1

  

Ethnography of a Novice level Class

at Summer School Hindi Program

in New York

by

Shreya Khosla

 
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Table of Contents

Abstract 3

I. Introduction & Background 4

II. Language & Culture 5

III. Ethnographic Thick Description of SEI Level 5 Class 6

IV. Case Study 10

V. The Treatment 12

A. Literature Review 12

B. Application 14

VI. Conclusion 15

VII. References 17
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Abstract

This paper presents the author’s view of language and culture, then discuses a four-week
Summer school Hindi Program that is held every summer in public schools all around Queens,
New York. Using Thick Description, the author describes the setting, how the program runs and
the parent’s need of the importance for preserving and maintaining the heritage language in their
children. The author discusses the heritage language maintenance and language shift in light of
sociolinguistic theory. Then based on the ethnographic description, the author suggests some
treatments that can be used by the teachers, students, parents and educators to enhance the
maintenance of the heritage language in a classroom and at home.
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I. Introduction and Background 

Every year in summer, the Department of Education of New York organizes Hindi

classes for Middle school, High school and college students with the help of the STARTALK

Hindi Program by New York University. Students get an opportunity to learn Hindi and/or

develop their Hindi language skills further. The students enrolled in this program are of two

categories: Novice mid-high and Intermediate to Advance level. There are three classes in total,

two of Novice level and one of Intermediate to Advance level mix. The students go through an

interview for their Hindi language assessment and then put it into the two levels and classes.

         The majority of students who enroll in this program come from a cultural background

where they hear or speak Hindi on a daily basis with their parents and grandparents (if they can).

Some come from different cultural background for example, there is a Korean male student in

the Novice level class and an African American female student in Intermediate level class. They

are here to learn a new language, probably it’s their third or fourth. They have heard about this

program and their parents want to support the school; therefore, they are enrolled in this

program.

         In the classroom, there are two types of students: (1) children who want to maintain their

heritage language, (2) students who want to earn foreign language credits and are not much

interested in learning Hindi or preserving their heritage language. One aspect which is common

between the students is their parents, who want their children to maintain and preserve their

Heritage language and pass it to their next generation.

This paper will examine the connections between culture and language. The author will

describe one novice level class at FHHS giving details regarding the philosophy of the program,
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the setting and the students. Particular attention will be given to the description of two kinds of

students mentioned above who have different goals regarding this class despite their parents’

goals being the same.

Lastly, the author will represent a treatment based on the Thick description of the class

that could be used by teachers, parents, etc. to deal with maintaining the students’ heritage

language in the classroom and at home.

II. Language and Culture

The relationship between language and culture is a complex one and an understanding of

it is important for language learners and users. A particular language points to the culture of a

particular social group. As Nabi (2017) states, “Learning a language, therefore, is not only

learning the alphabet, the meaning, the grammar rules and the arrangement of words, but it is

also learning the behavior of the society and its cultural customs” (p. 91).

Wardhaugh (2015) defines a language to be, knowledge of rules and principles and of the

ways of saying and doing things with sounds, words and sentences rather than just knowledge of

specific sounds, words and sentences. Goodenough states, “A Society’s culture consists of

whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its

members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves” (Goodenough,

1957 as cited in Wardhaugh, 2015). The relationship between language and culture is deeply

rooted. According to Brown (2000), there is a connection between language and culture. He says,

“It is apparent that culture… becomes highly important in the learning of a second language. A

language is part of a culture, and a culture is part of a language; the two are intricately

interwoven…” (p. 117).

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Sapir highlights the close relationship between language and culture and emphasizes that

language and culture cannot be separated from one another so that one cannot understand one

without knowing the other (Wardhaugh, 2015). Whorf, Sapir's student, expanded the idea. He

not only says there was an influence, but the relationship between language and culture is

determinative. Speakers of different languages, according to Whorf, will view the world

differently as long as the language they use is structurally different (Wardhaugh, 2015). Sapir-

Whorf argues that the people who share a culture but speak different languages will have

different world views. Therefore, learning a new language involves learning a new culture (Nabi,

2017). There is ample evidence out there that culture and language are closely linked and thereby

have an influence on each other. A person can learn about culture by observing actions and

behaviors and also can become a part of it by understanding the meaning associated with those

actions and behaviors.

