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This study deals with the ethnolinguistic vitality of Altai and Kazakh as compared to Russian in the Russian Federation Republic of Altai. Data were gathered by document analysis, interviews with experts and by conducting a subjective ethnolinguistic vitality questionnaire. The data showed that Altai and Kazakh, as a consequence of a long-lasting Russification process, have become endangered languages in Altai. The dominance of Russian is ubiquitous and hardly hampered by a growing consciousness of ethnolinguistic identity and a number of language revitalisation activities. The ethnolinguistic vitality questionnaire corroborated the weak position of Kazakh as compared to Russian. For most of the indicators of ethnolinguistic vitality Kazakh informants reported significantly higher vitalities for the Russian out-group. Also a comparison at group level yielded a significant difference in favour of Russian. The Kazakh language in Altai can be considered a threatened language that will be more and more limited to the domestic domain and to speakers of the older generation. With respect to Altai a number of indicators of ethnolinguistic vitality showed higher vitalities for the Altai in-group. A comparison at group level did not show significant differences between Altai and Russian. This shows that the vitality of Altai in spite of the dominance of Russian is high and opens up possibilities for further growth.

In this paper, the language use, choice, dominance and preference of Turkish youngsters in five multicultural Western European cities are presented. Reported language proficiency of Turkish students between the ages of 6-11 is documented for Göteborg, Hamburg, The Hague, Brussels and Lyon. Also, the informants¿ language choice, language dominance, and language preference are presented cumulatively. Derived from this database, a (pseudo)-longitudinal profile and a language vitality index for Turkish youngsters of dif-ferent age groups and, ultimately, of different generations will be construed. The data pre-sented here is derived from the Multilingual Cities Project, which has been carried out among primary school students in six large European cities.

This study examines the relationship between language maintenance patterns of Turkish immigrants in two different contexts and their ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions. It appears that mainstream society¿s attitudes towards the minority groups affects the language maintenance patterns and ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions of the ethnic minority. As documented in this study, Turkish immigrants in Australia have low ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions but their language maintenance is as strong as that of Turkish immigrants in Germany, where Turkish appears to have more vitality.

This study extends previous research on age-group vitality around the Pacific Rim by examining the perceptions of urban and rural respondents from Turkey, Canada and the nation of Georgia towards young, middle-aged, and older adults. As in prior research, middle-aged targets were accorded the highest vitality, and a new age-vitality profile was associated with Georgian rural informants. Some urban-rural differences in vitality ratings emerged, and Canadians rated the vitality of older people highest. Across the three countries, Georgian respondents rated young vitality the highest and older adult vitality the lowest. The findings are discussed in terms of dimensions of social change.

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_250180340.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Promotores : C. de Bot en A. Schaufeli VIII, 145 p.

According to Google Scholar, the annual number of new publications mentioning ‘Ethnolinguistic Vitality’ (EV theory henceforth) has been steadily growing during the last 15 years, from 20 in 1995 t...

Most sociolinguistic or educational studies on minority languages have dealt with regional minority (RM) languages rather than immigrant minority (IM) languages. This text focuses on the teaching of IM languages in compulsory education in those western European countries that have relatively extended experiences with IM children at school, and is derived from the crossnational perspectives offered by Extra and Yagmur (2004). General studies on bilingual education are left out of consideration.

In this paper, acculturation and language orientations among Turkish speakers in Australia (n = 283) are discussed. Compared to West European countries, the Turkish community in Australia is much smaller. Given the prevalent pluralism ideology in Australia, a high level of sociocultural adjustment and a high level of ethnic orientation and language use were expected in Australia. The predictions were largely borne out. Turkish speakers have positive attitudes towards their mother tongue and towards English. However, there were large differences between the generations regarding language, use, choice and dominance. Turkish speakers show high levels of integration into the mainstream society. Language shift observed among second and third generations requires further reflection.

The focus of this paper is on the relationships between Turkish speakers’ ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) perceptions and their language maintenance (LM), language use, and choice patterns. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor's (1977) EV theory. In line with the model, a subjective EV vitality questionnaire, a Language Use–Choice Questionnaire, and a language rating scale have been applied to 25 Dutch-born Turkish and 64 Turkish-born immigrants in the Netherlands. Subjective EV questionnaire was administered to 104 Dutch informants. The findings of this study contribute further evidence into the role of education for LM and shift. Birth country turns out to be a significant factor for Dutch language skills of Turkish immigrants. While both the Dutch speakers and Turkish immigrants agree upon the vitality of the Dutch, there is significant difference concerning the Turkish vitality ratings. Turkish immigrants seem to compensate for their lower vitality in th...