From Chungking Mansions to tertiary institution: Acculturation and language practices of an immigrant mother and her daughter

Abstract

This narrative study investigates the acculturation experiences and language practices of a mother and a daughter from two immigrant generations in Hong Kong. This study presents a picture of how individuals from different generations have responded to marginalization, accumulated linguistic and cultural resources, and developed different acculturation strategies, to facilitate socialization and academic success. The study suggests that compared to the mother's, the daughter's ways to empowerment are more complex and more relevant to issues of cultural compromise and linguistic accommodation. It is found that while the mother attempts to erase the heritage identity from the daughter to counteract the disadvantageous social position of ethnic minorities, the daughter identifies significant symbolism in heritage identity and language. The findings indicate that language ideology of the two generations tends to shift from a preference toward monolingualism in English in the first-generation mother to bi/multilingualism in the second-generation daughter. The implications of the findings for immigrant children, the host society and policy makers are discussed.