Vietnamese Language Education in the United States

Abstract

Vietnamese, like other immigrant languages, experiences decline in various forms from the time that its speakers first arrive in the US, a process that gathers pace in the second generation, and often leads to a near-complete loss of the language in the third generation. The article deals with the ways in which Vietnamese–Americans have attempted to keep their language alive using Vietnamese language schools and a variety of community initiatives. The benefits of such efforts to maintain the heritage language and its culture are discussed, mostly from the point of view of the Vietnamese community but also in a national perspective in which heritage languages are considered as a linguistic and cultural resource. New pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Vietnamese and also the growing movement to have the language taught in universities are discussed.

Keywords:

• Vietnamese language and identity
• Vietnamese language-as-asset
• Vietnamese language-as-resource
• Vietnamese language loss