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MULTILINGUALISM IN LITHUANIAN CITIES: AIMS AND OUTCOMES OF A HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY IN VILNIUS, KAUNAS AND KLAIPĖDA. Meilut ė Ramonien ė , Vilnius University Guus Extra , Tilburg University. Multilingual Cities Project. 6 Western European multicultural cities : Göteborg Hamburg The Hague
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MULTILINGUALISM IN LITHUANIAN CITIES: AIMS AND OUTCOMES OF A HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY IN VILNIUS, KAUNAS AND KLAIPĖDA Meilutė Ramonienė, Vilnius University Guus Extra, TilburgUniversity
Multilingual Cities Project • 6 Western European multicultural cities: • Göteborg • Hamburg • The Hague • Brussels • Lyon • Madrid G. Extra and K. Yağmur, eds., 2004, Urban Multilingualism in Europe. Immigrant Minority Languages at Home and School. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Lithuanian cities • Vilnius (544 206 inhabitants) • Kaunas (350 555 inhabitants) • Klaipėda(Lithuania’s major sea port, 184 657 inhabitants) Research project “Language use and ethnic identity in urban areas of Lithuania” Supported by Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation
Home language survey 2008 • Vilnius – 11 136 students from 92 schools • Kaunas – 8 479 students from 60 schools • Klaipėda – 3 726 students from 33 schools Coverage of schools 97-99 % • surveyamongst primary school pupils • targeted pupils 8-10 years • research goal - measuring distribution and vitality of home language use
Language profile The language profile consists of four dimensions: • reported language proficiency: the extent to which the pupil can understand/ speak/read /write the home language; • language choice: the extent to which the home language is commonly spoken with the mother and father, grandparents, younger and older siblings, and best friends; • language dominance: the extent to which the home language is spoken best; • language preference: the extent to which the home language is preferably spoken.
Reported home languages (1) • 37 languages
Languages used at home Lithuanians Russians Poles
Language dominance in Russian or Lithuanian(Russians) Language preference for Russian or Lithuanian(Russians)
Language dominance in Polish or Lithuanian(Poles) Language preference for Polish or Lithuanian(Poles)
Conclusions • Language use habits: increasingly Lithuanian, less Russian • Multilingualism is increasing • Russians tend to use Lithuanian more than Poles • Lithuanians: - associate their ethnic identity with their native language • Non-Lithuanians: • associateless ethnic identity with native language • tend to replace ethnic identity with national identity