MULTILINGUALISM IN LITHUANIAN CITIES: AIMS AND OUTCOMES OF A HOME LANGUAGE SURVEY IN VILNIUS, KAUNAS AND KLAIPĖDA Meilutė Ramonienė, Vilnius University Guus Extra, Tilburg University

Multilingual Cities Project 6 Western European multicultural cities: Göteborg Hamburg The Hague Brussels Lyon Madrid G. Extra and K. Yağmur, eds., 2004, Urban Multilingualism in Europe. Immigrant Minority Languages at Home and School. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Lithuanian cities Vilnius ( inhabitants) Kaunas ( inhabitants) Klaipėda (Lithuania’s major sea port, inhabitants) Research project “Language use and ethnic identity in urban areas of Lithuania” Supported by Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation

Home language survey 2008 Vilnius – students from 92 schools Kaunas – students from 60 schools Klaipėda – students from 33 schools Coverage of schools % survey amongst primary school pupils targeted pupils 8-10 years research goal - measuring distribution and vitality of home language use

Population by Ethnicity (%) LithuaniansPolesRussiansOthers Lithuania Vilnius Kaunas Klaipėda South-East Visaginas

QuestionsFocus 1-3 personal information (name, age, gender) 4-6 school information (city, district, name, type, grade) 7-9 birth country of the pupil, father and mother 10ethnicity 11-16language repertoire, language proficiency, language choice, language dominance, and language preference (five dimensions) 17-20languages learnt at/outside school and languages of media Questionnaire

Language profile The language profile consists of four dimensions: –reported language proficiency: the extent to which the pupil can understand/ speak/read /write the home language; –language choice: the extent to which the home language is commonly spoken with the mother and father, grandparents, younger and older siblings, and best friends; –language dominance: the extent to which the home language is spoken best; –language preference: the extent to which the home language is preferably spoken.

Reported home languages (1) 37 languages

RankingLanguageFrequency 1. Lithuanian Russian English Polish German Belarusian French Ukrainian Latvian Armenian38 Reported home languages (2)

Languages other than Lithuanian

Distributional data at city level Vilnius LanguageFrequency Lithuanian8707 Russian5605 Polish1879 English1298 Belarusian180 German106 French81 Ukrainian50 Lettish37 Romani17 Kaunas LanguageFrequency Lithuanian9026 Russian2764 English1364 German116 Polish113 French40 Lettish38 Belarusian30 Ukrainian27 Romani21 Klaipėda LanguageFrequency Lithuanian3340 Russian1770 English518 German77 Ukrainian42 Belarusian22 French20 Lettish18 Polish14 Armenian9

Languages used at home LanguagesFrequency Lithuanian only Russian8065 English3067 Polish1188 German285 Belarusian169 French136 Ukrainian90 Latvian86 Armenian29 LanguagesFrequency Russian only1449 Lithuanian8065 English2026 Polish1415 German226 Belarusian205 French102 Ukrainian97 Latvian72 Armenian24 LanguagesFrequency Polish only315 Russian1415 Lithuanian1188 English221 Belarusian85 German30 Ukrainian24 Latvian22 RussiansLithuanians Poles

Language choice for Russian (Russians)

Language dominance in Russian or Lithuanian (Russians) Language preference for Russian or Lithuanian (Russians)

Language choice for Polish (Poles)

Language dominance in Polish or Lithuanian (Poles) Language preference for Polish or Lithuanian (Poles)

Language an ethnic identity (Russian schools)

Conclusions Language use habits: increasingly Lithuanian, less Russian Multilingualism is increasing Russians tend to use Lithuanian more than Poles Lithuanians: - associate their ethnic identity with their native language Non-Lithuanians: -associate less ethnic identity with native language -tend to replace ethnic identity with national identity

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