Adaptive Language Strategies of the Hmong: From Asian Mountains to American Ghettos  

Oleh:

Smalley, William A.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language Sciences (Full Text) vol. 7 no. 2 (1985), page 241-269.
Fulltext: 07_02_Smalley.pdf (1.34MB)

Isi artikel

Some sociolinguistic phenomena can be best studied longitudinally and analytically, over a span of time, as "ethnohistoriography of communication." In some cases, access to data can only be through the memories of people who lived through the time, as soft as such data may be. In this paper, I attempt to describe adaptive language strategies of the Hmong people over several generations in Laos, and through several years as refugees in the United States. As I do so, I relate them to an etic taxonomy of strategies. Some of the strategies described are predictably the same in Laos and America, and some different. The learning of Lao was undertaken by most Hmong men in Laos entirely as a product of social interaction. For most it was learned exclusively orally, and through use. Learning English in the United States is seen as an academic exercise, however. People who cannot read and write any language typically learn little English. The use of books and pens is often considered essential to the learning of English.

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