According to Statistics Canada, in 2021, one in four Canadians had at least one mother tongue other than English or French. Many people grow up with their family’s heritage languages — like Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish or Arabic — as part of their family’s cultural heritage.
Why is it, though, that some families manage to successfully pass their heritage language onto the next generation while other families struggle to do so?
Our recent research highlights that even in the same ethnic community, a heritage language could develop along different paths.