III. Ethnographic Thick Description of the Summer program

The city of New York which is referred to as New York City has an estimated population

of 8.3 million and has five boroughs, one of which is Queens. The 4-week Summer School Hindi

Program is organized by STARTALK in different high schools all around Queens for heritage,

non-heritage and native middle school and high school students. This year, it is organized in

FHHS in Queens, which is easily accessible by public transports. The building is built of red and

grey bricks with ten long white marble walls, four stories high with twelve white two-meter-wide

windows spaced two meters apart on each level. Each window has straight white iron rods 30

centimeters high and has AC installed in each window of the ground and first floor.

When entering the building through big front doors, one walks into the reception/front

desk area which has one five feet long table and two security guards sitting on the chairs. There
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are two ways leading towards the classroom, one is on the right and the other on the left of the

front desk. In front of the front desk, there are white marble stairs leading to the floors above the

ground floor. Each door leads to a classroom and the classroom discussed here is at the far end of

the hall of the third floor on the north side of the building. Entering the light brown wooden door

with a 50-centimeter glass window one can easily look inside the classroom. As soon as entering

the classroom, there are eight 6 feet long windows on one side of the wall. There are white fabric

hanging from the top of each window.

The 34 x 24 x 3.5-meter room is bright with outside light and 6 ceiling lights. The walls

are of Beige color. One wall in the classroom has a white 86-inch square smart board along with

a two 90-inch whiteboard hanging on the wall and one black computer with a keyboard. One

wall has a 230-inch-long green pinboard that has a map and flag of India along with some

posters made by the students in the class. One other wall has grey locked rectangle lockers on the

whole wall. In front of the Smartboard wall, there are five rows of iron arm desks with attached

chairs. Only one person can sit on one desk and each row has ten desks. Beside the desk, on the

window side, is two round silver floor fans, which oscillates quietly during the classes,

circulating air into the classroom. There is no air conditioning on this floor. The class has 13

students and they move desks according to the activities in the classroom. On the ceiling with the

lights, there is a projector facing the smartboard.

The class consists of two female teachers; one main teacher, Miss Sangeeta and one

teacher’s assistant, Mrs. Amar along with 13 students; five males and eight females. The teachers

are from India, settled in New York. One is married and has two boys and the other is unmarried.

They have taught in the program for several years and have established a good rapport with the

school principal and administration. The program also has a good reputation with students who
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attend every year in summer. There are some students who advance to the next level and come

every year because they love the program. There are more students who take the foreign

language exam in school and each year, some new teachers are enrolled in the program to teach

the students.

This Summer School Hindi Program runs for four weeks in public schools. There are

three classes each consisting of two teachers, one main and one assistant teacher. Each class has

13-15 students. The class meets five days a week, Monday to Friday from 9 am till 3 pm.

Majority of the students are born and raised in the USA and are learning English as their first

language. This program recruits students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds,

including students returning from the previous STARTALK program.

This program follows ACTFL (American Council of Teaching of Foreign Languages)

guidelines for the assessment of the students. It also keeps in mind the Can-Do statements which

are made for the students to identify and set their learning goals throughout the program. The

particular class for this paper is Novice mid-high-level class. According to ACTFL Guidelines,

“Novice level may rely heavily on their own background knowledge and extralinguistic support”

and “At the Novice level, recognition of key words, cognates, and formulaic phrases makes

comprehension possible” (2012). If someone observes the class and the students, one can easily

tell the level of the students according to these guidelines. The Majority of the students want to

improve their Hindi speaking skills and all of them want to gain 3 foreign language credits after

completion of this program.

There is a Korean male in class and Hindi is his fourth language besides Korean, English

and Spanish. Apart from this, in the class, there are two kinds of students. One kind is the
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students who are motivated to learn Hindi and want to learn it for their personal use, to

communicate meaningfully with their parents and grandparents. The other kind is some students

who are just in the class to get foreign language credits for their regular school.

