Session 6: Discourse / Pragmatics / SociolinguisticsMany studies in heritage language research have demonstrated the strong link between heritage
language and ethnic identity (Cho 2000, Phinney et al. 2001, Tse 2000). Studies show that speakers with
greater proficiency in a heritage language tend to have a stronger sense of ethnic identity (Phinney, Romero,
Nava, & Huang 2001, Tse, 1997). But other studies report a lack of correlation between ethnic identity and
heritage language proficiency (Mah 2005, Smolicz 1992, Jo 2001, Brown 2009), or that higher proficiency is
linked instead to bicultural identities (Lee 2002), suggesting that fluency in a heritage language cannot always
predict stronger ethnic identity ties. These diverse findings are perhaps not surprising to the social
constructionist who views identity as discursively constructed rather than an innate property of a person or
group. Research on social interaction has produced insights into how identities may be taken on, rejected,
co-opted or challenged (see Bucholtz and Hall 2004). A heritage language, therefore, must entail more than
where a speaker grew up or what languages were spoken there. And its relationship to identity must be
considered as a complex achievement, one that is displayed (or not displayed) in one’s social interactions and
as part of one’s social repertoire .....published_or_final_versio
