Co-Ethnic Network, Social Class, and Heritage Language Maintenance Among Chinese Immigrant Families

This ethnographic study investigated heritage language maintenance among two distinct groups of Chinese immigrant families (Mandarin and Fujianese) from the social network perspective. The results indicated that a co-ethnic network could be a double-edged sword, which works differently on children from different social classes. While the Mandarin children benefited from a strong co-ethnic network in resisting pressures for language assimilation, the Fujianese children shifted to English collectively as a way to survive in the U. S. society.