Naya, a 16-year-old female, has long brown hair and is 6 feet tall. She likes to wear

Indian attire and comes to the class wearing it almost every other day. Her parents are from India

and she came to the US when she was two years old. In her introduction she talks about how she

used to know and speak Hindi when she started talking but as soon as she came to the US, Hindi

got replaced by English which is the language of instruction in school and language in her

society and community around her. She is keener towards gaining the 3 foreign language credits

and doesn’t speak much in class.

On the other hand, Prateek, a 15 years old male with short black hair and is 5 feet 6

inches tall. He comes every day to class with a smile on his face. He has sparkling brown eyes

and exhibits a lot of energy in everything he does. He participates in class energetically and likes

to talk a lot. He is continuously trying to pronounce, make words and sentences in Hindi. He has

bilingual parents; his mother speaks Bengali and his father speaks Hindi. It is important for both

the parents to teach their children both languages. He is in this program because he wants to

learn Hindi and wants to talk with his parents and especially grandparents who are living in

India. He feels that he cannot express himself to his grandparents because of a lack of language.

It is important to him personally to maintain Hindi and Bengali as his heritage language.

In the beginning and at the end of the program, a parent-teacher and a student-teacher

meet are organized in order to gain the knowledge of the students’ cultural background and why

they want to study Hindi as part of their foreign language credit course. Almost every parent says
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that they want their children to remain in touch with their culture through learning and remaining

in touch with their heritage language which is Hindi.

IV. Case Study

Most of the students who join the Summer school Hindi program, come from a cultural

background where they are surrounded by their heritage language mostly ‘Hindi’. They listen

and somewhat speak Hindi on a daily basis with their family members. As mentioned about the

students enrolled in this program, they are born and raised in the USA where they learned

English as their first language. Also, it is their language of instruction in their school and the

language in their society and the people around them. Though, the people surrounded by them in

the social gatherings are of two types. First, with whom they converse in English and second

with whom they converse in Hindi or their native language.

As mentioned in the Thick description, the parent-teacher and the student-teacher meet is

organized at the beginning and at the end of the program. It is important for the teachers to know

what the expectations of the parents from this program are. Most of the parents want their

children to remain in touch with their culture through learning their mother tongue Hindi. The

majority of parents want their children to be able to converse in Hindi with them as well as their

grandparents. The parents want their children to preserve and maintain their heritage language

along with learning English. Some of the parents are afraid that their children will not be able to

maintain their native language in them and would forget it if they did not speak or use it on a

daily basis. There is also an issue of demotivation among students as some of them don’t want to

learn Hindi and are there just to fulfill their foreign language credits in order to graduate from

middle or high school.

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At the beginning of the program, the parents tell the coordinator and the teachers about

their expectations from this program. They want their children to learn Hindi so that they can

converse with them and their grandparents. Some of the children’s grandparents are in India and

don’t understand English. There is a language hindrance or a language barrier between the

children and their grandparents. Language is the only reason by which the children couldn’t tell

what they did the whole day and needs their parents to translate back and forth to convey the

meaning. The whole class struggles with this particular issue. On the other hand, the parents

struggle with the issue of preserving their heritage language in their children. There are two

kinds of students in the class:

Naya is taking this Hindi class because she wants to fulfill the criteria of the foreign

language course and wants to get 3 school credits for it. She is not interested in learning or

speaking Hindi even when she is coming from a family background where Hindi is spoken on a

daily basis for each transaction. It is not important for her to remain in touch with her heritage

language. But it is important for her mother to preserve their heritage language and that’s why

she has joined the program.

On the other hand, Prateek is excited to speak and write Hindi. He comes from a bilingual

family where his mother speaks Bengali and his father speaks Hindi. They want him to learn

both the languages, Bengali and Hindi. His mother is teaching him Bengali at home and he has

joined this program to learn Hindi. He is motivated and excited to learn and converse in Hindi

with his parents and grandparents who are living in India. He told in his interview that he is

going to India in a few months and want to surprise everyone there by speaking and conversing

in Hindi. He also wants to learn how to write and read. He is motivated towards maintaining his

heritage language. He never speaks Hindi at home but when he started coming to this program,
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his parents informed the coordinator that he has started conversing in Hindi with them and his

grandparents.

