台灣新住民子女的語言現況與角色之研究

A Study on the Current Situation and Role of the Language of New Immigrants’ Children in Taiwan

本研究探討新二代的族群認同、語言能力與使用情形以及語言態度。我們共收集了3,143分有效問卷，再以SPSS統計軟體進行分析。此外我們也訪問了八位東南亞新住民，以了解新住民家庭的母語傳承情形與家長的語言態度。研究顯示多數的新二代傾向父親那方的族群認同，其華語能力與對華語的評價都高於英語及本土語言，但新二代的繼承語能力卻不如預期。而居住地區及國籍背景的不同對於語言態度也產生顯著性差異，親子間的語言行為及新二代的語言能力與態度則呈現正相關。最後研究結果顯示，我們欲將新二代培育成新南向語言尖兵的希望，如果不能好好規劃，照目前情況來看顯然並不樂觀。

Taiwan is a multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual country. Over the past two decades, massive numbers of foreign spouses have moved to Taiwan and changed the structure of the population dramatically. Most of them are from mainland China and Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, etc. According to the population statistics from the Ministry of the Interior in 2015, there are 505,320 new immigrants and over 210,000 new immigrant children studying at the elementary school and the junior high school. In other words, one out of every ten students in Taiwan is a new immigrant child. This study aimed to investigate new immigrant children’s self-ethnic identity, new immigrant language proficiency and use, attitude toward heritage languages, Mandarin, English, and other Taiwanese languages. A total of 3,143 questionnaires were collected, statistically analyzed, and implications drawn. In addition, eight new immigrants from Southeast Asia were interviewed to find out when and where immigrant languages were used, what are the reasons for their use or non-use in the family, and what are their attitude toward the school’s decision to launch a new immigrant language course and passing dwon heritage language. The results indicated that 68.7% of the new immigrant children chose their paternal ethnic group for their ethnic identity, and up to 54% of these children acquired Mandarin as the first language. Mandarin also received the best evaluation in many aspects of language attitude. Generally, they have neither high proficiency in the new immigrant language, nor do they use it frequently. The statistics also revealed that there were significant differences in new immigrant children’s language attitude among different residential areas and according to the mother’s country of origin. Positive linear relationships between new immigrant parents and children’s heritage language use and between heritage language proficiency and language attitude were found to be significant too. Furthermore, the interviews with new immigrant parents showed that for some reasons, they did not actively provide opportunities for children to learn their heritage language; however, in spite of this, they still hoped that the school could provide the new immigrant language courses for their children. Finally, on the basis of these research findings, some viewpoints were proposed to the government regarding cultivating new immigrant children as a talent pool for the “ New Southbound Policy” in the future.