Ethnic Identity and Heritage Language for Sydney’s Armenian Adolescents Armen Samuel Karamanian MIntRel, Macquarie University, 2010 BCom-Accg, Macquarie University, 2007 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Research in the Department of International Studies Faculty of Arts Macquarie University Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 AUTHOR’S STATEMENT .................................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 5 BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................................ 7 GAP IN RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................................... 8 AIMS OF THE PROJECT AND HYPOTHESIS ............................................................................................................ 8 METHODS ............................................................................................................................................................ 9 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................................... 10 1. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHNIC IDENTITY AND HERITAGE LANGUAGE ............................................. 13 1.2 HERITAGE LANGUAGE AMONGST ETHNIC GROUPS: ITS USE AND IMPORTANCE ......................................... 16 1.3 METHODOLOGIES AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS .................................................................................. 18 1.4 LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY DURING ADOLESCENCE ..................................................................................... 20 1.5 THE DIASPORA COMMUNITY: A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ............................................................................... 21 1.6 PERCEPTIONS OF ETHNIC SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS .......................................................................... 23 2. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 27 2.1 PARTICIPANTS: THE SCHOOL STUDENTS ..................................................................................................... 27 2.2 PROCEDURES AND METHODS: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE .............................................................. 28 2.3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: ETHNOLINGUISTIC IDENTITY THEORY ........................................................... 29 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS: SOLIDARITY WITH THE IN-GROUP .................................................................................... 31 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: ETHNOLINGUISTIC IDENTITY ........................................................ 33 3.1 IDENTIFYING WITH THE IN-GROUP .............................................................................................................. 34 3.2. SOCIAL COMPARISONS WITH THE OUT-GROUP ........................................................................................... 47 3. 3. VITALITY OF THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY (STATUS, DEMOGRAPHY AND SUPPORT) ................................ 50 Status factors ............................................................................................................................................... 50 Demographic factors ................................................................................................................................... 53 Institutional support factors ......................................................................................................................... 56 3.4. PERCEIVED IN-GROUP’S BOUNDARIES ......................................................................................................... 59 (A) Purpose of the in-group ......................................................................................................................... 59 (B) Purpose of heritage language schools ................................................................................................... 61 (C) Inclusion of the out-group’s members in the in-group .......................................................................... 64 (D) The effect of prejudice and the memory of genocide on the in-group’s boundaries .............................. 65 3.5 MEMBERSHIP IN IN-GROUP AND OUT-GROUP SOCIAL CATEGORIES ............................................................ 67 (1) Armenian community organisations ....................................................................................................... 67 (2) Non-Armenian organisations ................................................................................................................. 70 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX A: IDENTITY AND LANGUAGE ATTITUDES: GRAPHS .................................................... 79 A1. SOCIAL CATEGORISATION .......................................................................................................................... 79 A2. SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION ............................................................................................................................. 80 A3. SOCIAL COMPARISON ................................................................................................................................. 83 A4. PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS ............................................................................................................ 85 A5. LANGUAGE ATTITUDES ............................................................................................................................... 87 APPENDIX B: THE IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW ............................................................................................... 92 B1: PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR IN-GROUP’S VITALITY............................................................................................. 92 B2: PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR IN-GROUP’S BOUNDARIES ....................................................................................... 92 B3: IDENTIFICATION WITH SOCIAL CATEGORIES AND GROUP MEMBERSHIP. ....................................................... 92 C. ADVERTISEMENT ON FACEBOOK ....................................................................................................... 111 D. CONSENT FORM ........................................................................................................................................ 112 E. THE QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................................................................. 114 F. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 120 G. ETHICS APPROVAL .................................................................................................................................. 121 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................................................. 122 Abstract The Armenian community of Australia perceives the preservation of their identity to be dependent upon the maintenance of the Armenian language. For adolescents in the Armenian community, the maintenance of language and identity is supported by the mainstream heritage language school, Galstaun College, complementary heritage language schools and community organisations in Sydney. This study aims to analyse whether adolescents attending Galstaun College who are involved in community organisations possess a higher solidarity with the Armenian community (the in-group), compared to adolescents attending the various complementary schools. Utilising a quantitative questionnaire and a qualitative semi- structured interview, data was collected from 13 Complementary School Students (CSS) and 11 Mainstream School Students (MSS). It was found that MSS possess a higher solidarity with the in-group, as they identify with their ethnicity and consider the Armenian language an important element of the in-group. Complementary School Students display a preference for organisations outside the community (out-group) and an increasingly hybrid Australian- Armenian identity. However, for CSS, the memory of the Armenian Genocide and the unfamiliarity of the Armenian identity by the out-group ensure their continued identification with the in-group and, as