The students who really want to learn Hindi, they speak even when the teachers are not

around them. The other students only have a fear of the teacher and they speak Hindi only when

the teachers are around and watching them. At the end of the program, the parents are excited,

and some are shocked to see the progress of their child in learning Hindi. The parents can see the

language which is written by their child all over the room as there are the poster, brochures,

cards and many more things made by the students and written in Hindi. They could converse in

Hindi with their parents and grandparents. In the parent’s opinion, this summer program is the

best way to maintain and preserve their heritage language in their children.

V. Treatment

A. Literature Review

In the last few years, there is an increase in the number of immigrants in foreign countries

like the USA and Canada. The issue of heritage language loss and maintenance is not the major

concern of the government in those countries and is not paying attention to. In most of the cases,

the immigrant parents struggle after migrating to these countries; on the one hand, they struggle

to acquire a new language in order to survive in the new country, on the other hand, they need to

ensure that their children maintain their first or heritage language. Unfortunately, many

immigrant parents ignore the problem of heritage language loss and consider it to be just an

additional challenge to the number of problems they have to face in a new country. Kouritzin

(2000) believes that one’s mother tongue is not merely a language; it is a unique means of

communication between parents and children.

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Many research findings point out the potential causes of language shift and language loss

among immigrant communities. One of the causes is when the parents may be forced to switch to

a dominant language from their heritage language while communicating with their children. It is

because the parents are less proficient in the dominant language of their host society and the

children couldn’t understand or misunderstand their message in their native language (Sridhar,

1985). Usually, parents view the dominant language as a key to education along with a

successful future career of their children in a new country. In many cases, the children think that

their first language is not useful for them in their current surroundings, so they treat language

maintenance as an unimportant task initiated by parents. Also, children are selective in language

communication. With their relatives who speak only their native language, they tend to use their

heritage language. Sometimes, they might code switch and on the other hand, with people around

them, they use the dominant language to communicate (Gogonas, 2011).

Some researchers indicate that the other reason for the language shift or loss of the

heritage language among the students maybe because of the teachers with no special training in

second language acquisition. Therefore, they express negative attitudes towards the minority

language maintenance among the children and think that it is the right and responsibility of the

immigrant parents only to preserve their heritage language and not theirs. In public schools, the

teachers encourage the parents to use only English at home while communicating with their

children in order to help their children with second language acquisition. As a result, this leads to

the loss of the heritage language and also causes deterioration of the family ties when parents

aren’t able to communicate with their children in the second or dominant language. According to

Wang (2009), one of the main contributors to heritage language loss is the negative interactions

between the heritage language and the school, specifically “negative peer pressure,
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discrimination, assimilative nature of curriculum,” and “lack of opportunities to learn and speak

the heritage language in school” (p. 15-16). It leads to a loss of heritage language among the

children.

According to Kouritzin (2000), the loss of one’s mother tongue may also lead to an

identity crisis in adult life since “heritage language ability and cultural identity are inextricably

linked”. Also, for some ethnic groups, their language is a strong indication of their cultural

identity (Gogonas, 2011). While the parents attempt to survive and provide the basic necessities

for their children, the younger generation loses their heritage language along with close family

ties as well as their identity. Kouritzin (2006) notes that “identity and language “decisions” made

by children in the face of assimilation-oriented dominant culture, are decisions later regretted”

(p.20).

B. Application

The Summer school Hindi language program is already taking a step towards heritage

language maintenance in the young children of the current generation. They are doing so by

encouraging the students to join the program and offering them the foreign language credits they

need to fulfill the requirement in their regular school. However, there is still a heritage or native

language loss in the young generation. There are some ways by which the heritage language

could be maintained in those students. Some bilingual programs and tutors could be the

resources in maintaining the first language in the children. this will help the students to remain in

touch with their L1 and L2 at the same time. The heritage language maintenance is possible only

if accompanied by the support from parents, community, educators etc. In order to maintain the

heritage language, it must be used in all domains (Sridhar, 1994). This could be possible if the
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teachers have a positive attitude towards the minority languages which could serve as a

significant factor contributing to the prestige and maintenance of heritage languages.

