Heritage language maintenance in a diplomat family: A case study

Abstract

The present research reports the findings on a case study conducted with a Russian diplomat family, which address issues of heritage language maintenance. The participants are a family with seven children who share four languages including Russian as the first language (L1). Three research questions were raised to reveal parental practices used in the family to preserve L1, to explore the children’s attitudes and preferences towards L1, and how these attitudes interrelate with their L1 proficiency. In order to obtain the data for this study, the author spent ten days with the family in Vienna, Austria, during which individual interviews were conducted, observations were made, and oral narratives to investigate the participants’ competence in L1 were recorded. The results provide a confirmation of how important family relations are to preserve heritage language for multilingual children. Additionally, the findings suggest that personal attitudes and dispositions are directly connected with personal beliefs in L1 competence, and, therefore, impact on actual L1 proficiency.