Name: Laguindab, Norhanie L.

Subject&Section: ELE 125-Ff

Explain how multilingualism affects the preservation and survival of one’s heritage
language.

Language is the greatest tool for the men to communicate with each other and to convey
knowledge and emotions. It is also considered as a valuable gift that we possess. Language
varies in different countries around the globe and it describes the unique cultural heritage they
have. In this modern age, communication and travelling between countries have become easy
because of modern technology and so Multilingualism has spread; Multilingualism is the
capacity of an individual speaker or a group of people to use two or more language. There are
several effects of Multilingualism to the preservation and survival of heritage language. Heritage
Language is the language of an individual that he acquired from its home since childhood. In the
past decade, it is hard to preserve the essence of an individual’s heritage language when there are
so many people adapting various words and sentences usages. Multilingualism can mix-up the
core language and it will change gradually with time. But Multilingualism can also help to
preserve one’s heritage language.

As we learn various languages like English, Arabic, and Spanish and so on, we can
evaluate the differences of it to our own and may even improve our usage to heritage language.
Kecskes (1998) reason out that if an individual uses more than one language will have different
knowledge to its first language and may result to development and usage of the first language. In
its positive effect also we can also be proud with our own and that we can further expand it,
polish it, and use it. Another positive effect of Multilingualism is we can make a dictionary of
our own and translate it to our various expertise languages and as we know other languages like
English, we can use it to promote and encourage others to study our own heritage language. As a
person learns various foreign Languages he/she understand the connections of the languages and
its structures that may help enhance its native language proficiency.

Multilingualism can also negatively affect heritage language, because others prefer the
foreign language like English that even parents uses English than their Heritage Language when
speaking to their children and even encourages them to use English for future success especially
if they immigrated, for example is the study that was conducted by Suarez (2009) he reported to

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Spanish Heritage Language study that 90% of time, Parents uses English to spoke to their
children, and merely 10% of time that they use their Heritage Language. There was another
Negative effect of Multilingualism that result to language loss that affect the survival of the
heritage language For example is Holmes (1993), his idea about a girl named Annie, 20 years old
who only uses her heritage language in the elder people and uses English at school until she
became less competitive to her native language that may lead to misunderstanding in the
community. An example of an idea that if you don’t use your heritage language often it may
result of incapacity to use it

I believe that it is fine to learn other languages as for it will help us to get a better job and
it would even help us to communicate with others but we should also mind our heritage language
and use our knowledge to protect and preserve it and even teach and learn the deep words that
may have forgotten so that it will pass down generation to generation and avoid the death of our
own language.

References:

Alex. (2016, March 12) Retrieved from:

www.tutorhunt.com/resource/19445/

Vallance, L.(2015).The importance of maintaining a heritage language while acquiring the host
language. Honors College State, 34. Retrieved from:

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/honorstheses/34

Suarez, D. (2002). The paradox of linguistic hegemony and the maintenance of Spanish as a
heritage language in the United States. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development, 23(6), 512-530

Kecses, I. (1998). The State of L1 Knowledge in Foreign Language Learners. WORD, Journal of
the International Linguistics Association. Vol.49. No.3. December, 312-340

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