One of the advices for maintaining the heritage language can be the teachers encouraging

the students to write a journal in their first languages and then translating it to the classmates and

the teacher in the language of instruction. In the classroom, the students can use different

language practices to put together collaborative projects such as oral presentations in English,

getting the materials they need to complete their project in their heritage language. The teacher

can sit with the students listening, redirecting conversation at times, asking and answering

questions, or just being part of the small group discussions (Garcia & Sylvan, 2011). This will

allow students to “draw from across their multiple languages and literacies in accomplishing

academic tasks collaboratively” (Hornberger, 2009).

Parents play a major role in preserving their heritage language. The parents can talk with

their children in their heritage language and can encourage them to answer back in their mother

tongue on a daily basis. This will help the children to slowly and gradually be comfortable

speaking their first language with their parents. Another way regarding the maintenance of the

first language is to include some aspects of students’ heritage languages in the school curriculum

and to make sure that enough resources are available in the school libraries for the students who

are willing to preserve and improve their heritage language in the society where English is the

language of instruction and communication (Yan, 2003).

VI. Conclusion

In this paper, the author has presented her view of the connection between language and

culture. In her view, language and culture are interrelated and are inseparable. A language points
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towards the culture of that particular social group. If a person wants to learn a language, he/she

has to learn its culture as well because language and culture go side by side.

The paper then uses a thick description to describe a Hindi language classroom in a

Summer school program in New York, USA. The author talks about two kinds of students in the

classroom who has different goals, on the contrary, their parents have the same goal. The goal is

to maintain the heritage language in the students with the help of teachers, educators, school etc.

Naya is not interested in preserving her heritage language Hindi but is keen on getting her

foreign language credits for her regular school. On the other hand, Prateek wants to surprise his

grandparents who are in India and are excited to learn Hindi so that he can converse with them

when he goes back to India. Both of their parents want their children to maintain their heritage

language and carry it to the next generation.

Finally, based on the thick description several treatments are presented which involves

teachers, students, parents and educators to help in preserving the heritage language of the

students. The application suggests the bilingual programs and tutors, teachers’ positive attitude

towards minority language, students writing a journal in their Heritage Language and then

translating it to their teacher(s) and classmates, parents talking to their children in their Heritage

Language and encouraging them to answer back in it and finally, adding some aspects of the

heritage language of the students in the school curriculum.

 
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VII. References
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INAL.pdf.
Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed). White Plains:
Pearson Education.
García, Ofelia., & Sylvan, Claire. E. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual
classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Journal, 95 (3), 385-400.
Gogonas, Nikos. (2011). Religion as a core value in language maintenance: Arabic speakers in
Greece. International Migration, 50 (2), 113-129.doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00661.
x.
Hornberger, Nancy. H. (2009). Multilingual education policy and practice: Ten certainties
          (grounded in Indigenous experience). Language Teaching, 42(2), 197-211.
Kouritzin, Sandra. G. (2000). A mother’s tongue. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 311-324.
Kouritzin, Sandra. G. (2006). Songs from taboo tongues: Experiencing first language loss.
Language and Literacy, 8 (1), 1-28.
Nabi, Asmat. (2017). Language and culture. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social
Science, 22(11), 91–94. doi: 10.9790/0837-2211049194.
Sridhar, Kamal. K. (1985). Language maintenance and language shift among Asian Indians:
Kannidigas in the New York area. Retrieved from Education Resources Information
Centre http://eric.ed.gov.
Sridhar, Kamal.K. (1994). Mother tongue maintenance and multiculturalism. TESOL Quarterly,
28 (3), 628-631.
Wang, Yuxiang. (2009). Language, parents’ involvement, and social justice: The fight for
maintaining minority home language: A Chinese-language case study. Multicultural
Education, 16(4), 13-18. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ858584.pdf.
Wardhaugh, Ronald, & Fuller, Janet M. (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics. UK: Wiley
Blackwell.
Yan, Ruth. L. (2003). Parental perception on maintaining heritage languages of CLD students.
Bilingual Review, 99-113.