Jewish‐Canadian Ethnic Identity and Non‐Native Language Learning: A Social‐Psychological Study

The author set out to compare perceptions of Jewish ethnic group identity relative to attitudinal/motivational processes in the learning of Hebrew and French by Anglophone Jewish-Canadian high school and university students in Montreal and Toronto. Students from Montreal were involved in Hebrew and French immersion simultaneously whereas Toronto students were involved in Hebrew immersion and nominal French instruction. Some of the author's noteworthy findings were: (a) that in schools where the students received less Hebrew instruction there were significantly weaker student perceptions of Pro-Israeliness and 'integrativeness'; (b) that the Canadian sub-identity of the students did not correlate with their Jewish sub-identity, suggesting that Jewish-Canadians value the compartmentalisation of sub-identities as a possible strategy for group survival; (c) that the Toronto high school students indicated somewhat less confidence in their Hebrew and French skills and were more dissatisfied with the communicative aspects of their Hebrew language program and were less positive about language learning in general as compared to their Montreal peers; and (d) that Israel appears to be replacing Jewish ritual in the minds of the non-Orthodox and secular students in this study. The author found that support of Israel for this latter group has become the salient symbol of their Jewish identity and ingroup distinctiveness.

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

Vol. 10

no. 4

327-357

1989

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