Current research shows that immigrants to North America typically retain their ancestral languages for only three generations, after which the shift to English is complete and the home language is lost. Dr. Allyson Eamer has tracked intergenerational language transmission in four immigrant families in Toronto, Canada. She interviews the grandparents, their children, and their grandchildren to determine whether or not their languages (Punjabi, Korean, Ukrainian and Italian) have a chance of making it to the fourth generation. She tracks ancestral language proficiency in each generation, as...
Current research shows that immigrants to North America typically retain their ancestral languages for only three generations, after which the shift t...