Mountain Jewish immigrants to Israel from the Eastern Caucasus used two heritage languages, Juhuri (Judeo-Tat) and Russian. Juhuri was their home and Russian the societal languages prior to migration. In Israel, Juhuri and Russian are Heritage Languages and Hebrew is the societal language. The present study reports on frequency of use and…

This study examines the role of age of arrival (AoA) in immigrant students' perceived multilingual proficiency. Additionally, the study investigates the demographic, linguistic and social-psychological variables distinguishing young-arriving immigrants from their middle and older-arriving peers. The sample included 274 eleventh grade Russian (L1)…

Research conducted on emotionality in bilinguals suggests that language use modulates emotional expression. The current study examines bilingual disadvantaged minority members' emotional experience and expression as shaped by the group relations in a conflict area. We hypothesised that, in general, greater emotionality will be found in one's…

Israel's population includes over a million Russian-speaking immigrants and more than 300,000 native English speakers. These groups differ in social integration and in the status of their heritage languages in Israel. We compared children's and parents' perceptions of children's identities, language abilities, and language preferences among…

The research on language dynamics in the context of migration and integration has been dominated by applied linguists and educators, who described and measured native language attrition and emerging bilingualism among immigrants and their children. In parallel, sociolinguists discussed the role of language ideology/policy of the host society and…

Limited research to date has addressed the language socialisation of transnational children during global movement with their parents. The aim of this study was to explore the complexity of language socialisation for a transnational child experiencing a multilingual environment both at home and in preschool. This transnational English- and…

This paper reports on a study that examined patterns of language maintenance and use -- standard Persian as well as dozens of dialects spoken by Jews in provincial towns -- among three generations of Israeli residents of Iranian origin. Issues of identity, acculturation, and the immigration experience were explored through a language prism as well…

The study examined the relationship between children's explicit knowledge and awareness of diglossia (EKAD) and learning Arabic in school. Additionally, this study addresses the interrelationships between EKAD and oral comprehension, lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic awareness upon the transition to reading to learn. Thirty typicaly…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of intercultural encounters with the Other (between Jews and Arabs) during graduate studies, at colleges of education and university education departments, on the level of intercultural competence reported by them. Intercultural competence means a long-term change in the level of knowledge,…

We examined factors determining parental success in transmitting heritage language (HL) and literacy in Russian-speaking migrant families of comparable socioeconomic status (SES) in Cyprus, Ireland, Israel and Sweden. A total of 345 Russian speakers completed a questionnaire about their language use and home language practices. Of those, we chose…

The aim of this study was to explore patterns of children's agency enactment in second-language learning as reflected in their language learning and social interactions in a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew-speaking classroom. We examined the connection between these behaviour patterns and the children's L2 progress in the bilingual classroom. The study…

This paper studies one ultra-Orthodox group--Habad community, exploring its members' attitudes towards four languages: Hebrew, Loshen Koydesh (LK), English, and Yiddish, and focusing on usage, affection for the language, ascribed importance, and holiness. Research questions were: (1) What are the attitudes of Habad members towards these languages?…

Israeli university students who have difficulty reading academic texts in English are required to take reading comprehension courses in English for academic purposes (EAP) in order to complete their BA degree. Whereas most students pass the courses, some repeatedly fail. Since Israel is a multilingual country, there is also a question about…

The relationship between family language policy (FLP) and language choice, language use, proficiency in Russian and Hebrew, codeswitching (CS) and linguistic performance was studied in Russian-speaking immigrant parents and their Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool children. By means of Glaser's Grounded Theory, the content of sociolinguistic…

Parents' assessment of children's development in the first and the second language is an essential part of their family language policy (FLP) and an important component of parent-child communication. This paper presents a pilot study focused on Russian-speaking immigrant parents' assessment of their children's language knowledge in Russian as a…