This paper examines the relationship between ethnic origin, immigration, and language usage in order to determine the degree to which heritage language (defined as languages other than English, French or Aboriginal) use is maintained from one generation to another. It examines five census variables: ethnic origin, immigrant status, mother tongue, language used in the home, and knowledge of official language(s). It is hypothesised that the relative strength and endurance of these minority languages is an outcome of a combination of demographic and socio-economic factors such as the age structure and proportion of immigrants in the group.

The contributions in this volume reflect a wide variety of research orientations and describe the diversity and complexity of doing research focusing on immigrants who have come to Canada.

Canada is a country of immigrants of different ethnic origins. This is the first volume that provides the demographic profile vital to an understanding of this country. Twenty-five of the top demographers in Canada draw upon 1986 and 1981 census figures and social surveys.

From the time of its inception in Canada, multiculturalism has generated varied reactions, none more starkly than between French and English Canadians. In this groundbreaking new work, Eve Haque examines the Government of Canada's attempt to forge a national policy of unity based on ’multiculturalism within a bilingual framework,‘ a formulation that emerged out of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963-70). Uncovering how the policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism are inextricably linked, Haque investigates the ways in which they operate together as part of our contemporary national narrative to favour the language and culture of Canada's two ’founding nations‘ at the expense of other groups. Haque uses previously overlooked archival material, including transcripts of royal commission hearings, memos, and reports, to reveal the conflicts underlying the emergence of this ostensibly seamless policy. By integrating two important areas of scholarly concern – the evolution and articulation of language rights in Canada, and the history of multiculturalism in the country – Haque provides powerful insight into ongoing asymmetries between Canada's various cultural and linguistic groups.

An impressive collection of theoretical perspectives and empirical data which includes papers on Catalan, Galician, Tagalog, and the minority languages of Kenya. Most of the contributions deal with ethnic minorities in North America: language maintenance and shift and cultural aspects of various language minorities' as well as Judeo-English and Yiddish spoken by children of Jewish immigrants.

Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition is a comprehensive textbook that bridges the gap between the fields of sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, exploring the variety of ways in which social context influences the acquisition of a second language. It reviews basic principles of sociolinguistics, provides a unified account of the multiple theoretical approaches to social factors in second languages, summarizes the growing body of empirical research, including examples of findings from a wide range of second languages, and discusses the application of sociolinguistics to the second language classroom. Written for an audience that extends beyond specialists in the field, complete with summary tables, additional readings, discussion questions, and application activities throughout, this volume will serve as the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate students of second language acquisition and instruction, and will also be of interest to researchers in the fields of second language acquisition, second language instruction and sociolinguistics.

Includes statistics.