• Three Families based on convenience and
  availability
• Resource people knowledgeable members of the
  population under study or associated people
• __________________________________________________
  ______
• Instrumentation
• Researcher
• Ethnographic Fieldwork
• Observation notes
• Conversational interviews
• Historical research methods
• Documents reviews
• Historical interviews

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Method

• Ethnographic methods
• Historical methods
• __________________________________________________
  ____________
• Data Collection
• Three years of rapport building - contributing
  to background information
• One full cycle of observation supplemented by a
  few rapid assessment tools
• Three families observed for three to four days
  each
• Note writing in between
• Informal conversations
• Reviewing documents
• Mostly private spaces - home
• Families followed outside to public spaces
  streets, stores, and religious, cultural and
  social congregations
• Resource people interviewed privately
  face-to-face and over the phone

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Analysis

• Qualitative methods coding and seeking the
  pattern
• Using N-6 and manually
• Bracketing interview
• Triangulation
• Source
• Data
• Theory
• Member checking
• Guest analyst
• __________________________________________________
  _____________
• Reporting
• Potraiture
• A thick description of the background and of the
  lives of the subjects observed
• Intends to address wider, more eclectic
  audiences beyond academys inner circle, and
  to speak in a language that is not coded or
  exclusive (Lawrence-Lightfoot Davis, 1997,
  p.10)

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Findings

• The Emergent Pattern
• Three important aspects of the emergent pattern
• Childrens role and preferences
• Parents priorities
• Parents lack of awareness about or negligence of
  language education.

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Childrens Role and Preferences

• Seen but rarely heard
• Functional interaction only
• Language use habits and communication
• Childrens role in language use and communication

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Parents Priorities

• Adults Role and Attitude Regarding Children
• Health
• Companionship and entertainment
• Childrens choice

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Parents Priorities

• Other Priorities
• Survival and adjustment
• Lack of life-skills
• Information sharing
• Networking
• Socialization and preoccupation with life and
  family left behind
• Fitting in and identity crisis
• Importance of food
• Time spent on food

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Non-prioritized Status of Heritage Language
Education and Maintenance

• Religious education
• English education or learning English
• Tutoring and other elements
• Lack of awareness and negligence of heritage
  language

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Relationships with outside contexts

• Negative
• Religious observance
• Cultural shows
• Public libraries
• Bookstores
• Media stores
• TDSB language programs
• University of Toronto
• Positive
• Private institutions for cultural instruction
• Social visits
• Ethnic enclaves (although not exclusively ethnic)

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Confusing Cultural Values
The girls holding the letters to spell Happy New Year in the top picture are wearing cotton handloom saris in traditional style and flowers. The girl in the bottom picture is wearing Bollywood influenced shelwar kameez currently popular among upper class urban Bangladeshis.
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Parents views towards transmission of language

• Very little effort noticed among the parents
• The general assumption automatic transmission
• Most parents do not seem to notice the lack of
  use by children
• Acceptance - Oh well, after all this is Canada,
  what should we expect?
• Assumption - only English is needed to be
  successful
• Giving excuses and avoiding or postponing the
  issue of heritage literacy education
• Parents find it challenging to find time, means,
  context to transmit
• Children immigrated older also slack use and
  practice parents lack awareness and knowledge
• Efforts of a few parents - not strong enough for
  whole group to maintain heritage language

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Follow up

• Less visibility of children
• Blending outfits and Westernization
• More cultural groups and performances but only
  adults are involved
• Complete loss of language habits in the cohort of
  children
• Disappearance of the audiovisual outlets
• Reduction of number of newspapers
• Conversion of bookstores
• Rise of the internet
• Change in language program enrollment a
  positive trend?
• Continued lack of funding in needed areas
• Increased number of businesses

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Conclusion

• Families with children generally show definite
  signs of language attrition
• Only a handful of such families show evidence
  making attempts to maintain heritage language
• Few families take Bangla school seriously
• Some others are known of trying to teach their
  children Bangla literacy at home
• A few others consciously enforce speaking Bangla
  at home, reportedly
• Encouraging children to perform in cultural
  activities - negligible portion of the population
• Language transmission generally neglected at
  younger age or is assumed to be automatic process
• Primary and junior age children more
  susceptible to attrition

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Thank you!