German Heritage Language Attitudes in Ontario: A Case Study about the German Language in German-Canadian Families

Abstract

This thesis aims at investigating language attitudes expressed by members of German-Canadian families (n=12) in semi-structured interviews. The analysis draws on methods from the field of Interactional Linguistics and focuses specifically on a linguistic and structural analysis of the collected interview data. Three of the four families speak predominantly German as their family language (home language) while one family exclusively speaks English. The parents and children were interviewed separately in order to ensure the possibility of subsequently comparing the results of both data sets in the discussion section. The analysis largely focuses on implicit and explicit language attitudes toward the German language as well as the way the participants position themselves and others in the interviews. In the process of structuring and organizing the collected data the following four categories were established: (1) Individual-Affective Factors, (2) Practical-Economic Benefits, (3) Potential Obstacles, and (4) The future of German in Canada.