LANGUAGE IN THE UKRAINIAN HOME: ITS USE IN TEN TORONTO FAMILIES ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE THEIR MOTHER TONGUE

This thesis documents home language behaviours of Ukrainian mothers and children. Ten Toronto families with preschool and school aged children, whose homes are governed by a "Ukrainian only" language rule and who are determined to preserve the Ukrainian language in their homes, participated in the study.;The study follows an ethnographic design and consists of (1) a description of the Ukrainian language in Toronto (2) recordings of mother-preschooler spontaneous home language and (3) ethnographic interviews with mothers.;It was noted that since 1971, the Ukrainian language in Toronto has been undergoing a general generational decline. Spontaneous speech samples showed that mothers and their preschoolers engaged in two types of language activities: joint conversation and separate activities. Joint conversation was segmented into smooth (meaning match) and problem (meaning mismatch) transactions. Specific child behaviours and mothers' strategies are described for each type of meaning transactions. It was found that mothers' language behaviours were different with preschool and school aged children. This difference was noted in mothers' attitude and response to children's English usage in the home. Also, it was found that the "Ukrainian only" home is permeated with English.;It was concluded that mothers' transmit an emotive attitude towards the Ukrainian language and an instrumental attitude towards the English language. Time spent in conversation with mother in the home was described as being facilitative for the learning and mastery of the Ukrainian language for the preschool aged child. The outlook for the continuation of the Ukrainian language in Toronto was described as bleak and not particularly positive.;Two ethnographic hypotheses are formulated and investigated. The first hypothesis proposes that mothers' language behaviours are consistent with their Ukrainian language maintenance philosophy. The second hypothesis proposes that there are many signs of English in the "Ukrainian only" home.;Implications for teaching Ukrainian in the Heritage Language context are drawn. Two language facilitative activities, talking with children and sharing literacy with children are described.