Heritage language maintenance in New Zealand : the case of Hebrew.

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Theses / Dissertations
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Thesis discipline
Linguistics
Degree name
Master of Linguistics
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Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2023
Authors
Noar, Annabel
Abstract

This thesis explores how Israeli immigrants in New Zealand approach the maintenance of Hebrew, their heritage language. These families are in the unique position of having to navigate religious as well as cultural, familial and ideological factors as they undertake the challenge of language planning. The dimension of religion – in this case, Judaism - is an aspect which few studies have investigated when exploring migrant communities. In particular, New Zealand’s Israeli community remains under-researched. This thesis is the first study to look into the language maintenance efforts of this particular community and specifically investigate the connection between religion and the driving forces of language transmission. Three main questions are asked: 1) How do Israeli immigrants in New Zealand maintain Hebrew as their heritage language? 2) How do Israeli immigrant parents view the connection between Hebrew language and Judaism, and how does this impact their motivations to maintain Hebrew with their children? And 3) How effective are the language maintenance efforts of Israeli immigrants in New Zealand? By answering these questions and contextualising them within the framework of Family Language Policy, this thesis will extend the limited, existing knowledge of the interaction between linguistic choices and religion to include the Jewish perspective. It will also expand understandings of heritage language vitality in New Zealand to include the prospects of Hebrew. Twenty-eight individuals completed a digitised survey designed by the researcher and powered by Qualtrics and six semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain a deeper insight into the themes found quantitatively. The results showed that Israeli parents see bilingualism as an achievable outcome for their children and that this ideology resulted in predominantly Hebrew-only language practices in the home. Survey and interview participants also perceived a strong link between Hebrew and Judaism, however, interview participants did not cite religious continuity as their main reason for maintaining Hebrew. Additionally, Israeli parents cited various other factors motivating them to maintain Hebrew with their children such as the cognitive, academic and socioeconomic benefits they associate with bilingualism. Despite highly positive attitudes to language maintenance, the results showed that children were, in all areas aside from one, more proficient in English than they were in Hebrew and that their Hebrew literacy skills were underdeveloped. This potentially indicates that parents’ current efforts are not sufficient for long-term heritage language maintenance. It is posited that sibling dynamics and intermarriage play a strong role in Hebrew transmission, however, the relationship between such factors and heritage language maintenance requires further investigation. It is suggested that support from Jewish and Israeli organisations in the form of literacy resources and the welcoming of mixed families may help this population avoid language shift. The results of this thesis provide support for Bernard Spolsky’s (2021) latest claims and contrast with Tannenbaum’s (2012) coping mechanism framework.

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